Waste-derived volatile fatty acids as carbon source for added-value fermentation approaches

The establishment of a sustainable circular bioeconomy requires the effective material recycling from biomass and biowaste beyond composting/fertilizer or anaerobic digestion/bioenergy. Recently, volatile fatty acids attracted much attention due to their potential application as carbon source for the microbial production of high added-value products. Their low-cost production from different types of wastes through dark fermentation is a key aspect, which will potentially lead to the sustainable production of fuels, materials or chemicals, while diminishing the waste volume. This article reviews the utilization of a volatile fatty acid platform for the microbial production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, single cell oil and omega-3 fatty acids, giving emphasis on the fermentation challenges for the efficient implementation of the bioprocess and how they were addressed. These challenges were addressed through a research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme entitled 'VOLATILE-Biowaste derived volatile fatty acid platform for biopolymers, bioactive compounds and chemical building blocks'.This work was supported by the European project 'Volatile-Biowaste-derived volatile fatty acid platform for biopolymers, bioactive compounds and chemical building blocks' and has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 720777

Waste-derived volatile fatty acids as carbon source for added-value fermentation approaches

The establishment of a sustainable circular bioeconomy requires the effective material recycling from biomass and biowaste beyond composting/fertilizer or anaerobic digestion/bioenergy. Recently, volatile fatty acids attracted much attention due to their potential application as carbon source for the microbial production of high added-value products. Their low-cost production from different types of wastes through dark fermentation is a key aspect, which will potentially lead to the sustainable production of fuels, materials or chemicals, while diminishing the waste volume. This article reviews the utilization of a volatile fatty acid platform for the microbial production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, single cell oil and omega-3 fatty acids, giving emphasis on the fermentation challenges for the efficient implementation of the bioprocess and how they were addressed. These challenges were addressed through a research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme entitled ‘VOLATILE—Biowaste derived volatile fatty acid platform for biopolymers, bioactive compounds and chemical building blocks’.This work was supported by the European project ‘VolatileBiowaste-derived volatile fatty acid platform for biopolymers, bioactive compounds and chemical building blocks’ and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 720777

Understanding today's convergent news media consumption through a triple articulation lens

Today's news media environment is becoming increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous. As such, it becomes quite hard for communication researchers to approach the apparent complexity of media consumers\' everyday practices. In older days, media environments were rather straight forward, whereas today, due to the increasing trend of technological convergence, this media environment is rendered tremendously complex and hard to grasp; the boundaries between media and the ways we use them have collided (Jenkins, 2006) or liquefied (Deuze, 2011). Right now, various technological objects are used to consume a myriad of news materials, either in audiovisual or written form. Moreover, this consumption is nested in every possible scene of the everyday, as well in spatial as in social terms. Hence, we rather live in media than with media (Deuze, 2011), which brings about an abundance of possible news media repertoires. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel methodological approach to grasp this complexity in news consumption. Its theoretical foundations lie within domestication theory (Silverstone & Haddon, 1996), which represents the so-called ethnographic turn in audience research. Rather than just centring on media texts, it also incited to take into account contextual surrounding of media consumption, especially within the perimeter of the everyday. One of the major attractors of is the recognition of media meanings as derived from two distinct articulations: the affording objects on the one hand, and the media text itself on the other hand. Although context has always been of the utmost importance, domestication scholars often lost themselves in overly contextual descriptions, basically ignoring these texts and objects. In a recent theoretical and methodological account, Courtois et al. (in press) propose a triple articulation as a framework to study convergent media consumption, addressing equal weights to object, text and socio-spatial context meanings. In fact, socio-spatial context is conceived as a specific articulation because these meaningful circumstances constantly change throughout the day. As such, it has become one of the three crucial interacting components that direct people's meaning making process when it comes to their media consumption. The proposed methodology entails a semi-structured face-to-face interview based on photo-elicited card sorts of objects, texts and socio-spatial context. It is directed towards uncovering the influence each articulation exercises in making up the overall meaning of media consumption. More specifically, it allows uncovering the specific roles of objects, texts and socio-spatial contexts in diverse media consumption repertoires. The results clearly show that each of the proposed articulation plays crucial roles in understanding why people use the news media in the way they do: although each articulation has the potential to affect meaning, it is clear that there is a deepening divide between news media consumers. Nonetheless, drawing upon insights in the everyday, this paper for instance helps to understand why some certain proportion of consumers stick to traditional news media repertoires, while others fully embrace modern technological means like smartphones, in a wide array of contexts

ETV6-PDGFRB and FIP1L1-PDGFRA stimulate human hematopoietic progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation into eosinophils: the role of nuclear factor-κB.

BACKGROUND: ETV6-PDGFRB (also called TEL-PDGFRB) and FIP1L1-PDGFRA are receptor-tyrosine kinase fusion genes that cause chronic myeloid malignancies associated with hypereosinophilia. The aim of this work was to gain insight into the mechanisms whereby fusion genes affect human hematopoietic cells and in particular the eosinophil lineage. DESIGN AND METHODS: We introduced ETV6-PDGFRB and FIP1L1-PDGFRA into human CD34(+) hematopoietic progenitor and stem cells isolated from umbilical cord blood. RESULTS: Cells transduced with these oncogenes formed hematopoietic colonies even in the absence of cytokines. Both oncogenes also stimulated the proliferation of cells in liquid culture and their differentiation into eosinophils. This model thus recapitulated key features of the myeloid neoplasms induced by ETV6-PDGFRB and FIP1L1-PDGFRA. We next showed that both fusion genes activated the transcription factors STAT1, STAT3, STAT5 and nuclear factor-κB. Phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase inhibition blocked nuclear factor-κB activation in transduced progenitor cells and patients' cells. Nuclear factor-κB was also activated in the human FIP1L1-PDGFRA-positive leukemia cell line EOL1, the proliferation of which was blocked by bortezomib and the IκB kinase inhibitor BMS-345541. A mutant IκB that prevents nuclear translocation of nuclear factor-κB inhibited cell growth and the expression of eosinophil markers, such as the interleukin-5 receptor and eosinophil peroxidase, in progenitors transduced with ETV6-PDGFRB. In addition, several potential regulators of this process, including HES6, MYC and FOXO3 were identified using expression microarrays. CONCLUSIONS: We show that human CD34(+) cells expressing PDGFR fusion oncogenes proliferate autonomously and differentiate towards the eosinophil lineage in a process that requires nuclear factor-κB. These results suggest new treatment possibilities for imatinib-resistant myeloid neoplasms associated with PDGFR mutations

Feedback from the fourth European Bioanalysis Forum Young Scientist Symposium

Since 2014, the European Bioanalysis Forum organizes a Young Scientist Symposium. The meeting format was created to provide development opportunities for young scientists to engage in international discussions. Creating a peer community of young scientists has been a proven recipe to lower the threshold and promote engagement in this community of young talents. At the same time, the meeting is aimed at stimulating collaboration between the European Bioanalysis Forum and academia

Dried blood microsample-assisted determination of vitamins: Recent developments and challenges

Although vitamin deficiencies are a well-known issue, monitoring of the vitamin status and diagnosis of vitamin deficiencies in remote regions is a complicated task. Dried blood microsampling, as an alternative sampling strategy, could offer a solution to the several drawbacks related to conventional venipuncture. Although highly relevant, the number of microsampling procedures that has been developed for assessing vitamins in dried blood samples is rather limited, indicating the challenging nature of the subject. This review discusses several challenges inherent to vitamin analysis in microsamples, thereby covering topics including sampling strategy, hematocrit (Hct) effect, sample preparation, calibration, assay sensitivity, stability, and clinical interpretation of the results

Towards a Circular Bioeconomy. VOLATILE FATTY ACID PLATFORM FOR BIOWASTE RECYCLING

Resources in general are not infinitely available, and also renewable resources if consumed outside their normal replacement cycles become scarce. Therefore, the establishment of a circular bioeconomy must respect natural systems and replacement cycles of organic carbon thereby reducing environmental pressure of human consumption. Upcycling of side and biowaste streams towards added value compounds represents hereby a critical aspect reducing land system change and fertilizer use for biomass supply for the bioeconomy. The development of a Volatile Fatty Acids Platform (VFAP) represents an important cornerstone for the upcycling of heterogenous municipal biowaste streams.This e-book was prepared in the context of the EU funded project VOLATILE in accordance with the grant agreement No 720777 (European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme)

PDGFRB gain-of-function mutations in sporadic infantile myofibromatosis.

Infantile myofibromatosis is one of the most prevalent soft tissue tumors of infancy and childhood. Multifocal nodules with visceral lesions are associated with a poor prognosis. A few familial cases have been linked to mutations in various genes including PDGFRB. In this study, we sequenced PDGFRB, which encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase, in 16 cases of myofibromatosis or solitary myofibroma. Mutations in the coding sequence of PDGFRB were identified in 6 out of 8 patients with the sporadic multicentric form of the disease and in 1 out of 8 patients with isolated myofibroma. Two patients had the same mutation in multiple separated lesions. By contrast, a third patient had three different PDGFRB mutations in the three nodules analyzed. Mutations were located in the transmembrane, juxtamembrane and kinase domains of the receptor. We showed that these mutations activated receptor signaling in the absence of ligand and transformed fibroblasts. In one case, a weakly-activating germline variant was associated with a stronger somatic mutation, suggesting a two-hit model for familial myofibromatosis. Furthermore, the mutant receptors were sensitive to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib, except D850V, which was inhibited by dasatinib and ponatinib, suggesting a targeted therapy for severe myofibromatosis. In conclusion, we identified gain-of-function PDGFRB mutations in the majority of multifocal infantile myofibromatosis cases, shedding light on the mechanism of disease development, which is reminiscent of multifocal venous malformations induced by TIE2 mutations. Our results provide a genetic test to facilitate diagnosis, and preclinical data for development of molecular therapies