In her PhD thesis Ruth Sanz-Barrio, an agricultural engineer, has demonstrated, for the first time, the viability of using specific tobacco proteins (known as thioredoxins) as biotechnological tools in plants. Specifically, she has managed to increase the amount of starch produced in the tobacco leaves by 700% and fermentable sugars by 500%.
Oct 14th, 2013
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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have succeeded in making flattened, football-shaped artificial particles that impersonate immune cells. These football-shaped particles seem to be better than the typical basketball-shaped particles at teaching immune cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells in mice.
Oct 14th, 2013
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The EU-funded project BIONET ('Network topology complements genome as a source of biological information') is using graph theory to model biological network interactions and develop advanced algorithms to analyse these complex data.
Oct 11th, 2013
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In many studies of stem cell therapy for heart disease, most of the cells wash away in the first hour. Researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech encapsulate mesenchymal stem cells in alginate so that the cells stay alive and in the heart. In rats, the capsules promote healing after a heart attack. Alginate has several biomedical uses already so the path to translation looks good.
Oct 11th, 2013
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Researchers develop a first-of-its-kind mathematical model for the biological process that keeps your immune system working.
Oct 7th, 2013
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New research has led to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that make certain blood-producing cells function normally. The research will help prevent diseases that lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Oct 7th, 2013
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A new technique developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine could pave the way to an era of personalized epigenomics.
Oct 7th, 2013
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Uzbek microbiologist Dilfuza Egamberdieva hopes to apply her new agricultural technique soon in Uzbekistan to boost the yield of economically important crops such as wheat, cotton, tomato and cucumber.
Oct 7th, 2013
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Singapore and Oxford scientists unlock secret to cancer cell growth, paving the way for better fight against cancer.
Oct 7th, 2013
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Biologists of the University of Zurich have developed a method to visualize the activity of genes in single cells. The method is so efficient that, for the first time, a thousand genes can be studied in parallel in ten thousand single human cells.
Oct 6th, 2013
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A group of researchers have found a way to use stem cells as drug delivery vehicles. The researchers inserted modified strands of messenger RNA into connective tissue stem cells - called mesenchymal stem cells - which stimulated the cells to produce adhesive surface proteins and secrete interleukin-10, an anti-inflammatory molecule.
Oct 4th, 2013
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A new tool enables biomechanical studies of individual cells: Red blood cells were laser-propelled over long distances through optofluidic photonic crystal fibers and their deformation due to shear forces monitored.
Oct 2nd, 2013
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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) report a highly programmable and controlled platform for preparing and experimentally probing synthetic cellular structures.
Oct 1st, 2013
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As they destroy bacteria very efficiently, plasmas constitute an alternative to chemical disinfectants and potentially to antibiotics, as well. How they achieve this effect has been investigated by a team of biologists, plasma physicists and chemists.
Oct 1st, 2013
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What sounds like a dream of the future has already been the subject of research for a few years: simply printing out tissue and organs. Now scientists have further refined the technology and are able to produce various tissue types.
Oct 1st, 2013
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UCLA chemical engineering researchers have created a new synthetic metabolic pathway for breaking down glucose that could lead to a 50 percent increase in the production of biofuels.
Sep 30th, 2013
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In the first study of its kind, Rice University scientists have used synthetic biology to study how a popular soil amendment called 'biochar' can interfere with the chemical signals that some microbes use to communicate. The class of compounds studied includes those used by some plant pathogens to coordinate their attacks.
Sep 30th, 2013
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Similar to using Python or Java to write code for a computer, chemists soon could be able to use a structured set of instructions to 'program' how DNA molecules interact in a test tube or cell.
Sep 30th, 2013
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