What is new in Biotech
Credit: Gunnar Assmy - Fotolia.com
Will your future computer be made using bacteria?
15.7.2019 | Press monitoring
In order to create new and more efficient computers, medical devices, and other advanced technologies, researchers are turning to nanomaterials: materials manipulated on the scale of atoms or molecules that exhibit unique properties. Graphene – a flake of carbon as thin as a single later of atoms – is a revolutionary nanomaterial due to its...
Credit: CLIPAREA.com - Fotolia.com
Injected after accidents, nanoparticles could prevent paralysis
12.7.2019 | Press monitoring
When a spinal cord injury occurs, sometimes it's the body's own immune system that causes the subsequent paralysis. In the not-too-distant future, however, it's possible that an injection of nanoparticles at the injury site may be able to rein in the well-meaning but destructive immune cells. Ordinarily, when they travel to the location of an...
Credit: Tsuboya - Fotolia.com
Transformed tobacco fields could cuts costs for medical proteins
10.7.2019 | Press monitoring
A new Cornell University-led study describes the first successful rearing of engineered tobacco plants in order to produce medical and industrial proteins outdoors in the field, a necessity for economic viability, so they can be grown at large scales. The market for such biologically derived proteins is forecast to reach $300 billion in the near...
Credit: JLycke - Fotolia.com
Meat from a lab? Startups cook up alternative to slaughter
8.7.2019 | Press monitoring
Memphis Meats, based in Emeryville, California, is one of a growing number of startups worldwide that are making cell-based or cultured meat. They want to offer an alternative to traditional meat production that they say is damaging the environment and causing unnecessary harm to animals, but they are far from becoming mainstream and face pushback...
Credit: Gunnar Assmy - Fotolia.com
Pathogen Engineered to Self-Destruct Underlies Cancer Vaccine Platform
5.7.2019 | Press monitoring
A team of investigators has developed a cancer vaccine technology using live, attenuated pathogens as vectors. A feature of the vaccine causes these bacteria to self-destruct once they've done their job, making it safe for use in humans. Unlike "prophylactic" vaccines that protect people from the becoming infected with diseases such as...
Credit: Mopic - Fotolia.com
Researchers Generate Model of Human Embryo from Human Stem Cells
3.7.2019 | Press monitoring
Using human embryonic stem cells (ES cells), researchers have generated models of early human embryos in the lab that are more complex than any previous lab-generated embryo model. They’ve also shown that the application of the protein BMP4 causes these embryo models, called embryoids, to break symmetry, or go from a round ball to a structure...
Credit: agsandrew - Fotolia.com
Researchers grow active mini-brain-networks
1.7.2019 | Press monitoring
Cerebral organoids are artificially grown, 3D tissue cultures that resemble the human brain. Now, researchers from Japan report functional neural networks derived from these organoids. Although the organoids aren't actually "thinking," the researchers' new tool - which detects neural activity using organoids - could provide a method for...
Credit: fotoliaxrender - Fotolia.com
Researchers reach milestone in use of nanoparticles to kill cancer with heat
28.6.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers at Oregon State University have developed an improved technique for using magnetic nanoclusters to kill hard-to-reach tumors. Magnetic nanoparticles – tiny pieces of matter as small as one-billionth of a meter – have shown anti-cancer promise for tumors easily accessible by syringe, allowing the particles to be injected directly into...
Credit: psdesign1 - Fotolia.com
Could an Injection of Dead Cells Help Fight Cancer?
26.6.2019 | Press monitoring
Dead cells in the body don't sound very useful, but they might provide a new way to fight cancer, a new study in animals suggests. The study found that injecting dying cells into tumors in mice drove the animals' immune cells to attack the cancers. The method is a bit like throwing blood into the water to drive sharks into a frenzy. These...
Credit: Dr Graham Beards_WikimediaCommons
The solution to antibiotic resistance could be in your kitchen sponge
24.6.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) have discovered bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, living in their kitchen sponges. As the threat of antibiotic resistance increases, bacteriophages, or phages for short, may prove useful in fighting bacteria that cannot be killed by antibiotics alone. The research is...
