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Like job-seekers searching for a new position, living things sometimes have to pick up a new skill if they are going to succeed. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and Uppsala University, Sweden, have shown for the first time how living organisms do this.
Posted: Oct 19th, 2012
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ETH-researchers demonstrate how vaccinia virus manipulates the cellular waste-disposal system and thereby cleverly tricks the cell into assisting the intruders replication. Now, the virologists have turned the tables, using inhibitors of this cellular waste-disposal system as a way to block virus infection.
Posted: Oct 18th, 2012
Read moreResearchers from North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a new technique that uses sound waves to rapidly separate selected collections of cells for use in biomedical research.
Posted: Oct 17th, 2012
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The detection of specific DNA sequences is central to the identification of disease-causing pathogens and genetic diseases, as well as other activities. But current detection technologies require amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescent or enzymatic labels, and expensive instrumentation.
Posted: Oct 1st, 2012
Read moreBy mimicking nature's own sensing mechanisms, bioengineers at UC Santa Barbara and University of Rome Tor Vergata have designed inexpensive medical diagnostic tests that take only a few minutes to perform.
Posted: Sep 27th, 2012
Read moreNew map finds genetic regulatory elements account for 80 percent of our DNA.
Posted: Sep 5th, 2012
Read moreBiomass recalcitrance - the problem of how to break down complex plant-based cellulosic feedstock into sugars that can be fermented to produce sustainable biofuels and other renewable biobased products - can be overcome through improved methods of biomass characterization.
Posted: Aug 29th, 2012
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Have you ever wondered where our agricultural crops come from? And what were they like thousands of years ago, or hundreds of years ago? Our food crops today are in fact very different from the original wild plants from which they were derived.
Posted: Aug 23rd, 2012
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Past efforts to predict protein structure have met with limited success, but now a scientific team led by Glenn Butterfoss, and Barney Yoo, research scientists at New York University, in collaboration with investigators from the U.S. Department of Energy?s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Stony Brook University and Temple University have demonstrated that a computer modeling approach similar to one used to predict protein structures can accurately predict peptoid conformation as well.
Posted: Aug 21st, 2012
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Harvard Medical School professor leads effort to streamline biological engineering.
Posted: Aug 20th, 2012
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Molecular transporter could advance development of algae-based biofuels, pharmaceuticals
Posted: Aug 20th, 2012
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Scientists at MIT have taught a microbe a new trick: They've tinkered with its genes to persuade it to make fuel - specifically, a kind of alcohol called isobutanol that can be directly substituted for, or blended with, gasoline.
Posted: Aug 20th, 2012
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Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center have developed 'RNA switches' which allow them to specifically turn on and off genes in viruses. This will help to enhance regulation of gene therapy and viral therapy of cancer.
Posted: Aug 20th, 2012
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A new method could significantly increase the number of genetic components in synthetic biologists? toolkit and, as a result, the size and complexity of the genetic circuits they can build.
Posted: Aug 17th, 2012
Read moreUsing next-generation sequencing technology and a novel strategy to encode 1,000 times the largest data size previously achieved in DNA, a Harvard geneticist encodes his book in life's language.
Posted: Aug 17th, 2012
Read moreThis collection aims to highlight PLOS ONE's role in the emerging interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology.
Posted: Aug 17th, 2012
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