Exploring the potential of phage and their applications.

Antibiotic resistant microorganisms are significantly increasing due to horizontal gene transfer, mutation and overdose of antibiotics leading to serious health conditions globally. Several multidrug resistant microorganisms have shown resistance to even the last line of antibiotics making it very difficult to treat them. Besides using antibiotics, an alternative approach to treat such resistant bacterial pathogens through the use of bacteriophage (phage) was used in the early 1900s which however declined and vanished after the discovery of antibiotics. In recent times, phage has emerged and gained interest as an alternative approach to antibiotics to treat MDR pathogens. Phage can self-replicate by utilizing cellular machinery of bacterial host by following lytic and lysogenic life cycles and therefore suitable for rapid regeneration. Application of phage for detection of bacterial pathogens, elimination of bacteria, agents for controlling food spoilage, treating human disease and several others entitles phage as a futuristic antibacterial armamentarium.

CRISPR-dCas9 system for epigenetic editing towards therapeutic applications.

In the past few decades, epigenetics has emerged as an important area of study to enable a better understanding of gene expression and its regulation. Due to epigenetics, stable phenotypic changes have been possible without alterations in DNA sequences. Epigenetic changes may occur due to DNA methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation and other such mechanisms which alter the level of gene expression without making any difference to DNA sequences. In this chapter, CRISPR-dCas9 used to bring about epigenome modifications for regulating gene expression towards a therapeutic approaches for treating human diseases have been discussed.

Phage engineering and phage-assisted CRISPR-Cas delivery to combat multidrug-resistant pathogens.

Antibiotic resistance ranks among the top threats to humanity. Due to the frequent use of antibiotics, society is facing a high prevalence of multidrug resistant pathogens, which have managed to evolve mechanisms that help them evade the last line of therapeutics. An alternative to antibiotics could involve the use of bacteriophages (phages), which are the natural predators of bacterial cells. In earlier times, phages were implemented as therapeutic agents for a century but were mainly replaced with antibiotics, and considering the menace of antimicrobial resistance, it might again become of interest due to the increasing threat of antibiotic resistance among pathogens. The current understanding of phage biology and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) assisted phage genome engineering techniques have facilitated to generate phage variants with unique therapeutic values. In this review, we briefly explain strategies to engineer bacteriophages. Next, we highlight the literature supporting CRISPR-Cas9-assisted phage engineering for effective and more specific targeting of bacterial pathogens. Lastly, we discuss techniques that either help to increase the fitness, specificity, or lytic ability of bacteriophages to control an infection.

Amyloid precursor protein in Alzheimer's disease.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a membrane protein expressed in several tissues. The occurrence of APP is predominant in synapses of nerve cells. It acts as a cell surface receptor and plays a vital role as a regulator of synapse formation, iron export and neural plasticity. It is encoded by the APP gene that is regulated by substrate presentation. APP is a precursor protein activated by proteolytic cleavage and thereby generating amyloid beta (Aß) peptides which eventually form amyloid plaques that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease patients' brains. In this chapter, we highlight basic mechanism, structure, expression patterns and cleavage of amyloid plaques, and its diagnosis and potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Low density lipoprotein receptor endocytosis in cardiovascular disease and the factors affecting LDL levels.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the one of major global health issues with approximately 30% of the mortality reported in the mid-income population. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) plays a crucial role in development of CVD. High LDL along with others forms a plaque and blocks arteries, resulting in CVD. The present chapter deals with the mechanism of receptor-mediated endocytosis of LDL and its management by drugs such as statins and PCSK9 inhibitors along with dietary supplementation for health improvements.

Rewiring of metabolic pathways in yeasts for sustainable production of biofuels.

The ever-increasing global energy demand has led world towards negative repercussions such as depletion of fossil fuels, pollution, global warming and climate change. Designing microbial cell factories for the sustainable production of biofuels is therefore an active area of research. Different yeast cells have been successfully engineered using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches for the production of various biofuels. In the present article, recent advancements in genetic engineering strategies for production of bioalcohols, isoprenoid-based biofuels and biodiesels in different yeast chassis designs are reviewed, along with challenges that must be overcome for efficient and high titre production of biofuels.

Recent advances in lignocellulosic and algal biomass pretreatment and its biorefinery approaches for biochemicals and bioenergy conversion.

As the global demand for sustainable energy increases, lignocellulosic (such as agricultural residues, forest biomass, municipal waste, and dedicated energy crops) and algal (including macroalgae and microalgae) biomass have attracted considerable attention, because of their high availability of carbohydrates. This is a potential feedstock to produce biochemical and bioenergy. Pretreatment of biomass can disrupt their complex structure, increasing conversion efficiency and product yield. Therefore, this review comprehensively discusses recent advances in different pretreatments (physical, chemical, physicochemical, and biological pretreatments) for lignocellulosic and algal biomass and their biorefining methods. Life cycle assessment (LCA) which enables the quantification of the environmental impact assessment of a biorefinery also be introduced. Biorefinery processes such as raw material acquisition, extraction, production, waste accumulation, and waste conversion are all monitored under this concept. Nevertheless, there still exist some techno-economic barriers during biorefinery and extensive research is still needed to develop cost-effective processes.

Gut microbiota in gastrointestinal diseases.

Gut microbiota is a highly dense population of different kinds of bacteria residing in the gut which co-evolves with the host. It engages in a number of metabolic and immunological activities. Gut microbiota is associated with maintenance of health, and unbalanced microbiota contributes in the development of several diseases. Alteration of beneficial gut microbiota population triggers gastrointestinal diseases including irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, colorectal cancer, and many others. Gut microbiota can be affected by multiple factors such as diet, stress, genetic variations. In this chapter, we highlight how gut microbiota plays a key role in pathogenesis of gastrointestinal disease.

Rebooting life: engineering non-natural nucleic acids, proteins and metabolites in microorganisms.

The surging demand of value-added products has steered the transition of laboratory microbes to microbial cell factories (MCFs) for facilitating production of large quantities of important native and non-native biomolecules. This shift has been possible through rewiring and optimizing different biosynthetic pathways in microbes by exercising frameworks of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology principles. Advances in genome and metabolic engineering have provided a fillip to create novel biomolecules and produce non-natural molecules with multitude of applications. To this end, numerous MCFs have been developed and employed for production of non-natural nucleic acids, proteins and different metabolites to meet various therapeutic, biotechnological and industrial applications. The present review describes recent advances in production of non-natural amino acids, nucleic acids, biofuel candidates and platform chemicals.

Current approaches in CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing for biomedical and therapeutic applications.

A single gene mutation can cause a number of human diseases that affect the quality of life. Until the development of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) systems, it was challenging to correct a gene mutation to avoid a disease by reverting phenotypes. The advent of CRISPR technology has changed the field of gene editing, given its simplicity and intrinsic programmability, surpassing the limitations of both zinc-finger nuclease and transcription activator-like effector nuclease and becoming the method of choice for therapeutic gene editing by overcoming the bottlenecks of conventional gene-editing techniques. Currently, there is no commercially available medicinal cure to correct a gene mutation that corrects and reverses the abnormality of a gene's function. Devising reprogramming strategies for faithful recapitulation of normal phenotypes is a crucial aspect for directing the reprogrammed cells toward clinical trials. The CRISPR-Cas9 system has been promising as a tool for correcting gene mutations in maladies including blood disorders and muscular degeneration as well as neurological, cardiovascular, renal, genetic, stem cell, and optical diseases. In this review, we highlight recent developments and utilization of the CRISPR-Cas9 system in correcting or generating gene mutations to create model organisms to develop deeper insights into diseases, rescue normal gene functionality, and curb the progression of a disease. Delivery of CRISPR-components being a pivotal aspect in proving its effectiveness, various proven delivery systems have also been briefly discussed.

Design and fabrication of microfluidics devices for molecular biology applications.

In the past decade, microfluidics has emerged as a rapidly growing area with potential to reduce cost and reagent consumption. It has been used for detection of nucleic acids and high-throughput screening of cells and metabolites. It is extensively used for extraction of DNA, RNA, proteins, biomolecules, as well as for cloning and transformation of plasmid into cells. Microfluidics is made up of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer which is transparent and is used for preparation of a wide range of devices and systems. In this chapter, we discuss advances and challenges of using microfluidics in molecular biology and its biomedical applications.

Microfluidics based point-of-care for disease diagnostics.

Microfluidics platform is widely used for several basic biological to advanced biotechnological applications. It reduces the expenditure of reagent consumption by readily reducing the volume of the reaction system. It is being used for early diagnosis of diseases, detection of pathogens, cancer markers, high-throughput screening and many such applications. Currently, microfluidics and lab-on-chip is integrated together with sample preparation, extraction, analysis and detection of biomarkers for disease diagnosis. This technology offers low-cost, rapid, sensitive and paper-based lateral flow mode of detection which is user-friendly and scalable. In this chapter, we highlight recent developments in microfluidics platform for disease diagnosis.

Microfluidics device for drug discovery, screening and delivery.

Microfluidics and lab-on-chip are two progressive technologies widely used for drug discovery, screening and delivery. It has been designed in a way to act as a platform for sample preparations, culturing, incubation and screening through multi-channels. These devices require a small amount of reagent in about micro- to nanolitre volume. Microfluidics has the capacity to perform operations in a programmable manner and is easy to fine tune the size, shape and composition of drugs by changing flow rate and precise manipulations. Microfluidics platform comes with the advantage of mixing fluid in droplet reactors. Microfluidics is used in the field of chemistry, biomedical, biology and nanotechnology due to its high-throughput performance in various assays. It is potent enough to be used in microreactors for synthesis of particles and encapsulation of many biological entities for biological and drug delivery applications. Microfluidics therefore has the scope to be uplifted from basic to advanced diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Advances in microfluidics devices and its applications in personalized medicines.

Microfluidics is an exponentially growing area and is being used for numerous applications from basic science to advanced biotechnology and medicines. Microfluidics provides a platform to the research community for studying and building new strategies for the diagnosis and therapeutics applications. In the last decade, microfluidic have enriched the field of diagnostics by providing new solutions which was not possible with conventional detection and treatment methods. Microfluidics has the ability to precisely control and perform high-throughput functions. It has been proven as an efficient and rapid method for biological sample preparation, analysis and controlled drug delivery system. Microfluidics plays significant role in personalized medicine. These personalized medicines are used for medical decisions, practices and other interventions as well as for individual patients based on their predicted response or risk of disease. This chapter highlights microfluidics in developing personalized medical applications for its applications in diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease and several others.

Microfluidics for single cell analysis.

Cells have several internal molecules that are present in low amounts and any fluctuation in its number drives a change in cell behavior. These molecules present inside the cells are continuously fluctuating, thus producing noises in the intrinsic environment and thereby directly affecting the cellular behavior. Single-cell analysis using microfluidics is an important tool for monitoring cell behavior by analyzing internal molecules. Several gene circuits have been designed for this purpose that are labeled with fluorescence encoding genes for monitoring cell dynamics and behavior. We discuss herewith designed and fabricated microfluidics devices that are used for trapping and tracking cells under controlled environmental conditions. This chapter highlights microfluidics chip for monitoring cells to promote their basic understanding.

Aggregation induced emission molecules for detection of nucleic acids.

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is an ingenious concept in the field of luminescent molecules. AIE is the energy released in an excited state that in turn is converted into light irrespective of being in either liquid phase or solid phase. Aggregation or crystallization of AIE molecules impedes the free movement of molecules and it resultantly becomes highly fluorescent. It is currently being used for several applications including sensing, diagnostic, protein, DNA or RNA detection, cells and cell organelles imaging. AIEs are highly sensitive and specific for binding with target molecules. In this chapter, we underline different AIE molecules for detection of nucleic acids.

Recent findings and applications of biomedical engineering for COVID-19 diagnosis: a critical review.

COVID-19 is one of the most severe global health crises that humanity has ever faced. Researchers have restlessly focused on developing solutions for monitoring and tracing the viral culprit, SARS-CoV-2, as vital steps to break the chain of infection. Even though biomedical engineering (BME) is considered a rising field of medical sciences, it has demonstrated its pivotal role in nurturing the maturation of COVID-19 diagnostic technologies. Within a very short period of time, BME research applied to COVID-19 diagnosis has advanced with ever-increasing knowledge and inventions, especially in adapting available virus detection technologies into clinical practice and exploiting the power of interdisciplinary research to design novel diagnostic tools or improve the detection efficiency. To assist the development of BME in COVID-19 diagnosis, this review highlights the most recent diagnostic approaches and evaluates the potential of each research direction in the context of the pandemic.