Press monitoring
Malaria parasites fine-tune mutations to resist drugs
9.12.2019 | Press monitoring
Drug resistance in malaria parasites is mediated by mutations in a transporter protein. The transporter’s structure reveals the molecular basis of how key mutations bring about resistance to different drugs. About half a million people, most of them children living in Africa, are killed each year by malaria1. Management of malaria, particularly...
Novel bioprinter shows potential to speed tissue engineering
6.12.2019 | Press monitoring
The dream of tissue engineering is a computer-controlled manufacturing of complex and functional human tissue for potential organ regeneration or replacement. University of Alabama at Birmingham biomedical researchers have found a way to speed that tissue creation using a novel bioprinter built for $2,000, they report in the journal...
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Early exposure to peanuts and eggs reduces risk of food allergies
4.12.2019 | Press monitoring
Food allergies are an increasing problem, and for affected people treatment is often limited to avoiding the trigger food. But a comprehensive study from the UK has now found that introducing interestingly, the correlation is clear even when subjects didn’t stick strictly to the regime. children to certain foods at an early age is associated with...
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Hybrid antibiotics punch through bacterial biofilms
2.12.2019 | Press monitoring
On their own, bacteria aren’t too hard to kill. The problem is, the crafty bugs tend to build colonies behind barriers known as biofilms, which are hard for antibiotics to penetrate. Now, researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed a hybrid antibiotic that can punch through some biofilms. Biofilms pose a particular...
Building better bacteriophage to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria
29.11.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers are pursuing engineered bacteriophage as alternatives to antibiotics to infect and kill multi-drug resistant bacteria. The potential for an innovative synthetic biology approach to enhance phage therapeutics and the role a biofoundry can play in making this approach feasible and effective is discussed in an article in PHAGE: Therapy,...
Ultrasensitive protein method lets scientists ID someone from a single strand of hair
27.11.2019 | Press monitoring
A new forensic technique could have criminals – and some prosecutors – tearing their hair out: Researchers have developed a method they say can identify a person from as little as 1 centimeter of a single strand of hair – and that is eight times more sensitive than similar protein analysis techniques. If the new method ever makes it into the...
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Promising new antibiotic discovered in worm gut microbiome
25.11.2019 | Press monitoring
We’re currently in dire need of new weapons against infectious bacteria, especially those in a tough-to-kill class known as gram-negative bacteria. Now, researchers at Northeastern University have discovered just that, hiding in the gut of a tiny, soil-dwelling, parasitic worm. Tests on mice have so far proved promising. The new antibiotic,...
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In a first for cell biology, scientists observe ribosome assembly in real time
22.11.2019 | Press monitoring
A team of scientists from Scripps Research and Stanford University has recorded in real time a key step in the assembly of ribosomes – the complex and evolutionarily ancient "molecular machines" that make proteins in cells and are essential for all life forms. The achievement, reported in Cell, reveals in unprecedented detail how strands of...
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Encouraging early results from first human CRISPR gene therapy trials
20.11.2019 | Press monitoring
Promising preliminary data from one of the first human trials testing the safety and efficacy of a CRISPR gene therapy has just been revealed. Although it is too early to evaluate long-term effects, the initial reports are impressively successful for two patients with severe genetic blood diseases. Until February of this year, when pharmaceutical...
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How to make better biofuels? Convince yeast it is not starving
18.11.2019 | Press monitoring
Yeast already helps make bread and beer and cranks out the biofuel ethanol, but scientists believe it can be used to create an even more efficient fuel called isobutanol. Normally, yeast only creates a tiny amount of isobutanol. Now researchers at Princeton University have discovered a genetic switch that significantly ramps up ...
