It may be mentioned that transformation towards a bio-based industry is one of the big challenges facing our human society. Biotechnology is such a driver for change from petroleum-based economy to a more sustainable bio-based economy. Recent advances in systems and synthetic biology, metabolic and protein engineering, genomic, and other related “omics” technologies broaden our knowledge on cell factories and may facilitate biochemical production of fine chemicals, recombinant proteins, biomaterials, and pharmaceuticals in the near future. The use and development of cell factories for bioproduction are of great interest across a wide range of different communities. The editors of “BioMed Research International” are pleased to launch this new special issue.

We invite investigators in the relevant fields to contribute review and original papers describing their recent findings and perspectives.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Algal biotechnology for sustainable development
• Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for production of bulkchemicals, value-added compounds, and fuels
• RNA interference and novel technologies for bioprocess development
• In vitro or in vivo protein expression and protein biotechnologiesinvolving NMR, LC-MS, and so forth.