What is new in Biotech
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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...
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Can used coffee grounds help clean up environmental toxins?
20.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Global coffee consumption generates millions of tons of spent coffee grounds each year, which can be damaging to wildlife and the environment. However, new research reveals that spent coffee grounds could be repurposed to act as a powerful adsorbent of bentazone, a herbicide commonly used in agriculture that is highly neurotoxic. Bentazon is a...
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Nanozyme-enabled nanodecoys: A new strategy for fighting urinary tract infections
18.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Urinary tract infections (UTIs), affecting millions worldwide, are predominantly caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). These infections are characterized by bacterial adhesion and colonization in the urinary tract, evading host immune responses. Researchers from Nanjing University have recently reported a new approach to combating UTIs...
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Solar panels in your eyeballs: Self-powered bionics are on the way
15.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Implanting tiny solar panels into people's eyeballs may sound like science fiction, but that's exactly what a team of Australian scientists are working on. The next-gen tech could vastly improve quality of life for people with incurable eye diseases. Neuroprosthetics interact with the nervous system to restore lost functionality. A good example...
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Microbes stomp daffodils in creating valuable anti-Alzheimer\'s drug
13.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Using an AI-based approach, researchers found a better way to create the drug galantamine, commonly prescribed to people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The fermentation-based technique could boost the drug's availability. Team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) has called upon E. coli once again, this time...
Lab-grown liver organoid to speed up turtle research and make useful traits easier to harness
11.3.2024 | Press monitoring
The three-dimensional clusters grown from adult stem cells are called organoids and are designed to assist in research. In a paper published in Communications Biology, Nicole Valenzuela, professor of ecology, evolution, and organismal biology at Iowa State, and her colleagues describe their creation of organoids that mimic a liver from three...
USDA approves stunning bioluminescent firefly petunias for sale
8.3.2024 | Press monitoring
The USDA has approved Light Bio's "Firefly Petunias," and the company is taking US$29 pre-orders on these remarkable gene-edited houseplants. They glow in the dark, making them a captivating home decor addition for science buffs. They're indistinguishable from regular petunias during the day, but thanks to some genes spliced in from naturally...
Marine algae implants could boost crop yields
6.3.2024 | Press monitoring
Scientists have discovered the gene that enables marine algae to make a unique type of chlorophyll. They successfully implanted this gene in a land plant, paving the way for better crop yields on less land. Finding the gene solves a long-standing mystery among scientists about the molecular pathways that allow the algae to manufacture this...
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Astonishing scar-free surgery prints living skin right into wounds
4.3.2024 | Press monitoring
The skin of the head and face is vital to protecting the structures underlying it. It’s also integral to our identity. Full-thickness skin damage caused by traumatic injury to or extensive surgery on the face or head – to remove a cancerous tumor, say – can negatively impact a person’s confidence and self-esteem. Despite advances in plastic and...
