Press monitoring
Antifungal RNA spray could help fight barley crop disease
14.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Spraying barley crops with RNA molecules that inhibit fungus growth could help protect the plants against disease, according to a new study. Plant diseases caused by fungi that grow on crops seriously threaten the world's food supply, and fungi can develop resistance to traditional pesticides. To improve the antifungal arsenal, Aline Koch of...
Scientists rev up speed of bionic enzyme reactions
12.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Bionic enzymes got a needed boost in speed thanks to new research at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). By pairing a noble metal with a natural enzyme, scientists created a hybrid capable of churning out 2,550 product molecules per hour, a frequency comparable to biological counterparts. The...
GreenWood Resources licenses ORNL invention to boost biofuel yield
10.10.2016 | Press monitoring
GreenWood Resources has licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology based on the discovery of a gene in poplar (Populus trichocarpa) that makes it easier to convert poplar trees into biofuels. GreenWood, a global timberland investment and asset management company based in Oregon, plans to commercialize the technology to select and breed...
World’s first baby born with new 3 parent technique
7.10.2016 | Press monitoring
A five-month-old boy is the first baby to be born using a new technique that incorporates DNA from three people, New Scientist can reveal. “This is great news and a huge deal,” says Dusko Ilic at King’s College London, who wasn’t involved in the work. “It’s revolutionary.” The controversial technique, which allows parents with rare genetic...
Reading the rules of gene regulation with CRISPR
5.10.2016 | Press monitoring
We have barely begun to crack open the rulebook for the vast noncoding regions of the genome. Two new methods, building on CRISPR advances, may help reveal some of the pages. We have a reasonable understanding of the rules behind the genome's protein-coding components. We can look at a DNA sequence and point with confidence to where a gene's...
Researchers team up to develop pilot plant, advance biofuel technology
3.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Iowa State University's Lysle Whitmer walked the length of the bio-oil production line – from the 55-gallon solvent tank to the twin-screw extruder with its mixing, chopping, heating and pressurizing functions to the reactor in the middle and then to the product separators and the solvent recycling system. "This is the culmination of everything...
CRISPR toolbox expanded by protein that cuts RNA in two distinct ways
30.9.2016 | Press monitoring
UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna, molecular biologist Robert Tijan and a team of researchers have expanded the role of the newly discovered CRISPR protein C2c2 that targets RNA instead of DNA. C2c2 has been described as an RNA-guided RNA-cutting enzyme; however, a full understanding of how this protein acts to cleave RNA was lacking. In a...
A compound that stops cells from making protein factories could lead to new antifungal drugs
28.9.2016 | Press monitoring
New research based at The Rockefeller University in yeast has identified a compound that interferes with the process by which ribosomes themselves are assembled. The results, described September 22 in Cell, open the door to the development of new medicines. "Not only does this compound efficiently inhibit the growth of yeast cells, it does so...
To produce biopharmaceuticals on demand, just add water
26.9.2016 | Press monitoring
Researchers at MIT and other institutions have created tiny freeze-dried pellets that include all of the molecular machinery needed to translate DNA into proteins, which could form the basis for on-demand production of drugs and vaccines. The pellets, which contain dozens of enzymes and other molecules extracted from cells, can be stored for an...
Newly discovered algal enzyme could help improve efficiency of photosynthesis
23.9.2016 | Press monitoring
For plants and algae that carry on photosynthesis, light can be too much of a good thing. On a bright, sunny day, a plant might only be able to utilize 20 percent or less of absorbed sunlight. The plant dissipates the excess light energy to prevent damage and oxidative stress, and a process called the xanthophyll cycle helps to flip the switch...
