Current opinion in biotechnology最新文献

{"title":"Operation at thermophilic temperatures: an underestimated asset for gas fermentation processes","authors":"Hariklia N Gavala,&nbsp;Ioannis V Skiadas","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103319","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103319","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gas fermentation technology presents great potential for enhancing the transition of our society to a sustainable era and alleviating the climate crisis. Scalability, robustness, and economic viability are decisive factors for successfully bringing emerging technologies on a commercial scale. Compared to traditional liquid phase fermentation, gas fermentation comes with additional challenges that mainly stem from gas–liquid mass transfer limitations. Operation at moderately elevated temperatures (50–60 °C) enhances the mass transfer rate and consequently productivity, thus improving the economic indicators. However, the scarcity of studies at the thermophilic range that could set the foundation for further scaling-up for products other than biomethane is noticeable. This review summarizes progress in the last 10 years regarding thermophilic CO₂ and syngas fermentation and discusses a way forward to improving the competitiveness of gas fermentation technology via operation at elevated temperature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103319"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144166431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Innovations in 3D printing of food for special medical purposes: potential applications of 4D/5D printing technology","authors":"Min Feng ,&nbsp;Min Zhang ,&nbsp;Bhesh Bhandari","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103318","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103318","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>4D/5D printing is the result of 3D printing with smart materials, which has attracted much attention due to its advantages of design freedom, low production cost, and personalization. In order to promote the effective and efficient production of multifunctional, on-demand textured and personalized nutritional food for special medical purposes (FSMPs), this review firstly reviews the research progress of FSMPs and the application of 3D printing technology. The direction of food 4D/5D printing and its applications in personalized nutritional formulations, customized foods for specific diseases, and innovative multifunctional food development are further discussed in detail. Finally, the future development opportunities and challenges of 4D/5D printing for FSMPs are presented, with a view to providing a reference for the realization of intelligent printing with real-time sensing, adaptation to changes, and predictive accuracy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103318"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144147830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corrigendum to “The expansion of fungal organisms in environmental biotechnology” [Curr Opin Biotechnol 90 (2024) 103217]","authors":"Korena K Mafune,&nbsp;Mari K Winkler","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103316","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103316","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103316"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144105865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anaerobic microbial core for municipal wastewater treatment — the sustainable platform for resource recovery","authors":"Brian Conall Holohan ,&nbsp;Anna Trego ,&nbsp;Ciara Keating ,&nbsp;Thiago Bressani-Ribeiro ,&nbsp;Carlos L Chernicharo ,&nbsp;Glen Daigger ,&nbsp;Stephen M Galdi ,&nbsp;Ulrich Knörle ,&nbsp;Eleonora Paissoni ,&nbsp;Angel Robles ,&nbsp;Frank Rogalla ,&nbsp;Chungheon Shin ,&nbsp;Ana Soares ,&nbsp;Adam L Smith ,&nbsp;Aleksandra Szczuka ,&nbsp;Dermot Hughes ,&nbsp;Vincent O’Flaherty","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103317","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103317","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The requirement for carbon neutrality and bioresource recovery has shifted our views on water treatment from health and pollution avoidance to one of sustainability with water and nutrient circularity. Despite progress, the current process of wastewater treatment is linear, based on core aerobic microbiology, which is unlikely to be carbon neutral due to its large use of energy and production of waste sludge. Here, we outline a shift from aerobic to anaerobic microbiology at the core of wastewater treatment and resource recovery, illustrating the state-of-the-art technologies available for this paradigm shift. Anaerobic metabolism primarily offers the benefit of minimal energy input (up to 50% reduction) and minimal biomass production, resulting in up to 95% less waste sludge compared with aerobic treatment, which is increasingly attractive, given dialogue surrounding emerging contaminants in biosolids. Recent innovative research solutions have made ambient (mainstream) anaerobic treatment a ready substitute for the aerobic processes for municipal wastewater in temperate regions. Moreover, utilising anaerobic treatment as the core carbon removal step allows for more biological downstream resource recovery with several opportunities to couple the process with (anaerobic) nitrogen and phosphorus recovery, namely, potential mainstream anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and methane oxidation (N-DAMO). Furthermore, these technologies can be mixed and matched with membranes and ion-exchange systems, high-value biochemical production, and/or water reuse installations.</div><div>As such, we propose the reconfiguration of the wastewater treatment plant of the futurewith anaerobic microbiology. Mainstream anaerobic treatment at the core of a truly sustainable platform for modern municipal wastewater treatment, facilitating circular economy and net-zero carbon goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103317"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144105866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genome-scale metabolic models in cultivated meat: advances, challenges, and future directions","authors":"Sandra Gomez Romero ,&nbsp;Isabella Spielmann ,&nbsp;Nanette Boyle","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103313","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103313","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cultivated meat is an emerging field that integrates stem cell biology, tissue engineering, and bioprocessing to create a sustainable alternative to conventional meat. However, its widespread adoption faces key metabolic challenges, including the need for serum-free media, optimization of cell line–specific growth conditions, and enhanced cellular engineering strategies. <em>GE</em>nome-scale <em>M</em>etabolic models (GEMs) have been instrumental in optimizing metabolic conditions for Chinese hamster ovaries, a powerhouse species for biomanufacturing, and they can be adapted to be used for cultivated meat in the same way. These models facilitate the transition to cost-effective, serum-free media and improve biomass production through metabolic flux analysis. Future advancements will require expanding publicly available metabolic data sets, refining cell line–specific models, and integrating transcriptomic and proteomic data to enhance predictive accuracy. By leveraging GEMs, cultivated meat production can overcome current limitations, paving the way for a scalable, sustainable, and economically viable alternative to traditional meat.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103313"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pathway engineering for the biosynthesis of psychedelics","authors":"Zachary N Abrahms ,&nbsp;Abhishek K Sen ,&nbsp;J Andrew Jones","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103314","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103314","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Naturally occurring psychoactive compounds have been used for cultural and ethnomedical purposes for centuries. Several more such molecules continue to be chemically synthesized, exhibiting a wide range of potency, therapeutic, and hallucinogenic effects. Promising clinical data and a renewed interest in understanding the cellular mechanisms of action have inspired synthetic biology efforts to develop alternative production routes for psychedelic compounds. Here, we highlight the latest biosynthetic accomplishments for indolamines (psilocybin, <em>N,N</em>-dimethyltryptamine, 5-methoxy-<em>N,N-</em>dimethyltryptamine, and bufotenine), ergolines (lysergic acid), and phenethylamines (mescaline) in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic production hosts. We further curate a list of relevant biosynthetic enzymes that have reports of successful <em>in vivo</em> heterologous activity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103314"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Glycosyltransferases in human milk oligosaccharide synthesis: structural mechanisms and rational design","authors":"Yangyang Li ,&nbsp;Guocheng Du ,&nbsp;Jian Chen ,&nbsp;Xueqin Lv ,&nbsp;Long Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103315","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103315","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) play a pivotal role in infant health through their multifunctional bioactive properties. Recent advances in synthetic biology have revolutionized microbial platforms for HMO biosynthesis, with glycosyltransferases (GTs) emerging as indispensable biocatalytic tools that drive enzymatic lactose glycosylation to generate diversified oligosaccharides. This review systematically analyzes GT structural biology, elucidating conserved domains and catalytic mechanisms through crystallographic studies. We summarize contemporary optimization strategies for enhancing GT functionality, including solubility enhancement, catalytic efficiency improvement, and substrate specificity engineering via structure-guided rational design. Emerging deep learning algorithms demonstrate transformative potential in GT modifications and <em>de novo</em> design, providing innovative solutions to overcome bottlenecks in industrial-scale HMO synthesis. These approaches establish a framework for the precision engineering of carbohydrate-active enzymes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103315"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143923729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding and harnessing the complexity of interspecies interactions in acetogenic mixotrophic co-cultures","authors":"John D Hill,&nbsp;Eleftherios T Papoutsakis","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103311","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The core advantage of acetogens lies in their superior carbon management, achieved by engaging the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway to sequester CO₂ <em>in situ</em> and utilize exogenous CO₂. This advantage can be further exploited by coupling acetogens with other organisms in co-culture, leading to the increasingly explored concept of acetogenic co-cultures. We review and dissect schemes involving the co-fermentation of carbohydrates and exogenous gases, which present unique challenges and opportunities due to the nonlinearity of co-culture metabolic networks and complex, often unanticipated, interspecies interactions. The latter suggests that most, if not all, such co-cultures are mutualistic rather than commensalistic, contrary to previous assumptions. We discuss both fundamental and applied concepts, including co-culture stability and methods for quantitatively capturing population dynamics and interspecies interactions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103311"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143927680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corrigendum to “Advances in engineering substrate scope of Pseudomonas cell factories” [Curr Opin Biotechnol 92 (2025) 103270]","authors":"Miguel Silva ,&nbsp;Stefano Donati ,&nbsp;Pavel Dvořák","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103312","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103312"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143924174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recent advances in microbial synthesis of polyphenols","authors":"Yuxiang Hong ,&nbsp;Pornpatsorn Lertphadungkit ,&nbsp;Yongkun Lv ,&nbsp;Peng Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Polyphenols are plant-derived secondary metabolites known for their antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties, with flavonoids being the most structurally diverse and medically relevant subclass. Traditional plant extraction is limited by low abundance and difficulty in separating from analogs. Microbial synthesis has emerged as an alternative method to complement plant extraction. This review summarizes recent advancements in microbe-sourced polyphenols, especially flavonoids and related derivatives. Key strategies, including modular design, CRISPR-based optimization, co-culture, and dynamic regulatory systems, have been employed to enhance microbial factory production efficiency. Emerging artificial intelligence–driven computational modeling and pathway optimization hold significant promise for enhancing polyphenol biosynthesis. Taken together, microbial synthesis offers a scalable and sustainable alternative to plant extraction. The cost-effective production of polyphenols will expand their applications in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and food industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10833,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in biotechnology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103308"},"PeriodicalIF":7.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143903511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}