Press monitoring
Credit: Benshot - Fotolia.com
Discovery of RNA transfer through royal jelly could aid development of honey bee vaccines
3.5.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers have discovered that honey bees are able to share immunity with other bees and to their offspring in a hive by transmitting RNA 'vaccines' through royal jelly and worker jelly. The jelly is the bee equivalent of mother's milk: a secretion used to provide nutrition to worker and queen bee larvae. The findings suggest new ways to...
Harnessing microorganisms for smart microsystems
1.5.2019 | Press monitoring
A research team at ont of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed a method to construct a biohybrid system that incorporates Vorticella microorganisms. The method allows movable structures to be formed in a microchannel and combined with Vorticella. In addition, the biohybrid system demonstrates the conversion...
Deadly box jellyfish antidote discovered using CRISPR genome editing
29.4.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered an antidote to the deadly sting delivered by the most venomous creature on earth – the Australian box jellyfish. The Australian box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) has about 60 tentacles that can grow up to three metres long. Each tentacle has millions of microscopic hooks filled with...
Credit: CLIPAREA.com - Fotolia.com
Nanofiber yarn makes for stretchy, protective artificial tissue
26.4.2019 | Press monitoring
The human body is held together by an intricate cable system of tendons and muscles, engineered by nature to be tough and highly stretchable. An injury to any of these tissues, particularly in a major joint like the shoulder or knee, can require surgical repairs and weeks of limited mobility to fully heal. Now MIT engineers have come up with a...
Credit: CONTIPRO
Spread of deadly pig virus in China hastens vaccine research
24.4.2019 | Press monitoring
A highly contagious disease that kills infected pigs has swept across China and is moving through neighbouring countries. Scientists in China are ramping up efforts to study the virus that causes African swine fever and produce a vaccine. But scientists elsewhere fear that political pressure to make a vaccine quickly could risk introducing chronic...
Credit: starush - Fotolia.com
Waterborne DNA provides a picture of coral reef health
22.4.2019 | Press monitoring
In these times of coral reef die-offs, it's vitally important to monitor the abundance and variety of corals on the reefs that remain. This is currently performed visually by scuba divers, but there may soon be a quicker, cheaper and easier method – just check the water for coral DNA. All aquatic organisms are constantly dispensing their DNA...
A biosynthetic dual-core cell computer
19.4.2019 | Press monitoring
ETH researchers have integrated two CRISPR-Cas9-based core processors into human cells. This represents a huge step towards creating powerful biocomputers. A team of researchers led by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel, have now found a...
Credit: nikesidoroff - Fotolia.com
A history of the Crusades, as told by crusaders DNA
17.4.2019 | Press monitoring
History can tell us a lot about the Crusades, the series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the Near East. But the DNA of nine 13th century Crusaders buried in a pit in Lebanon shows that there's more to learn about who the Crusaders were and their interactions with the populations they...
Credit: psdesign1 - Fotolia.com
Injecting immune stimulants turns tumors into cancer vaccine factories
15.4.2019 | Press monitoring
Scientists at New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have made an exciting breakthrough in the realm of cancer treatment, describing a new way of supercharging the body's immune system so that it can take the upper hand and destroy tumor cells around the body. The technique falls under an arm of cancer treatment known as...
Credit: VHolcova
Everyday enzymes, now grown in plants
12.4.2019 | Press monitoring
The jeans you wear, the orange juice you drink, the laundry detergent you use: None would be possible without the activity of enzymes. Currently the enzymes used in industry are produced through an expensive, laborious process, requiring cold storage. But an innovative new approach, ushered in by research from Penn's School of Dental Medicine, is...
