Press monitoring
3D-printed bacteria could make bespoke graphene-like materials
22.3.2017 | Press monitoring
How do you make a bespoke material with graphene-like properties? By putting bacteria to work using a 3D printer. Such bacteria could create brand new materials. For example, if you could use bacteria to print a substance resembling graphene – the 2D material made of single-atom layers of carbon – the end product might have similar desirable...
Popular weedkiller doesn\'t cause cancer: EU agency
20.3.2017 | Press monitoring
The EU's chemicals agency said Wednesday that glyphosate, one of the world's most widely used weedkillers, should not be classed as a carcinogen. The assessment paves the way for Brussels to make a final decision on the chemical, despite deep divisions in the 28-member European Union over its use. Glyphosate is used in the best-selling...
Phage therapy shown to kill drug-resistant superbug
17.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Scientists from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health have shown that phage therapy could offer a safe and effective alternative to antibitotics in the treatment of cystic fibrosis lung infections. Chronic lung infections caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa are becoming increasingly difficult to treat...
New nano-implant could one day help restore sight
15.3.2017 | Press monitoring
A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego and La Jolla-based startup Nanovision Biosciences Inc. have developed the nanotechnology and wireless electronics for a new type of retinal prosthesis that brings research a step closer to restoring the ability of neurons in the retina to respond to light. The researchers demonstrated...
This small molecule could have a big future in global food security
13.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the University of Arizona have found a promising way to prevent the loss of millions of tons of crops to a fungus each year, offering the potential to dramatically improve food security, especially in developing countries. The team's approach uses transgenic corn plants that produce small RNA molecules that prevent fungi from...
Want more crop variety? Researchers propose using CRISPR to accelerate plant domestication
10.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Out of the more than 300,000 plant species in existence, only three species—rice, wheat, and maize—account for most of the plant matter that humans consume, partly because in the history of agriculture, mutations arose that made these crops the easiest to harvest. But with CRISPR technology, we don't have to wait for nature to help us...
Artificial embryo grown in a dish from two types of stem cells
8.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Artificial mouse embryos grown from stem cells in a dish could help unlock secrets of early development and infertility that have until now evaded us. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the University of Cambridge and her team made the embryos using embryonic stem cells, the type of cells found in embryos that can mature into any type of tissue in the...
First CRISPR single-nucleotide edited transgenic mice
6.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Huntington's disease and phenylketonuria are all examples of disorders caused by the mutation of a single nucleotide, a building block of DNA. The human DNA consists of approximately 3 billion nucleotides of four types: Adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). Scientists hope to cure these...
New tool for combating mosquito-borne disease: Insect parasite genes
3.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Wolbachia is the most successful parasite the world has ever known. You've never heard of it because it only infects bugs: millions upon millions of species of insects, spiders, centipedes and other arthropods all around the globe. The secret to the over-achieving bacterium's success is its ability to hijack its hosts' reproduction. Biologists...
Biofuel produced by microalgae
1.3.2017 | Press monitoring
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology have identified unique lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferases as being the central enzymes for triacylglycerol synthesis by oleaginous alga Nannochloropsis, thus uncovering the mechanisms of biofuel production in microalgae. In the modern society, energy generation heavily relies on fossil fuels, which,...
