Biotechnology News – Latest Headlines
Subscribe to our Biotechnology News feed
Synthetic biology breakthrough leads to cheaper statin production
Researchers have developed a single-step fermentative method for the production of leading cholesterol-lowering drug, pravastatin, which will facilitate industrial-scale statin drug production.
Posted: Feb 27th, 2015
Read moreBacteria 'hotwire' their genes to fix a faulty motor (w/video)
Unable to move and facing starvation, bacteria evolved a new way to activate their flagellum - a rotating tail-like structure which acts like an outboard motor - by patching together a new genetic switch with borrowed parts.
Posted: Feb 27th, 2015
Read moreNIBIB launches Want to Be a Bioengineer? game app
How do you keep an artificial limb attached to the body? What lab-grown organ have scientists successfully transplanted into patients? You can find the answer to these questions and many more while playing Want to Be a Bioengineer? a game for middle and high school students.
Posted: Feb 25th, 2015
Read moreMolecular mouse-trap technique sheds light on key cell processes
Scientists have shed new light on the fundamental biological process of cell division, thanks to an emerging analytical method.
Posted: Feb 25th, 2015
Read moreScientists grow leg muscle from cells in a dish
A team of scientists has succeeded in generating mature, functional skeletal muscles in mice using a new approach for tissue engineering. The scientists grew a leg muscle starting from engineered cells cultured in a dish to produce a graft. The subsequent graft was implanted close to a normal, contracting skeletal muscle where the new muscle was nurtured and grown.
Posted: Feb 25th, 2015
Read moreNovel pretreatment could cut biofuel costs by 30 percent or more
Researchers have developed a novel technology that cuts the amount of enzymes needed to produce biofuels by 90 percent or more.
Posted: Feb 24th, 2015
Read moreNew catalyst to create chemical building blocks from biomass
University of Tokyo researchers have developed a novel selective catalyst that allows the creation of several basic chemicals from biomass instead of petroleum. This discovery may lead to the use of plant biomass as a basic feedstock for the chemical industry.
Posted: Feb 23rd, 2015
Read more3-D engineered bone marrow makes functioning platelets
Scalable model supports patient-specific treatments, advanced study of blood disorders.
Posted: Feb 18th, 2015
Read moreSynthetic biology yields new approach to gene therapy
Bioengineers have created a novel gene-delivery system that shuttles a gene into a cell, but only for a temporary stay, providing a potential new gene-therapy strategy for treating disease.
Posted: Feb 18th, 2015
Read moreAn entirely new approach to tissue engineering
Researchers present an entirely new approach to tissue engineering that uses the interfacial forces between aqueous solutions of phase-separating polymers to confine cells and promote their assembly into interconnected, macroscopic tissue constructs. This simple and inexpensive general procedure creates free-standing, centimeter-scale constructs from cell suspensions in as little as 2 hours.
Posted: Feb 18th, 2015
Read moreUsing fungi to catch algae
Fungal waste biomass from biotechnology applications could be used to harvest microalgae for fuels and chemicals production.
Posted: Feb 18th, 2015
Read more3D-architectured hydrogels guide regeneration of critically sized bone defects
Scientists report a purely polymeric 3D-architectured hydrogel (ArcGel), which successfully guided the in vivo bone regeneration in rats.
Posted: Feb 16th, 2015
Read moreNovel non-stick material joins portfolio of slippery surface technologies
Infusing liquids into polymers makes long lasting, self-replenishing material that repels deadly bacterial build-up.
Posted: Feb 10th, 2015
Read moreArachnid Rapunzel: Researchers spin spider silk proteins into artificial silk
New research on the structure of spider silk is advancing the development of artificial alternatives.
Posted: Feb 10th, 2015
Read moreBenzodiazepines, the ring of power
Benzodiazepine's introduction into clinical revolutionized the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Now, a research group of experts in preliminary drug discovery, has developed a succinct and efficient multicomponent-assisted synthetic methodology assembling unexplored benzodiazepine collections, thus, enabling to examine new areas of biological applications.
Posted: Feb 10th, 2015
Read moreComputer model of blood development could speed up search for new leukaemia drugs
The first comprehensive computer model to simulate the development of blood cells could help in the development of new treatments for leukaemia and lymphoma, say researchers at the University of Cambridge and Microsoft Research.
Posted: Feb 10th, 2015
Read more