Isolation and characterization of a novel podovirus which infects burkholderia pseudomallei

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a saprophytic soil bacterium and the etiological agent that causes melioidosis. It is naturally resistant to many antibiotics and therefore is difficult to treat. Bacteriophages may provide an alternative source of treatment. We have isolated and characterised the bacteriophage ΦBp-AMP1. The phage is a member of the Podoviridae family and has a genome size of ~ 45 Kb. Molecular data based on the gene which encodes for the phage tail tubular protein suggests that the phage is distinct from known phages but related to phages which infect B. thailandensis and Ralstonia spp. The phage ΦBp-AMP1 is the first B. pseudomallei podovirus to be isolated from the environment rather than being induced from a bacterial culture. It has a broad host range within B. pseudomallei and can infect all 11 strains that we tested it on but not related Burkholderia species. It is heat stable for 8 h at 50°C but not stable at 60°C. It may potentially be a useful tool to treat or diagnose B. pseudomallei infections as it can lyse several strains of clinical relevance

Collagen-derived cryptides : machine-learning prediction and molecular dynamic interaction against Klebsiella pneumoniae biofilm synthesis precursor

Collagen-derived cryptic peptides (cryptides) are biologically active peptides derived from the proteolytic digestion of collagen protein. These cryptides possess a multitude of activities, including antihypertensive, antiproliferative, and antibacterial. The latter, however, has not been extensively studied. The cryptides are mainly obtained from the protein hydrolysate, followed by characterizations to elucidate the function, limiting the number of cryptides investigated within a short period. The recent threat of antimicrobial resistance microorganisms (AMR) to global health requires the rapid development of new therapeutic drugs. The current study aims to predict antimicrobial peptides (AMP) from collagen-derived cryptides, followed by elucidating their potential to inhibit biofilm-related precursors in Klebsiella pneumoniae using in silico approach. Therefore, cryptides derived from collagen amino acid sequences of various types and species were subjected to online machine-learning platforms (i.e., CAMPr3, DBAASP, dPABBs, Hemopred, and ToxinPred). The peptide-protein interaction was elucidated using molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and MM-PBSA analysis against MrkH, a K. pneumoniae’s transcriptional regulator of type 3 fimbriae that promote biofilm formation. As a result, six potential antibiofilm inhibitory cryptides were screened and docked against MrkH. All six peptides bind stronger than the MrkH ligand (c-di-GMP; C2E)

Knowledge development approaches and breakthrough innovations in technology-based new firms

Compared to large established firms, technology-based new firms (TBNF) seem well placed to produce breakthrough innovations although questions remain as to their adeptness at subsequent exploitation. Building on the innovation and strategy literatures, the study identifies two different knowledge development approaches or modes (business models) in TBNFs – internal versus external - and examines their relation to breakthrough innovation and subsequent progression of the product to market. The internal mode assembles knowledge inside the firm to generate its innovations, whereas the external mode relies heavily on alliances to develop and assemble knowledge among firms embedded in a creative network. The study uses a unique panel dataset of 69 UK new biotechnology firms over an 11-year period to explore this issue empirically. The findings show that the external knowledge development mode is associated with more breakthrough innovations and a faster movement of innovations to market. The externally focused mode is not impeded by its relative lack of internal knowledge; it uses partners to access, assemble and develop a wide scope of knowledge in a flexible manner. In addition, partners provide deep domain expertise to undertake the requisite deep-dives. In contrast, the internal mode has the huge challenge of assembling knowledge resources internally and suffers from a quicker onset of path dependence that impedes the generation of breakthroughs. This study provides a choice of business models (internal or external) that is associated with different breakthrough and speed to market performance outcomes. Going forward, policy makers and managers seeking breakthrough innovations and speedy progression of the innovations to market should consider the potential resource efficiency of the external mode and the vital role played by collaborations – small firm versus large firm and private versus public entities

Who is My Partner and How Do We Dance? Technological Collaboration and Patenting Speed in US Biotechnology

In settings where patents and intellectual property provide a strong regime of appropriability, the race to be the first firm to patent a product or a process is a central feature of competition. In this context, we hypothesize that cooperative arrangements that only gain access to external knowledge contribute less to heterogeneity between firms and have a much weaker influence on patenting than alliances that transfer highly firm-specific knowledge, residing in individual and social relationships. We also hypothesize that cooperations between private firms and public organizations accelerate the rate of patenting to a higher degree than cooperations among private firms. We develop and test these ideas on the population of 839 US biotechnology firms between 1973 and 2003. We discuss the importance of our findings on the debate about the value of knowledge access versus knowledge transfer in strategic alliances