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The challenges of teaching and learning during a pandemic become an opportunity: reflections on a student and academic partnership
The current pandemic has forced us to implement major changes in the way we communicate, interact and work, all of which have had a massive impact upon all aspects of our lives. Academics and students alike have had to adapt very quickly to the new situation and the challenges encountered, although viewed from different perspectives, are largely similar. Changes are often unsettling and taxing, especially when they are not the result of a personal choice, but they can also offer great opportunities, the most significant of which is for lecturers and learners to develop best practice together, in partnership (Kurczek and Johnson, 2014). This article reflects upon how sharing our experience of a students-and- staff partnership at the University of Greenwich 2021 SHIFT conference has affected our experience of teaching and learning during a pandemic
Opportunities to accelerate extracellular vesicle research with cellāfree synthetic biology
Abstract Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipidāmembrane nanoparticles that are shed or secreted by many different cell types. The EV research community has rapidly expanded in recent years and is leading efforts to deepen our understanding of EV biological functions in human physiology and pathology. These insights are also providing a foundation on which future EVābased diagnostics and therapeutics are poised to positively impact human health. However, current limitations in our understanding of EV heterogeneity, cargo loading mechanisms and the nascent development of EV metrology are all areas that have been identified as important scientific challenges. The field of synthetic biology is also contending with the challenge of understanding biological complexity as it seeks to combine multidisciplinary scientific knowledge with engineering principles, to build useful and robust biotechnologies in a responsible manner. Within this context, cellāfree systems have emerged as a powerful suite of in vitro biotechnologies that can be employed to interrogate fundamental biological mechanisms, including the study of aspects of EV biogenesis, or to act as a platform technology for medical biosensors and therapeutic biomanufacturing. Cellāfree gene expression (CFE) systems also enable in vitro protein production, including membrane proteins, and could conceivably be exploited to rationally engineer, or manufacture, EVs loaded with bespoke molecular cargoes for use in foundational or translational EV research. Our pilot data herein, also demonstrates the feasibility of cellāfree EV engineering. In this perspective, we discuss the opportunities and challenges for accelerating EV research and healthcare applications with cellāfree synthetic biology