Biotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Engineered liver tissue expands after transplant

Tiny implantable 'seeds' of tissue produce fully functional livers.

July 20, 2017 Read more

Protein produced with electricity and carbon dioxide

A batch of single-cell protein has been produced by using electricity and carbon dioxide. Protein produced in this way can be further developed for use as food and animal feed.

July 19, 2017 Read more

Silk 'micrococoons' could be used in biotechnology and medicine

Researchers have manufactured microscopic versions of the cocoons spun by silkworms, which could be used to store sensitive proteins and other molecules for a wide range of uses.

July 19, 2017 Read more

Steering an enzyme's 'scissors' shows potential for stopping Alzheimer's disease

How one amino acid can spell difference between a healthy aging brain and early onset Alzheimer's disease.

July 19, 2017 Read more

Control of the unfolded protein response in health and disease

A new review article analyzes the recent literature and review the impact of unfolded protein response (UPR) in health and disease.

July 19, 2017 Read more

Antibiotic-releasing polymer may help eradicate joint implant infection

Newly developed implant material could speed, simplify treatment, reduce complication risk.

July 18, 2017 Read more

Study reveals ways in which cells feel their surroundings

Researchers used computer modeling to show how cells can feel their way through their surroundings, for example, when a tumor cell invades a new tissue or organ.

July 18, 2017 Read more

Material from shellfish delivers a boost to bioassays and medical tests

Scientists have discovered a simple way to raise the accuracy of diagnostic tests for medicine and common assays for laboratory research.

July 17, 2017 Read more

Researchers look inside dangerous blood clots with optical clearing technique

Imaging 3-D structures of clots could lead to a better understanding of heart attacks and stroke.

July 17, 2017 Read more

A new ligand extends the half-life of peptide drugs from minutes to days

Scientists have developed a ligand molecule that connects peptide drugs to blood-serum albumin and keeps them from being cleared out by the kidneys too soon. The ligand is easy to synthesize and can extend the half-life of therapeutic peptides from minutes to several days.

July 17, 2017 Read more

Scientists use DNA to store digital movies inside living cells (w/video)

Researchers show in proof-of-principle experiments that the CRISPR system, developed further as a first-of-its-kind approach, is able to encode in living cells information as complex as a digitized image of a human hand.

July 14, 2017 Read more

Researchers identify potentially safer substitutes for BPA

Scientists have identified a group of potential substitutes for bisphenol A (BPA) that lack the adverse effects typically associated with BPA.

July 14, 2017 Read more

Feedback from thousands of designs could transform protein engineering

Synthetic DNA technology and high throughput screening permit large-scale testing of structural stability of multitudes of computationally designed proteins.

July 13, 2017 Read more

On the way to a biological alternative for key industrial processes

A research group's long term goal is to make nitrogenase biotechnologcially useful in order to develop alternatives to industrial chemical processes.

July 13, 2017 Read more

Accessing DNA in the cell's powerhouse to treat disease

A new molecule that reads mitochondrial DNA could pave the way to treat some genetic nerve and muscle diseases.

July 11, 2017 Read more

Engineering arteries

Stem cell advance brings bioengineered arteries closer to reality.

July 11, 2017 Read more

Bringing bacteria's defense into focus

By taking a series of near-atomic resolution snapshots, scientists have observed step-by-step how bacteria defend against foreign invaders such as bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria.

July 10, 2017 Read more

Scientists invent new tool for the synthetic biologist's toolbox

Researchers have invented a new method for controlling gene expression across bacterial colonies. The method involves engineering dynamic DNA copy number changes in a synchronized fashion.

July 10, 2017 Read more