Primary nutritional groups are groups of organisms, divided in relation to the nutrition mode according to the sources of energy and carbon, needed for living, growth and reproduction. The sources of energy can be light or chemical compounds; the sources of carbon can be of organic or inorganic origin.
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are a family of immortalized cell lines derived from epithelial cells of the ovary of the Chinese hamster, often used in biological and medical research and commercially in the production of recombinant therapeutic proteins. They have found wide use in studies of genetics, toxicity screening, nutrition and gene expression, and particularly since the 1980s to express recombinant proteins. CHO cells are the most commonly used mammalian hosts for industrial production of recombinant protein therapeutics.
A Cimino fistula, also Cimino-Brescia fistula, surgically created arteriovenous fistula and arteriovenous fistula, is a type of vascular access for hemodialysis. It is typically a surgically created connection between an artery and a vein in the arm, although there have been acquired arteriovenous fistulas which do not in fact demonstrate connection to an artery.
Euglena gracilis is a freshwater species of single-celled alga in the genus Euglena. It has secondary chloroplasts, and is a mixotroph able to feed by photosynthesis or phagocytosis. It has a highly flexible cell surface, allowing it to change shape from a thin cell up to 100 μm long to a sphere of approximately 20 μm. Each cell has two flagella, only one of which emerges from the flagellar pocket (reservoir) in the anterior of the cell, and can move by swimming, or by so-called "euglenoid" movement across surfaces. E. gracilis has been used extensively in the laboratory as a model organism, particularly for studying cell biology and biochemistry.
Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) is a polymer that forms a hydrogel in water. Poly (PHEMA) hydrogel for intraocular lens (IOL) materials was synthesized by solution polymerization using 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as raw material, ammonium persulfate and sodium pyrosulfite (APS/SMBS) as catalyst, and triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) as cross-linking additive. It was invented by Drahoslav Lim and Otto Wichterle for biological use. Together they succeeded in preparing a cross-linking gel which absorbed up to 40% of water, exhibited suitable mechanical properties and was transparent. They patented this material in 1953.
Fibroin is an insoluble protein present in silk produced by numerous insects, such as the larvae of Bombyx mori, and other moth genera such as Antheraea, Cricula, Samia and Gonometa. Silk in its raw state consists of two main proteins, sericin and fibroin, with a glue-like layer of sericin coating two singular filaments of fibroin called brins. Silk fibroin is considered a β-keratin related to proteins that form hair, skin, nails and connective tissues.
GLUT5 is a fructose transporter expressed on the apical border of enterocytes in the small intestine. GLUT5 allows for fructose to be transported from the intestinal lumen into the enterocyte by facilitated diffusion due to fructose's high concentration in the intestinal lumen. GLUT5 is also expressed in skeletal muscle, testis, kidney, fat tissue (adipocytes), and brain.
Casamino acid is the mixture of amino acids produced from acid hydrolysis of casein, a family of phosphoproteins found in mammalian milk. In comparison, tryptone describes casein that has undergone enzymatic degradation by the protease trypsin, leaving many smaller peptide chains alongside the free amino acids.
A phonocardiogram is a plot of high-fidelity recording of the sounds and murmurs made by the heart with the help of the machine called the phonocardiograph; thus, phonocardiography is the recording of all the sounds made by the heart during a cardiac cycle.
Microbial cell factory is an approach to bioengineering which considers microbial cells as a production facility in which the optimization process largely depends on metabolic engineering. MCFs is a derivation of cell factories, which are engineered microbes and plant cells. In 1980s and 1990s, MCFs were originally conceived to improve productivity of cellular systems and metabolite yields through strain engineering. A MCF develops native and nonnative metabolites through targeted strain design. In addition, MCFs can shorten the synthesis cycle while reducing the difficulty of product separation.
Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks consisting of chemically or physically cross-linked hydrophilic polymers. The insoluble hydrophilic structures absorb polar wound exudates and allow oxygen diffusion at the wound bed to accelerate healing. Hydrogel dressings can be designed to prevent bacterial infection, retain moisture, promote optimum adhesion to tissues, and satisfy the basic requirements of biocompatibility. Hydrogel dressings can also be designed to respond to changes in the microenvironment at the wound bed. Hydrogel dressings should promote an appropriate microenvironment for angiogenesis, recruitment of fibroblasts, and cellular proliferation.
PETases are an esterase class of enzymes that catalyze the breakdown (via hydrolysis) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic to monomeric mono-2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate (MHET). The idealized chemical reaction is:
Ulrich Schwaneberg is a German chemist and protein engineer. He is the Chair of Biotechnology at RWTH Aachen University and member of the scientific board at the Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen. He specializes in directed evolution of proteins for material science applications and on the development of its methodologies. The latter comprise methods for diversity generation, as well as high-throughput screening systems. His work group has elucidated general design principles of enzymes by analyzing libraries that contain the full natural diversity of a hydrolase with single amino acid exchanges and developed strategies to efficiently explore the protein sequence space and discovered protein engineering principles.
Howard Nuk is a Canadian industrial and product design leader, entrepreneur, inventor, speaker, and co-founder of Palm Ventures Group, Inc. Nuk studied industrial design at Carleton University, School of Industrial Design, Faculty of Engineering, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Industrial Design (B.I.D.) with high distinction. Born in Toronto, Canada, he lived there until his family moved to Ottawa at the age of 11.
Real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) is a highly sensitive assay for prion detection.
Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field at the intersection of cybersecurity and biosecurity. The objective of cyberbiosecurity has been described as addressing "the potential for or actual malicious destruction, misuse, or exploitation of valuable information, processes, and material at the interface of the life sciences and digital worlds". Cyberbiosecurity is part of a system of measures that collectively aim to "Safeguard the Bioeconomy", an objective described by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine of the United States.
Trench nephritis, also known as war nephritis, is a kidney infection, first recognised by medical officers as a new disease during the early part of the First World War and distinguished from the then-understood acute nephritis by also having bronchitis and frequent relapses. Trench nephritis was the major kidney problem of the war. The cause was not established at the time, treatments were ineffective, and the condition led to 35,000 British and 2,000 American casualties.
A laboratory-acquired infection or LAI is an infection that is acquired in a laboratory, usually as part of a medical research facility or hospital.
Mark J. Shelhamer is an American human spaceflight researcher specializing in neurovestibular adaptation to space flight., and former chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program. He is a Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, director of the Human Spaceflight Lab at Johns Hopkins, and director and founder of the Bioastronautics@Hopkins initiative. He is also an adjunct associate professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He has published over 70 scientific papers and is the author of Nonlinear Dynamics in Physiology: A State-Space Approach and Systems Medicine for Human Spaceflight. He holds several patents for various vestibular assessment devices.
A liposome extruder is a device that prepares cell membranes, exosomes and also generates nanoscale liposome formulations. The liposome extruder employs the track-etched membrane to filter huge particles and achieve sterile filtration.
