Press monitoring
New DNA shredder technique goes beyond CRISPRs scissors
10.4.2019 | Press monitoring
In the last six years, a tool called CRISPR-Cas9 has transformed genetic research, allowing scientists to snip and edit DNA strands at precise locations like a pair of tiny scissors. But sometimes, it takes more than scissors to do the job.Now, a collaborative international team has unveiled a new CRISPR-based tool that acts more like a shredder,...
Nanomaterials give plants super abilities
8.4.2019 | Press monitoring
Science-fiction writers have long envisioned human-machine hybrids that wield extraordinary powers. However, "super plants" with integrated nanomaterials may be much closer to reality than cyborgs. Today, scientists report the development of plants that can make nanomaterials called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and the application of MOFs as...
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Game-changing gene edit turned this anole lizard into an albino
5.4.2019 | Press monitoring
The mighty genome editor CRISPR isn’t so powerful in lizards and snakes: Never before has it been used to edit the embryos of these reptiles. Now, researchers have come up with a workaround – by editing the immature, unfertilized eggs of brown anole lizards. Researchers typically edit with CRISPR by injecting it into a single-celled fertilized...
Chinas Selling Genetically-Modified Mice for $17,000 a Pair
3.4.2019 | Press monitoring
Sacks of pungent animal feed cram the corridors of a Cyagen Biosciences Inc. center for laboratory mice in southern China, maximizing space for rodents that sell for as much as $17,000 a pair. Demand is skyrocketing in China for animals that mimic the diseases of humans. President Xi Jinping’s drive to turn the country into a biomedical...
Designer organelles bring new functionalities into cells
1.4.2019 | Press monitoring
For the first time, scientists have engineered the complex biological process of translation into a designer organelle in a living mammalian cell. Research by the Lemke group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – in collaboration with JGU Mainz and IMB Mainz – used this technique to create a membraneless organelle that can build...
3D-printed material is designed to treat difficult bone injuries
29.3.2019 | Press monitoring
The long bones in our arms and legs have a layer of smooth, compressible cartilage at each end, which gradually transitions to hard bone underneath. This dual-density combo is known as osteochondral tissue, and when it develops cracks or otherwise gets damaged, conditions such as disabling arthritis can result. Although such injuries frequently...
Record-breaking gene edit disables 13,200 LINE-1 Transposons in a single cell
27.3.2019 | Press monitoring
An international team of researchers has succeeded in making 13,200 edits to a single cell – and the cell survived. In their paper uploaded to the bioRxiv preprint server, the team describes the edits they made, how they did it and why. The CRISPR gene editing technique has made headlines around the world over the past several years as...
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Organoids reveal inflammatory processes in chlamydia infections
25.3.2019 | Press monitoring
For a long time, researchers were only able to examine human cells infected with bacteria by using cancer cell lines. However, these transformed cells often give a false impression of the infection process. Fallopian tube organoids from normal human fallopian tube cells, on the other hand, reflect the natural structure of the tissue. Scientists...
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Baby monkey is first primate created using sperm from tissue transplanted into dad
22.3.2019 | Press monitoring
A one-of-a-kind rhesus macaque named Grady is growing up under intense scrutiny at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton. That’s because she has an unusual pedigree: researchers created her using sperm from tissue harvested from her father’s testicles when he was young, and then grafted onto his body as an adult. If all goes...
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Scientists grow mini-brain on the move that can contract muscle
20.3.2019 | Press monitoring
Scientists have grown a miniature brain in a dish with a spinal cord and muscles attached, an advance that promises to accelerate the study of conditions such as motor neurone disease. The lentil-sized grey blob of human brain cells were seen to spontaneously send out tendril-like connections to link up with the spinal cord and muscle tissue,...
