Cell surface engineering with functional polymers is an effective strategy to modulate cell activity. Here, a bio-palladium catalyzed polymerization strategy was developed for in situ synthesis of conjugated polymers on living cell surfaces. Through Sonagashira polymerization, photoactive polyphenyleneethynylene (PPE) is synthesized on the cell surface via cell-generated bio-Pd catalyst. The in situ formed PPE is identified by excellent light-harvest capacity and blue fluorescence on the surfaces of E. coli and C. pyrenoidosa. Besides imaging microbes for tracing the polymerization process, PPE also exhibits enhanced antibacterial activity against E. coli. It can also augment the ATP synthesis of C. pyrenoidosa through enlarging the light absorption and accelerating the cyclic electron transport of the algae. With this bio-metal catalyzed polymerization method, functional polymers can be synthesized in situ on the living cell surface.

In Situ Synthesis of Photoactive Polymers on a Living Cell Surface via Bio-Palladium Catalysis for Modulating Biological Functions.

Microorganisms have been extensively applied as active biotherapeutic agents or drug delivery vehicles for antitumor treatment because of their unparalleled bio-functionalities. Taking advantage of the living attributes of microorganisms, a new avenue has been opened in anticancer research. The integration of customized functional materials with living microorganisms has demonstrated unprecedented potential in solving existing questions and even conferring microorganisms with updated antitumor abilities and has also provided an innovative train of thought for enhancing the efficacy of microorganism-based tumor therapy. In this review, we have summarized the emerging development of customized materials-assisted microorganisms (MAMO) (including bacteria, viruses, fungi, microalgae, as well as their components) in tumor therapeutics with an emphasis on the rational utilization of chosen microorganisms and tailored materials, the ingenious design of biohybrid systems, and the efficacious antitumor mechanisms. The future perspectives and challenges in this field are also discussed.

Customized materials-assisted microorganisms in tumor therapeutics

The use of cell‐mediated chemistry is an emerging strategy that exploits the metabolic processes of living cells to develop biomimetic materials with advanced functionalities and enhanced biocompatibility. Here, a concept of a cell‐mediated catalytic process for forming protective nano‐shells on individual probiotic cells is demonstrated. This process is leveraged by the cell environment to induce oxidative polymerization of phenolic compounds, and simultaneously these phenolic polymers assemble to form nano‐coatings around individual cell surfaces. The detailed analysis reveals that the oxidation process is triggered by an essential nutrient (manganese) of the probiotic cells, which significantly increases the oxidation rate of phenolic compounds. The phenolic coatings, encapsulating each cell in nanometre scale, demonstrate excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. Additionally, the in situ encapsulated probiotic cells display an improved gastric tolerance of up to ≈1.4 times higher than the native cells and enhanced adhesion as high as ≈1.6 times onto a model of intestinal epithelial cells. Finally, the coated probiotic cells exhibit a high antioxidant activity as an advanced feature. Overall, this method provides a unique approach to improve the probiotic delivery using the cell machinery to engineer encapsulating nanocoatings with protective benefits and new functionalities.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/adfm.202200775

Cell‐Mediated Biointerfacial Phenolic Assembly for Probiotic Nano Encapsulation

This review focuses on the overview of microbial amperometric biosensors and microbial biofuel cells (MFC) and shows how very similar principles are applied for the design of both types of these bioelectronics-based devices. Most microorganism-based amperometric biosensors show poor specificity, but this drawback can be exploited in the design of microbial biofuel cells because this enables them to consume wider range of chemical fuels. The efficiency of the charge transfer is among the most challenging and critical issues during the development of any kind of biofuel cell. In most cases, particular redox mediators and nanomaterials are applied for the facilitation of charge transfer from applied biomaterials towards biofuel cell electrodes. Some improvements in charge transfer efficiency can be achieved by the application of conducting polymers (CPs), which can be used for the immobilization of enzymes and in some particular cases even for the facilitation of charge transfer. In this review, charge transfer pathways and mechanisms, which are suitable for the design of biosensors and in biofuel cells, are discussed. Modification methods of the cell-wall/membrane by conducting polymers in order to enhance charge transfer efficiency of microorganisms, which can be potentially applied in the design of microbial biofuel cells, are outlined. The biocompatibility-related aspects of conducting polymers with microorganisms are summarized.

/pdf/from-microorganism-based-amperometric-biosensors-towards-2t8j1iqai9.pdf

From Microorganism-Based Amperometric Biosensors towards Microbial Fuel Cells

Microbes employ a remarkably intricate electron transport system to extract energy from the environment. The respiratory cascade of bacteria culminates in the terminal transfer of electrons onto higher redox potential acceptors in the extracellular space. This general and inducible mechanism of electron efflux during normal bacterial proliferation leads to a characteristic fall in bulk redox potential (Eh), the degree of which is dependent on growth phase, the microbial taxa, and their physiology. Here, we show that the general reducing power of bacteria can be subverted to induce the abiotic production of a carbon-centered radical species for targeted bioorthogonal molecular synthesis. Using two species, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium as model microbes, a common redox active aryldiazonium salt is employed to intervene in the terminal respiratory electron flow, affording radical production that is mediated by native redox-active molecular shuttles and active bacterial metabolism. The aryl radicals are harnessed to initiate and sustain a bioorthogonal controlled radical polymerization via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (BacRAFT), yielding a synthetic extracellular matrix of "living" vinyl polymers with predetermined molecular weight and low dispersity. The ability to interface the ubiquitous reducing power of bacteria into synthetic materials design offers a new means for creating engineered living materials with promising adaptive and self-regenerative capabilities.

Bacterial Redox Potential Powers Controlled Radical Polymerization

The ability to harness cellular redox processes for abiotic synthesis might allow the preparation of engineered hybrid living systems. Towards this goal we describe a new bacteria-mediated iron-catalysed reversible deactivation radical polymerisation (RDRP), with a range of metal-chelating agents and monomers that can be used under ambient conditions with a bacterial redox initiation step to generate polymers. Cupriavidus metallidurans, Escherichia coli, and Clostridium sporogenes species were chosen for their redox enzyme systems and evaluated for their ability to induce polymer formation. Parameters including cell and catalyst concentration, initiator species, and monomer type were investigated. Water-soluble synthetic polymers were produced in the presence of the bacteria with full preservation of cell viability. This method provides a means by which bacterial redox systems can be exploited to generate "unnatural" polymers in the presence of "host" cells, thus setting up the possibility of making natural-synthetic hybrid structures and conjugates.

Iron-Catalysed Radical Polymerisation by Living Bacteria.

The use of bacteria as catalysts for radical polymerizations of synthetic monomers has recently been established. However, the role of trans Plasma Membrane Electron Transport (tPMET) in modulating these processes is not well understood. We sort to study this by genetic engineering a part of the tPMET system NapC in E coli. We show that this engineering altered the rate of extracellular electron transfer coincided with an effect on cell-mediated polymerization using a model monomer. A plasmid with arabinose inducible PBAD promoters were shown to upregulate NapC protein upon induction at total arabinose concentrations of 0.0018% and 0.18%. These clones (E. coli (IP_0.0018%) and E. coli (IP_0.18%), respectively) were used in Iron-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (Fe ATRP), affecting the nature of the polymerization, than cultures containing suppressed or empty plasmids (E. coli (IP_S) and E. coli(E), respectively). These results lead to the hypothesis that EET (Extracellular Electron Transfer) in part modulates cell instructed polymerizations.

/pdf/engineering-bacteria-to-control-electron-transport-altering-4tplaixir2.pdf

Engineering Bacteria to Control Electron Transport Altering the Synthesis of Non-native Biopolymer

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Mechelle Bennett

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Iron-Catalysed Radical Polymerisation by Living Bacteria.

Engineering Bacteria to Control Electron Transport Altering the Synthesis of Non-native Biopolymer