Press monitoring
Nano-decoy lures human influenza A virus to its doom
28.10.2016 | Press monitoring
To infect its victims, influenza A heads for the lungs, where it latches onto sialic acid on the surface of cells. So researchers created the perfect decoy: A carefully constructed spherical nanoparticle coated in sialic acid lures the influenza A virus to its doom. When misted into the lungs, the nanoparticle traps influenza A, holding it until...
Active Biotech and NeoTX enter into a partnership for the development and commercialization of ANYARA for immuno-oncology
26.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Lund (Sweden) and Tel Aviv (Israel), 26 October 2016 - Active Biotech AB (NASDAQ OMX NORDIC: ACTI) and NeoTX Therapeutics Ltd. announced today that they have entered into a licensing agreement for Active Biotech's investigational compound Naptomumab estafenatox ("ANYARA") for cancer immunotherapy. NeoTX will be responsible for the worldwide...
Turning biofuel waste into wealth in a single step
26.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Lignin is a bulky chain of molecules found in wood and is usually discarded during biofuel production. But in a new method by EPFL chemists, the simple addition of formaldehyde could turn it into the main focus. Lignin is an enormously complex biopolymer, filling the hard wall that surrounds each plant cell. In fact, lignin makes up almost a...
Tobacco plants engineered to manufacture high yields of malaria drug
24.10.2016 | Press monitoring
In 2015, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in part for the discovery of artemisinin, a plant-derived compound that's proven to be a lifesaver in treating malaria. Yet many people who need the drug are not able to access it, in part because it's difficult to grow the plant that is the compound's source. Now, research has...
Singapore scientists develop DNA-altering technology to tackle diseases
21.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Researchers in Singapore have developed a new protein that can alter DNA in living cells with much higher precision than current methods. This new protein, named iCas, can be easily controlled by an external chemical input and thus solves some of the problems with CRISPR-Cas, the existing gold-standard for DNA altering. For example, existing Cas...
Biologists first to observe direct inheritance of gene-silencing RNA
19.10.2016 | Press monitoring
Recent research has shown that, in some species, parents' life experiences can alter their offspring. Being underfed, exposed to toxins or stricken by disease can cause changes in a parent's gene expression patterns, and in some cases, these changes can be passed down to the next generation. However, the mechanisms that cause this effect—known...
Ramping up nitrogen flow kicks soybeans into overdrive
17.10.2016 | Press monitoring
With an ever-increasing world population to feed, staple foods like legumes are only going to become more important. Researchers at Washington State University (WSU) have developed a method to make soybean plants grow larger and produce significantly more seeds by kicking their ability to pull vital nitrogen from the air into overdrive. If applied...
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...
