Global Biotechnology

Tissue engineering is a relatively new and emerging branch of biotechnology . The development of advanced techniques in bioprinting and microfluidics now allow formation of autologous tissue grafts for various purposes such as organ transplantation, treating burns and regenerative medicine. Furthemore, tissue engineering provides alternatives to surgical reconstruction, transplants and other medical devices that are used to repair damaged tissues. Previously, tissue engineering was only limited to biomedical applications, plant  tissue cultures, but now these days some companies have also started to engineer  tissues on a small scale as an alternative to direct animal products such as  laboratory meat and laboratory leather etc. However, this area is still in development  and it needs to first reach a larger scale for products to be competitive in price with  directly obtained animal based products. Tissue engineering can be done by four types of biomaterials na...

Haem is an iron-containing tetrapyrrole that is critical for a variety of cellular and physiological processes. Haem binding proteins are present in almost all cellular compartments, but the molecular mechanisms that regulate the transport and use of haem within the cell remain poorly understood. Here we show that haem-responsive gene 9 (HRG-9) (also known as transport and Golgi organization 2 (TANGO2)) is an evolutionarily conserved haem chaperone with a crucial role in trafficking haem out of haem storage or synthesis sites in eukaryotic cells. Loss of Caenorhabditis elegans hrg-9 and its paralogue hrg-10 results in the accumulation of haem in lysosome-related organelles, the haem storage site in worms. Similarly, deletion of the hrg-9 homologue TANGO2 in yeast and mammalian cells induces haem overload in mitochondria, the site of haem synthesis. We demonstrate that TANGO2 binds haem and transfers it from cellular membranes to apo-haemoproteins. Notably, homozygous tango2−/− zebrafis...