What is new in Biotech
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Traces of DNA in the stomachs of predatory snails provide new insights into the ecology of placozoans
12.4.2024 | Press monitoring
Due to their diminutive size and inconspicuousness, placozoans are challenging to study in their natural environments. To gain a better insight into the ecology of the animals, the researchers exploited the fact that small shell-less sea slugs from the Rhodopidae family feed on placozoans. Placozoans are among the simplest animals and occur...
Credit: BC CAS-MODBIOLIN
Turning microalgae into light-controlled, soft bio-microrobots
10.4.2024 | Press monitoring
Developing highly controllable, deformable and environmentally adaptable soft microrobots is thus crucial for multiple task execution in narrow microenvironments, but selecting highly biocompatible materials to construct these microrobots remains problematic. In a new paper published in Light: Science & Applications, a team of scientists led by...
Fluorous lipopeptides act as highly effective antibiotics for multidrug-resistant pathogens
8.4.2024 | Press monitoring
Lipoproteins, small protein molecules with fatty acid chains, are widely used by bacteria in their battles against microbial competitors. A number of lipoproteins have already been approved for use as drugs. The team led by Yiyun Cheng at East China Normal University in Shanghai aims to amplify this effect by replacing hydrogen atoms in the lipid...
Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories_Wikipedia
Recurrent UTIs banished for up to nine years by simple oral spray
5.4.2024 | Press monitoring
An oral spray vaccine against recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) prevented the condition from returning for up to nine years in more than half of study participants, new research has shown. It offers a safe, effective method of UTI prevention and an alternative to antibiotic treatment. Recurrent UTIs – defined as three or more UTIs in 12...
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Scientists create plastic-free vegan leather that dyes itself, grown from bacteria
3.4.2024 | Press monitoring
Researchers at Imperial College London have genetically engineered bacteria to grow animal- and plastic-free leather that dyes itself. Lead author Professor Tom Ellis, from Imperial College London's Department of Bioengineering, said, "Inventing a new, faster way to produce sustainable, self-dyed leather alternatives is a major achievement for...
Say hello to biodegradable microplastics: Plant-based polymers that can disappear within seven months
1.4.2024 | Press monitoring
Microplastics can take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to break down and, in the meantime, our planet and bodies are becoming more polluted with these materials every day. Finding viable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics and microplastics has never been more important. New research from scientists at the University of...
Biocompatible nanoparticles modified with ATP can enhance systemic delivery of cancer immunotherapy
29.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Purdue University researchers are developing and validating patent-pending poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), or PLGA, nanoparticles modified with adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to enhance immunotherapy effects against malignant tumors. The nanoparticles slowly release drugs that induce immunogenic cell death, or ICD, in tumors. ICD generates tumor...
Researchers uncover key biomolecule involved in whooping cough infection
27.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Bordetella pertussis is the cause of the respiratory infection pertussis, which is widely known as whooping cough. Today's pertussis vaccines keep people from getting severely sick, but they don't eliminate the bacteria because it excels at colonizing, growing and persisting inside the nose. In a previous study, Yang Su at the University of...
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Gene-edited pig kidney transplanted into first living human patient
25.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Organ transplants can save and extend lives, but unfortunately there’s a constant shortage of human donors. In recent years, scientists have experimented with transplanting organs from pigs, since they’re about the same size as our own. They need a little tweaking first of course – the CRISPR gene editing tool is used to remove certain pig genes...
Newly identified yeast could prevent fungal infections by outcompeting rivals, study suggests
22.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have identified a yeast that could be used to prevent invasive candidiasis, a major cause of death in hospitalized and immunocompromised patients. The study shows that the novel yeast lives harmlessly in the intestines of mice and humans and can displace the yeast responsible for...
