Press monitoring
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Science races against tick-borne virus
7.1.2019 | Press monitoring
Two groundbreaking discoveries by USC researchers could lead to medications and a vaccine to treat or prevent a hemorrhagic fever transmitted by a new tick species before it spreads across the United States. In the Jan. 7 Nature Microbiology, researchers describe the molecular mechanisms used by the virus to infect and sicken humans, a puzzle...
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DNA design that anyone can do
4.1.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers at MIT and Arizona State University have designed a computer program that allows users to translate any free-form drawing into a two-dimensional, nanoscale structure made of DNA. Until now, designing such structures has required technical expertise that puts the process out of reach of most people. Using the new program, anyone can...
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This Womans Lung Transplant Gave Her A Peanut Allerg
2.1.2019 | Press monitoring
In terms of the effort-to-smugness ratio, becoming an organ donor is probably just about the best thing you can do with your time. But sometimes, in very rare cases, organ donation can have some unintended consequences. And for one patient in 2018, a life-saving lung transplant came with an unexpected price: a brand-new nut allergy. “Two weeks...
A French Teenager Turned the Bible and Quran into DNA and Injected Them into His Body
31.12.2018 | Press monitoring
A kid in France transcribed parts of the Hebrew book of Genesis and the Arabic-language Quran, into DNA and injected them into his body — one text into each thigh. Adrien Locatelli, a 16-year-old high school student, posted a paper Dec. 3 on the preprint server OS, in which he claimed, "It is the first time that someone injects himself...
Modified ivy uses synthetic rabbit gene to clean the air
28.12.2018 | Press monitoring
While it's true that houseplants do help clean the air within a home, it is estimated that over 20 plants per room would be required to make an appreciable difference. That likely wouldn't be the case with a new genetically-modified ivy, however, which has proven to be highly effective at removing toxic chloroform and benzene from the air. A...
Growing bio-inspired shapes with hundreds of tiny robots
21.12.2018 | Press monitoring
Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. To achieve this, researchers from EMBL, CRG and Bristol Robotics Laboratory introduced the biological principles of self-organisation to swarm robotics. The results have been published...
Scientists create bee vaccine to fight off insect apocalypse
19.12.2018 | Press monitoring
Scientists in Finland have developed what they believe is the world's first vaccine to protect bees against disease, raising hopes for tackling the drastic decline in insect numbers which could cause a global food crisis. Bees are vital for growing the world's food as they help fertilise three out of four crops around the globe, by transferring...
Tumor organoids may speed cancer treatment
17.12.2018 | Press monitoring
Collecting cancer cells from patients and growing them into 3-D mini tumors could make it possible to quickly screen large numbers of potential drugs for ultra-rare cancers. Preliminary success with a new high-speed, high-volume approach is already guiding treatment decisions for some patients with recurring hard-to-treat cancers. “Believe it or...
New CRISPR technique could prevent obesity without cutting or editing a genome
14.12.2018 | Press monitoring
An exciting new study from researchers at UC San Francisco has demonstrated how a new kind of CRISPR technique can increase the expression of certain genes, instead of the more traditional technique of actively cutting or editing DNA. The method was tested in mice by targeting two genes associated with hunger, with the animals reducing their food...
Researchers reverse engineer way pine trees produce green chemicals worth billions
12.12.2018 | Press monitoring
Washington State University researchers have reverse engineered the way a pine tree produces a resin, which could serve as an environmentally friendly alternative to a range of fossil-fuel based products worth billions of dollars. Mark Lange and colleagues in the Institute for Biological Chemistry literally dissected the machinery by which...
