Cover Picture: Protein folding in vivo

Cover illustration: Protein folding in vivo. This special issue, edited by Marc Blondel (Brest, France) and Mónica Marín (Montevideo, Uruguay) includes review and original articles on co-translational folding, alternative codon usage and the impacts of protein folding on protein production. The drawing on the cover illustrates the ribosome as a platform for co-translational folding of newly synthesized proteins. © HRATCH ARBACH 2011     

Cell and Protein Manipulation

Cover illustration Cell and Protein Manipulation. This second BTJ special issue on “Methods and Advances” features articles on cell manipulation (e.g. lysis methods for miniaturized high-throughput assays) or protein processing (e.g. plasma-free manufacturing of therapeutics or an inkjet printing method for manufacturing immuoassays). Image liquid nitrogen tank to store cells or proteins, © Baxter.     

Systems Biology for Biotech Applications

Cover illustration: Systems Biology for Biotech Applications is the topic of this BTJ special issue edited by Nathan D. Price and Sang Yup Lee. You will find the latest progress on genome-scale in silico models of metabolism, building the blueprint of life and applications for biofuels and bioprocessing. Cover image: degradation, PHA biosynthesis, central metabolic networks (back) and genome-scale metabolic networks (front) in Pseudomonas putida. Courtesy of Tae Yong Kim, KAIST, Korea.     

Protein Design and Evolution for Biocatalysis

Cover illustration: Protein Design and Evolution for Biocatalysis. This special issue of Biotechnology Journal contains selected contributions from scientists participating to the ESF-EMBO Symposium which took place in October 2008 in San Feliu, Spain. Guest Editor is the chair and organizer of the meeting, Jiri Damborsky from Brno (Czech Republic). He highlights a variety of topics brought up in the meeting, ranging from new methods of rational design, directed evolution, metagenomics and single-molecule techniques, to construction of useful enzymes for industrial applications. Uwe Bornscheuer (Greifswald, Germany) authored a meeting report. Image colored pencils, © PhotoDisc, Inc.; Protein logo © ESF.     

Biotech Reviews

Cover illustration: Biotech Reviews. This special issue, edited by Sophia Hober (Stockholm, Sweden) covers review articles on key areas of biotechnology, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering as well as protein and biofuel engineering, nanobiotechnology, siRNA therapeutics and food biotechnology. Cover image: SPDM/localization microscopy of nanostructures in human cell nuclei, H2A proteins (red) and Snf2H proteins (green) in a human osteosarcoma cell nucleus (U2OS cells), provided by Manuel Gunkel, Heidelberg, Germany, taken from the Review on superresolution imaging by Cremer et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.201100031 .     

Biopharmaceutical Technologies

Cover image: Biopharmaceutical Technologies already represent 20% of the new pharmaceuticals and bioengineering is currently experiencing a revival. This special issue of BTJ, edited by Prof. Alois Jungbauer, features a wide variety of technical reports and research articles about protein expression, bioprocessing and molecular recognition. Image Pharmaceutical Production, ©Sandoz, Schaftenau, Austria (www.sandoz.at).     

Biotech Methods and Advances

Cover illustration: Biotech Methods and Advances. This BTJ special issue highlights articles on high-throughput protein production, a phage display method for fully in vitro recombinant antibody screening and a bioreactor setup to optimize biocatalysis. Image: Representative florescent micrograph depicting a living microdroplet of primary heart muscle cells containing therapeutic payloads for delivery through living cells, © Suwan Jayasinghe, London, UK.     

Biocatalysis

Cover illustration: In order to use rapeseed oil for e.g. biofuels, biocatalysts are needed for processing. Expanding the former limits of biocatalytic applications is the theme of this special issue of BTJ, edited by Dietmar Haltrich (Vienna, Austria) and Mikhail Rabinovich (Moscow, Russia). Highlights include protein engineering based on rational design or random mutagenesis, as well as enzyme adaptation for functioning in novel solvents including ionic liquids. Image of butterly on rapeseed field: courtesy of Jens Bredehorn (www.pixelio.de).     

Polymer and Textile Biotech

Cover illustration: Polymer and Textile Biotech. Polymer biotechnology has led to highly functional materials with wideranging applications from textiles to medicine. This includes protective clothing, which could for example be used for future space trips, as well as for tissue engineering. This special issue of BTJ, edited by Georg Guebitz, Graz University of Technology, Austria (co-edited by Giuliano Freddi and Artur Cavaco-Paulo) provides a broad overview of novel biotechnological approaches for processing of materials and textiles. Cover image: Astronaut © Lasse Kristensen – Fotolia.com     

Biotech in Russia

Cover illustration: Matryoshkas (Russian wooden nesting dolls). This special issue on “Biotech in Russia” is edited by Prof. Mikhail Rabinovich. It features Reviews and Research Articles on state of the art biotech research and biopharmaceutical economy. Image © Sigrid Mehren     

Milk Biotech

Cover illustration: Girl drinking glass of milk. Milk processing is the focus of this special issue of Biotechnology Journal, edited by Professor Knut Heller (Kiel, Germany). In spite of centuries of research on milk processing, this topic still requires and justifies intensive research: in this issue we demonstrate that recent knowledge on bioactive peptides, bacteriophages and healthy milk bioprocessing allow to make the nutritive and health potential of milk fully available to the consumers. Image: Corbis Digital Stock     

Biochemical Engineering Science

Cover illustration: Biochemical Engineering Science. This issue of BTJ highlights a selection of articles presented at the 8th European Symposium on Biochemical Engineering Science (ESBES), which was held in Bologna, Italy 6–8 September 2010. Highlights of this issue include mutation detection in plasmid-based biopharmaceuticals, PEGylation, magnetic separation and process development. The cover image shows the Fountain of Neptune (Fontana di Nettuno) located at the Piazza Nettuno in Bologna and was kindly provided by Dr. Karin Tiemann.     

Biotech Reviews

Cover illustration: Biotech Reviews. The first BTJ Reviews-only issue is covering various exciting developments in biotechnology. Edited by Sophia Hober (Stockholm, Sweden) international researchers feature the state-of-the-art e.g. genomescale modeling, metagenomics, plant biotech. secondary metabolites or recombinant antibody production. Image from Artville/Getty Images.     

Synthetic Biology

Cover illustration: Synthetic Biology. This special issue, edited by Alfonso Jaramillo and Jean-Loup Foulon, highlights articles from the International conference on Synthetic Biology (December 2010) organized by the Genopole and iSSB. The cover image depicts a tentative synthetic leaf in half revealing its genetic circuitry. A zoom box details the leaf's interior circuits, which are made up of three multiplexed light sensors regulating gene expression controlled by red, green and blue light. The image (provided by Daniel Camsund) illustrates the application of light sensors reported in this issue (http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.201100091 ).     

Food vs Fuel

Cover illustration: This special issue of BTJ, edited by Dr. Stefan Nordhoff (Marl, Germany), highlights the potential but also the drawbacks of biotechnology in energy production. What are the economics behind sustainable energy production? How can we face the competition for the use of biomaterials for food or for mobility? What are new developments in the field? How much agricultural land can be converted and where should water for irrigation come from? What are alternative solutions to the world's energy problem? Cover images © Corbis Digital Stock and Brand X Pictures.     

Textile Biotech

Cover illustration: Textile Biotech. Biotechnology now provides new tools such as metabolic engineering, genomics/proteomics/metabolomics and bioinformatics, which allow to improve textile quality, but also to protect the environment in reducing waste output. This special issue on Textile Biotech has been edited by Prof. Cavaco Paolo (University of Minho, Portugal) and is based on selected contributions from participants to the 4th International Conference on Textile Biotechnology (South Korea, June 2006). Hot air balloons © Sue Ashe – FOTOLIA     

Protein Design and Evolution for Biocatalysis

Cover illustration: Soon designing proteins on demand? This is the vision expressed by the designer pencils pointing at the logo of the meeting held in September 2006 in Greifswald, Germany. This special issue was edited by Prof. Uwe Bornscheuer from Greifswald, who selected papers from keynote speakers at this meeting. With special thanks to Prof. Romas Kazlauskas, University of Minnesota, for the design of the conference logo. Pencils © FOTOLIA.     

Cellular & Molecular Bioengineering

Cover illustration: This issue includes articles presented at the International Conference on Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (ICCMB) held in Singapore, August 2–4, 2010 and other articles on this topic, featuring stem cell stimulation, nanoparticle delivery and primary cell culture. The cover image shows a stereoscopic image of a Xenopus laevis tadpole 72 h after fertilization. This embryo was injected with quantum dots by near infrared laser injection as reported by Umanzor-Alvarez et al., in this issue. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.201000205     

Cover Picture: Biotechnology Journal 6/2010

Cover illustration: Biotech Methods and Advances. This issue of Biotechnology Journal covers methods for systems metabolic engineering as well as downstream processing. The cover image shows an artist's impression of a magnetic fusion protein consisting of antibody like particles (pale blue) and ferritin subunits (pale green) encapsulating an iron core (red). These “Magnetizable antibody-like proteins” are described by Dehal et al. pp. 596–605 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.200900273). Art by Mark Bradshaw, Pixelweave 3D.