Synthetic Biology

BOTany Methods: Accessible Automation for Plant Synthetic Biology

1. Moni Qiande
2. Abigail Lin
3. Lianna Larson
4. Cătălin Voiniciuc

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Optimizing Protein Production in the One-Pot PURE System: Insights into Reaction Composition and Expression Efficiency

1. Yan Zhang
2. Matas Deveikis
3. Yanping Qiu
4. Lovisa Björn
5. Zachary A. Martinez
6. Tsui-Fen Chou
7. Paul S. Freemont
8. Richard M. Murray

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The nanos ^d integral gene drive enables population modification of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

1. Pei-Shi Yen
2. Sebald ANR Verkuijl
3. Paolo Capriotti
4. Giuseppe Del Corsano
5. Astrid Hoermann
6. Maria Grazia Inghilterra
7. Irati Aramburu-Gonzalez
8. Moeez A Khan
9. Dina Vlachou
10. George K Christophides
11. Nikolai Windbichler

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, Review Commons

Intracellular expression of a fluorogenic DNA aptamer using retron Eco2

1. Mahesh A Vibhute
2. Corbin Machatzke
3. Saskia Krümpel
4. Malte Dirks
5. Katrin Bigler
6. Daniel Summerer
7. Hannes Mutschler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a method for expressing single-stranded DNA fluorescent aptamers in E. coli using a retron-based strategy. The evidence supporting the successful expression and folding of DNA aptamers is solid, with clear demonstration of fluorescence after extraction, though the aptamers do not function in living cells. The method represents an important technical advance that will likely become standard for DNA aptamer expression in bacterial systems.

Reviewed by eLife

STAMPS: Signal-peptide Transformer for Augmenting Mammalian Protein Secretion

1. Jacopo Gabrielli
2. Marino Exposito-Rodriguez
3. Justina Briliūtė
4. Matthew Burrell
5. George Thom
6. Cleo Kontoravdi
7. Francesca Ceroni

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Reprogrammed SimCells for Antimicrobial Therapy

1. Yun Dong
2. Xianglin Ji
3. Tao Dong
4. Yun Wang
5. Erik Bakkeren
6. Kevin R Foster
7. Wei E. Huang

Reviewed by PREreview

High-throughput development and characterization of new functional nanobodies for gene regulation and epigenetic control in human cells

1. Jun Wan
2. Abby R Thurm
3. Sage J Allen
4. Connor H Ludwig
5. Aayan N Patel
6. Lacramioara Bintu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript describes a valuable screening approach to identifying nanobodies with the potential to modulate gene expression via epigenetic regulators. While the concept is of interest and the screening strategy is well designed, the current evidence supporting mechanistic specificity remains incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

An in vitro human vessel model to study Neisseria meningitidis colonization and vascular damages

1. Léa Pinon
2. Melanie Chabaud
3. Pierre Nivoit
4. Jerome Wong Ng
5. Tri-Tho Nguyen
6. Vanessa Paul
7. Charlotte Bouquerel
8. Sylvie Goussard
9. Pauline Smilovici
10. Emmanuel Frachon
11. Dorian Obino
12. Samy Gobaa
13. Guilllaume Dumenil

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors develop an important microfluidic microvascular model called "Vessel-on-Chip", which they use to study Neisseria meningitidis interactions within this in vitro vascular system. Compelling evidence shows that the fabricated channels are lined by endothelial cells, and these can be colonized by N. meningitidis that in turn triggers neutrophil recruitment. This model has advantages over the human skin xenograft mouse model, which requires complex surgical techniques, however, it also carries limitations in that only endothelial cells and supplied specific immune cells in the microfluidics are present, while true vasculature contains a number of other cell types including smooth muscle cells, pericytes, and components of the immune system.

  [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

Synthetic gene circuits that selectively target RAS-driven cancers

1. Gabriel Valentin Senn
2. Leon Nissen
3. Yaakov Benenson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study demonstrates the potential of synthetic gene circuits to detect and target aberrant RAS activity in cancer cell lines. The circuit design is novel and the evidence supporting the claims is convincing. As a proof-of-concept, this will be of broad interest to researchers in synthetic biology and therapeutics development, while future work will be required to help translate this technology toward clinical applications in cancer therapeutics and address potential limitations of the strategy.

Reviewed by eLife

Generative design of novel bacteriophages with genome language models

1. Samuel H. King
2. Claudia L. Driscoll
3. David B. Li
4. Daniel Guo
5. Aditi T. Merchant
6. Garyk Brixi
7. Max E. Wilkinson
8. Brian L. Hie

Reviewed by PREreview