Press monitoring
FDA panel mulls gene therapy for kids with rare eye disease
18.10.2017 | Press monitoring
U. S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel was poised on Thursday to recommend approval for a gene therapy that could grant the gift of sight to young people with a rare type of inherited vision loss. Replacing a nonworking gene with a new one is opening a new world for children and teens with the inherited retinal disease called Leber...
What makes the durian fruit stink? Cancer scientists crack the durian genome
16.10.2017 | Press monitoring
Singaporean scientists and international collaborators have achieved a world's first by deciphering the complete genetic map of durian, a prized tropical fruit delicacy known in Asia as the "king of fruits." The Singapore team's efforts were driven by both innate scientific curiosity and a love of the fruit. "Being a geneticist, I was...
Team creates functional, stem-cell-derived small bowel segments
13.10.2017 | Press monitoring
Using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a Massachusetts General Hospital research team has bioengineered functional small intestine segments that, when implanted into rats, were capable of deliver nutrients into the bloodstream. "In this study we have been able to bridge the gap between differentiation of single cells - driving stem...
Anti-doping agency to ban all gene editing in sport from 2018
11.10.2017 | Press monitoring
The battle between sports cheats and testers is poised to enter a whole new arena. The World Anti-Doping Agency has extended its 2003 ban on “gene doping” to include all forms of gene editing – but it is not clear the agency has the means to enforce this ban. WADA already bans the use of genetically modified cells and gene therapy if they have...
Light-activated nanoparticles can supercharge current antibiotics
9.10.2017 | Press monitoring
Light-activated nanoparticles, also known as quantum dots, can provide a crucial boost in effectiveness for antibiotic treatments used to combat drug-resistant superbugs such as E. coli and Salmonella, new University of Colorado Boulder research shows. Multi-drug resistant pathogens, which evolve their defenses faster than new antibiotic...
We’re nearly ready to use CRISPR to target far more diseases
6.10.2017 | Press monitoring
The race is on to edit the DNA in our body to fight or prevent disease. Promising results from animal studies targeting the liver, muscles and the brain suggest that the CRISPR genome-editing method could revolutionise medicine, allowing us to treat or even cure a huge range of disorders. The CRISPR genome-editing method was only developed in...
Portable DNA sequencers help African farmers fight crop disease
4.10.2017 | Press monitoring
Scientists at The University of Western Australia are using new portable DNA sequencing technology for the first time in East Africa to help farmers fight the devastating impact of crop disease. Farmers struggling with diseased cassava crops can take immediate action to save their livelihoods based on information about the health of their plants,...
Lab-grown cells make doping agent EPO and cure anaemia in mice
2.10.2017 | Press monitoring
Transplants grown from stem cells in the lab can help replenish the blood and have been used to cure anaemia in mice. The discovery could lead to treatments for people with anaemia caused by kidney disease. In the US, 30 million people have chronic kidney disease. Because the kidney makes erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that triggers the...
Genetically modified wheat used to make coeliac-friendly bread
29.9.2017 | Press monitoring
People forced to avoid gluten could soon have their bread (and cake) and eat it. Now there are strains of wheat that do not produce the forms of gluten that trigger a dangerous immune reaction in as many as 1 in 100 people. Because the new strains still contain some kinds of gluten, though, the wheat can still be used to bake bread. “It’s...
Fire ant venom might contain treatment for psoriasis
27.9.2017 | Press monitoring
One of the key culprits behind the painful sting of a fire ant could prove to be a key component in new creams to treat psoriasis, an auto-immune skin disease characterized by thickened red and itchy patches for which there is currently no cure. New research has found that a key compound in the creature's toxic venom can combat some of the...
