Press monitoring
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Evolutionary time travel reveals enzymes origins, possible future designs
25.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Researchers have used evolutionary "time travel" to learn how an enzyme evolved over time, from one of Earth's most ancient organisms to modern-day humans. Magnus Wolf-Watz, who is at Ume? University in Sweden, looked back some 2 to 3 billion years to primitive organisms known as archaea. A branch of archaea known as the Asgard phylum,...
Scientists distill cows milk into nano-capsules for drug delivery
23.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Exosomes are nano-sized biological capsules that cells produce to protect and courier delicate molecules throughout the body. The capsules are hardy enough to withstand enzymatic breakdown, as well as acidic and temperature fluctuations in the gut and bloodstream, making them a prime candidate for drug delivery. Harvesting them to achieve...
Facial recognition AI helps save multibillion dollar grape crop
20.8.2021 | Press monitoring
A radical collaboration between a biologist and an engineer is supercharging efforts to protect grape crops. The technology they've developed, using robotics and AI to identify grape plants infected with a devastating fungus, will soon be available to researchers nationwide working on a wide array of plant and animal research. The biologist,...
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Fighting fungal infections: Giant leaps for smart nanotech
18.8.2021 | Press monitoring
They're roughly the same size as a coronavirus particle, and 1000 times smaller than a human hair, yet newly engineered nanoparticles developed by scientists at the University of South Australia, are punching well above their weight when it comes to treating drug-resistant fungal infections. Created in partnership with Monash University, the new...
First genetic sequencing of Brazilian pit viper is completed
16.8.2021 | Press monitoring
A group led by researchers at Butantan Institute and funded by S?o Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP has completed the first sequencing of a Brazilian snake's genome. It suggests that the nine genes that encode toxins produced by the jararaca pit viper Bothrops jararaca probably originated in genes that had different functions in the ancestral...
New CRISPR/Cas9 technique corrects cystic fibrosis in cultured human stem cells
13.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Researchers from the group of Hans Clevers (Hubrecht Institute) corrected mutations that cause cystic fibrosis in cultured human stem cells. In collaboration with the UMC Utrecht and Oncode Institute, they used a technique called prime editing to replace the 'faulty' piece of DNA with a healthy piece. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is one of the most...
MANiAC microbots may one deliver drugs within the nervous system
11.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Various groups are currently working on tiny "robots" that could deliver medication to specific locations within the body. One of the latest such microbots, known as the MANiAC, is designed specifically for use in the delicate and challenging central nervous system. Its name an acronym for "magnetically aligned nanorods in alginate capsules,"...
Barnacle-inspired bioglue stops bleeding in as little as 15 seconds
9.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Stemming the bleeding from a traumatic injury can save lives, but it’s hard to get adhesives to stick when blood is making everything wet. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new surgical glue that can halt bleeding within 30 seconds, inspired by the super-strong underwater adhesive used by barnacles. In tests in rats and pigs, the glue stayed...
Using two CRISPR enzymes, a COVID diagnostic in only 20 minutes
6.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Frequent, rapid testing for COVID-19 is critical to controlling the spread of outbreaks, especially as new, more transmissible variants emerge. While today's gold standard COVID-19 diagnostic test, which uses qRT-PCR – quantitative reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) – is extremely sensitive, detecting down to one copy of RNA...
Organoid bladders reveal secrets of UTIs
4.8.2021 | Press monitoring
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections. They usually require treatment with antibiotics, and almost a quarter of treated cases lead to recurrent infection. The vast majority of UTIs are caused by a subspecies of the bacterium Escherichia coli, which infect cells that line the bladder wall and form what are...
