Press monitoring
No magic gene behind supercentenarians longevity
14.11.2014 | Press monitoring
What does it take to live to a 110? If supercentenarians have a magic gene that helps them reach this age, it is lying low. A thorough search for longevity gene variants in 17 supercentenarians – average age 112 (the oldest was 116) – has drawn a blank. Previous studies identified genes coding for proteins that might play an important role in...
Vaccine-resistant polio strain discovered
13.11.2014 | Press monitoring
The global initiative to eradicate poliomyelitis through routine vaccination has helped reduce the number of cases by more than 99% in 30 years, from an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 to 650 reported cases in 2011. However, major epidemics are still occurring today, such as the ones in the Republic of the Congo in 2010, Tajikistan in 2010, and...
Researchers create unique graphene nanopores with optical antennas for DNA sequencing
12.11.2014 | Press monitoring
High-speed reading of the genetic code should get a boost with the creation of the world's first graphene nanopores – pores measuring approximately 2 nanometers in diameter – that feature a "built-in" optical antenna. Researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have invented a simple, one-step process for...
A slither of DNA identifies snakebite antidote
11.11.2014 | Press monitoring
Bitten by a snake? A DNA test could help find the antidote. When a snake bites someone, it leaves some of its DNA along with the venom. Now, that can identify the species of snake; a finding that could take the guesswork out of choosing the right antidote. "At present, the standard of practice is no identification at all, a diagnosis from the...
Engineered for tolerance, bacteria pump out higher quantity of renewable gasoline
10.11.2014 | Press monitoring
An international team of bioengineers has boosted the ability of bacteria to produce isopentenol, a compound with desirable gasoline properties. The finding, published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, is a significant step toward developing a bacterial strain that can yield industrial quantities...
Japan scientists make see-through mice
7.11.2014 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the RIKEN Quantitative Biology Center in Japan, together with collaborators from the University of Tokyo, have developed a method that combines tissue decolorization and light-sheet fluorescent microscopy to take extremely detailed images of the interior of individual organs and even entire organisms. The work, published in Cell,...
Possible alternative to antibiotics
6.11.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists from the University of Bern have developed a novel substance for the treatment of severe bacterial infections without antibiotics, which would prevent the development of antibiotic resistance. Ever since the development of penicillin almost 90 years ago, antibiotics have remained the gold standard in the treatment of bacterial...
Synthetic biology: Telomerator reshapes synthetic yeast chromosome
5.11.2014 | Press monitoring
NYU Langone yeast geneticists report they have developed a novel tool -- dubbed "the telomerator" -- that could redefine the limits of synthetic biology and advance how successfully living things can be engineered or constructed in the laboratory based on an organism's genetic, chemical base-pair structure. Synthetic biologists aim to use such...
Breast milk stem cells may be incorporated into baby
4.11.2014 | Press monitoring
It was discovered seven years ago that human breast milk also contains a kind of stem cell. The question was whether these cells do anything useful for the baby or if they simply leak unavoidably into breast milk. Stem cells have the unusual ability to regenerate themselves and develop into a variety of tissues. Several sources of stem cells are...
Molecular map reveals genetic origins of 21 autoimmune diseases
3.11.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists have created a molecular map that pinpoints genetic variants that play a role in 21 different autoimmune diseases, they report Oct. 27 in the journal Nature. Researchers at Yale, the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard developed a sophisticated mathematical model and created maps of...
