Press monitoring
DNA sequencing improved by slowing down
23.9.2015 | Press monitoring
EPFL scientists have developed a method that improves the accuracy of DNA sequencing up to a thousand times. The method, which uses nanopores to read individual nucleotides, paves the way for better - and cheaper - DNA sequencing. A powerful DNA sequencing method uses tiny, nano-sized pores that read DNA as it passes through. However, "nanopore...
EU lawmakers want full animal cloning ban
21.9.2015 | Press monitoring
EU lawmakers backed calls Tuesday to tighten up a proposed ban on cloning animals for food so as to ensure they never find a place on European farms. The European Commission is ready to ban animal cloning in the 28-nation bloc but MEPs said it had to go further to halt all imports and the use of cloned products to ease public concerns about food...
Increased memory with a flash of light
18.9.2015 | Press monitoring
The burgeoning field of optogenetics has seen another breakthrough with the creation of a new plant-human hybrid protein molecule called OptoSTIM1. In South Korea, a research team led by Won Do Heo, associate professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and group leader at the IBS Center for Cognition and Sociality,...
Cancer trap grabs wandering tumour cells to warn of early spread
16.9.2015 | Press monitoring
The trouble with cancer is it spreads – sometimes even before someone knows they are ill. A small implant that traps cancer cells as they migrate through the blood could make a lifesaving early-detection system. “This could be the canary in the coal mine,” says Lonnie Shea of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, one of the developers. So far...
Changing behavior through synaptic engineering
14.9.2015 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are the first to show that it's possible to reverse the behavior of an animal by flipping a switch in neuronal communication. The research, published in PLOS Biology, provides a new approach for studying the neural circuits that govern behavior and has important implications for how...
New device could save millions from septic shock
11.9.2015 | Press monitoring
Prostate cancer, breast cancer and AIDS are all potentially lethal diseases that affect hundreds of thousands each year. But Sepsis, a deadly immune response triggered by infection, kills more people than all of them combined. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than a million people suffer from sepsis each year in the United...
Frankenvirus emerges from Siberia\'s frozen wasteland
9.9.2015 | Press monitoring
Scientists said they will reanimate a 30,000-year-old giant virus unearthed in the frozen wastelands of Siberia, and warned climate change may awaken dangerous microscopic pathogens. Reporting this week in PNAS, the flagship journal of the US National Academy of Sciences, French researchers announced the discovery of Mollivirus sibericum, the...
Scientists successfully edit genes of dengue fever mosquitoes
7.9.2015 | Press monitoring
Mosquitoes are a key contributor to the spread of potentially deadly diseases such as dengue and malaria, as they harbor parasites and viruses that are spread when mosquitoes bite humans and animals. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found an effective way to edit the genes of mosquitoes. Shengzhang Dong, postdoctoral fellow in...
Research trio outlines ways nanodiamonds are being used to treat cancer
4.9.2015 | Press monitoring
A trio of researchers has published a review in Science Advances, of the ways nanodiamonds are being used in cancer research and offer insights into the ways they may be used in the future. As the research trio note, significant progress has been made over the past several decades in the development of nano-materials for use in treating cancer...
DNA clews used to shuttle CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool into cells
2.9.2015 | Press monitoring
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have for the first time created and used a nanoscale vehicle made of DNA to deliver a CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool into cells in both cell culture and an animal model. The CRISPR-Cas system, which is found in bacteria and archaea, protects...
