bims-livmat Biomed News
on Living materials
Issue of 2025–11–09
two papers selected by
Sara Trujillo Muñoz, Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien
  1. Programmable probiotics as next-generation living therapeutics: bridging synthetic biology and precision medicine.
  2. 3D Bioprinting Enzyme-Bacteria Symbionts for Lactic Acid Production from Cellulose Bioconversion.
  1. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2025 Nov 03. pii: S0958-1669(25)00119-3. [Epub ahead of print]96 103375
    Programmable probiotics as next-generation living therapeutics: bridging synthetic biology and precision medicine.
    Na Li, Lijie Yin, Jia Wang, Jing Zhang, Yaojun Tong.
      Engineered probiotics are rapidly redefining what's possible for living therapeutics. Instead of acting passively, these microbes can now home to disease sites, sense local signals, and deliver precisely the therapeutic activities our patients need - directly in situ and for extended periods. With the help of modular genetic circuits, synthetic biology is transforming once-commensal bacteria into sophisticated, programmable medicines. In this review, we highlight how these designer microbes are tackling inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic conditions, and cancer, and we offer a critical look at the strategies underpinning their safety, efficacy, and clinical translation. We also discuss the translational bottlenecks, such as biocontainment, regulatory complexity, and microbiome variability, that must be overcome as these living medicines move from concept toward routine clinical use. Ultimately, programmable probiotics stand poised to reshape pharmaceutical biotechnology, sitting squarely at the intersection of microbiology, engineering, and precision medicine.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103375
  2. Environ Sci Technol. 2025 Nov 03.
    3D Bioprinting Enzyme-Bacteria Symbionts for Lactic Acid Production from Cellulose Bioconversion.
    Ke-Wan Li, Meng-Jie Luo, Yixuan Wang, Xiao-Li Liu, Meng Liu, Xingyu Wang, Jinyou Shen, Yang Mu.
      Bioconversion of waste cellulosic biomass into high-value chemicals holds significant potential, although traditional cocultures face challenges such as microbial competition and poor spatial organization, which limit stability and efficiency. Herein, we, for the first time, created enzyme-bacteria symbionts with customized geometric configurations using a three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting platform for efficient lactic acid production from cellulose. To facilitate 3D printing, a biocompatible and tunable dual-network functional living bioink was developed with optimized rheological properties, enabling meticulous manipulation of the spatial arrangement and density of active components. By optimizing spatial niches, the design featuring an inner cellulase layer and an outer bacteria layer improved lactic acid production efficiency during cellulose bioconversion. At an optimal enzyme loading of 35 U/mL, the maximum lactic acid yield of 6.55 ± 0.34 g/L was achieved using 3D-bioprinted symbionts with 17.5 g/L cellulose as the sole carbon source. Importantly, reaction-diffusion simulations clearly revealed the spatial and radial distributions of the intermediate product glucose and the final product lactic acid within the enzyme-bacteria symbionts. This work establishes a new design paradigm for engineered living materials, providing a scalable platform for diverse waste-to-product conversions and practical pathways for implementing circular bioeconomy principles.
    Keywords:  3D bioprinting; bioconversion; cellulosic biomass; enzyme-bacteria symbionts; reaction-diffusion stimulation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c08210
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