Press monitoring
Self-healing hydrogels ease into production
26.11.2013 | Press monitoring
Hydrogels are semi-solid materials formed by polymer chains that trap water molecules into three-dimensional gels. They are used in a variety of applications, including soft contact lenses, but the fragile nature of the materials means that their utility has remained limited. Yasuhiro Ishida, Takuzo Aida and colleagues at the RIKEN Center for...
Bacteria use lethal cytotoxins to evade antibiotic treatment
25.11.2013 | Press monitoring
Bacterial tolerance is not just due to resistance, but also to the formation of persistent cells that have gone into a dormant state where they are no longer sensitive to antibiotics. On the molecular level, this process is controlled by a number of advanced cytotoxins produced by the bacteria themselves in order to survive. In Mycobacterium...
Breakthrough for Biofuel Production from Tiny Marine Algae
22.11.2013 | Press monitoring
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have developed a method for greatly enhancing biofuel production in tiny marine algae. A significant roadblock in algal biofuel research surrounds the production of lipid oils, the fat molecules that store energy that can be produced for fuel. A catch-22 has stymied economically...
Bacteria Recycle Broken DNA: Modern Bacteria Can Add DNA from Creatures Long-Dead to Its Own
21.11.2013 | Press monitoring
From a bacteria’s perspective the environment is one big DNA waste yard. Researchers have now shown that bacteria can take up small as well as large pieces of old DNA from this scrapheap and include it in their own genome. This discovery may have major consequences – both in connection with resistance to antibiotics in hospitals and in our...
Microbiologists reveal unexpected properties of methane-producing microbe
20.11.2013 | Press monitoring
For 40 years, scientists thought they understood how certain bacteria work together to anaerobically digest biomass to produce methane gas, important in bioenergy and the major source of greenhouse gas. But now microbiologists in Derek Lovley's lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst show for the first time that one of the most abundant...
Graphene Nanoribbons for Reading DNA: Researchers Improve the Nanopore-Based Technology for Detecting DNA Molecules
19.11.2013 | Press monitoring
If we wanted to count the number of people in a crowd, we could make on the fly estimates, very likely to be imprecise, or we could ask each person to pass through a turnstile. The latter resembles the model that EPFL researchers have used for creating a "DNA reader" that is able to detect the passage of individual DNA molecules through a tiny...
Deletion of Any Single Gene Provokes Mutations Elsewhere in the Genome
18.11.2013 | Press monitoring
Johns Hopkins researchers report that the deletion of any single gene in yeast cells puts pressure on the organism's genome to compensate, leading to a mutation in another gene. Their discovery, which is likely applicable to human genetics because of the way DNA is conserved across species, could have significant consequences for the way genetic...
Better Batteries Through Biology? Modified Viruses Boost Battery Performance
15.11.2013 | Press monitoring
MIT researchers have found a way to boost lithium-air battery performance, with the help of modified viruses. Lithium-air batteries have become a hot research area in recent years: They hold the promise of drastically increasing power per battery weight, which could lead, for example, to electric cars with a much greater driving...
Single-cell genome sequencing gets better
14.11.2013 | Press monitoring
Researchers led by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have generated the most complete genome sequences from single E. coli cells and individual neurons from the human brain. The breakthrough comes from a new single-cell genome sequencing technique that confines genome amplification to fluid-filled wells with a volume of just...
All Aboard the Nanotrain Network: Tiny Self-Assembling Transport Networks, Powered by Nano-Scale Motors and Controlled by DNA
13.11.2013 | Press monitoring
Tiny self-assembling transport networks, powered by nano-scale motors and controlled by DNA, have been developed by scientists at Oxford University and Warwick University. The system can construct its own network of tracks spanning tens of micrometres in length, transport cargo across the network and even dismantle the tracks. Researchers were...
