Press monitoring
Disease-defying spuds exiled from Europe – again
19.2.2014 | Press monitoring
It won't be a case of second time lucky. A second strain of potatoes genetically modified to resist blight has been developed, but widespread opposition to such crops means the spuds are unlikely to be grown in Europe. Developers of the previous strain failed to obtain approval after years of trying. Late potato blight is a disease caused by a...
Nanomotors are controlled, for the first time, inside living cells
18.2.2014 | Press monitoring
For the first time, a team of chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically. It's not exactly "Fantastic Voyage," but it's close. The nanomotors, which are rocket-shaped metal particles, move around inside the cells,...
Oxford Nanopore unveils data from portable genome sequencer
17.2.2014 | Press monitoring
A good first shot, but not a game-changer, yet. That seems to be the consensus among scientists after the first public release today of data produced by the MinION, an advanced and much-anticipated DNA sequencing device developed by Oxford Nanopore in the UK.
RNA sequencing of 750-year-old barley virus sheds new light on the Crusades
14.2.2014 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the University of Warwick have detected and sequenced the RNA genome of Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus (BSMV) in a 750-year-old barley grain found at a site near the River Nile in modern-day Egypt. This new find challenges current beliefs about the age of the BSMV virus, which was first discovered in 1950 with the earliest record of...
Student leads race for instant DNA detection
13.2.2014 | Press monitoring
PhD candidate Evelyn Linardy is working on a portable DNA testing device that will allow doctors, researchers and border security to identify samples within 10 minutes. The diagnostic technology, called EzyAmp, can be used to quickly classify pathogens, bacteria, animals and plant life on-site without the need to send off DNA samples to a lab –...
3D-printed hip implant lets teenager walk again
12.2.2014 | Press monitoring
Mobelife, a Belgium-based implant design company, has 3D printed a custom hip implant and given a once wheelchair-consigned teenager the ability to walk on her own. The 15-year old Swedish girl suffered from a congenital disease which saw a neurofibroma, a benign tumor which grows on the peripheral nervous system, cause extensive damage to her...
Genome editing goes hi-fi: Editing the human genome
11.2.2014 | Press monitoring
Sometimes biology is cruel. Sometimes simply a one-letter change in the human genetic code is the difference between health and a deadly disease. But even though doctors and scientists have long studied disorders caused by these tiny changes, replicating them to study in human stem cells has proven challenging. But now, scientists at the...
The ultimate decoy: Protein helps bacteria misdirect immune system
10.2.2014 | Press monitoring
A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has discovered an unusual bacterial protein that attaches to virtually any antibody and prevents it from binding to its target. Protein M, as it is called, probably helps some bacteria evade the immune response and establish long-term infections.
New microchip demonstrates how metastasis takes place
7.2.2014 | Press monitoring
Nearly 70 percent of patients with advanced breast cancer experience skeletal metastasis, in which cancer cells migrate from a primary tumor into bone -- a painful development that can cause fractures and spinal compression. While scientists are attempting to better understand metastasis in general, not much is known about how and why certain...
Amputee feels in real-time with bionic hand
6.2.2014 | Press monitoring
Dennis Aabo Sorensen is the first amputee in the world to feel sensory rich information -- in realtime -- with a prosthetic hand wired to nerves in his upper arm. Sorensen could grasp objects intuitively and identify what he was touching while blindfolded. Nine years after an accident caused the loss of his left hand, Dennis Aabo Sorensen from...
