What is new in Biotech
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Scientists construct energy production unit for a synthetic cell
18.9.2019 | Press monitoring
Scientists at the University of Groningen have constructed synthetic vesicles in which ATP, the main energy carrier in living cells, is produced. The vesicles use the ATP to maintain their volume and their ionic strength homeostasis. This metabolic network will eventually be used in the creation of synthetic cells – but it can already be used to...
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Biobots made from muscle propelled by neurons and light
16.9.2019 | Press monitoring
Tiny, soft robots that can safely navigate biological settings like the human body could mean big things for medical treatment, but moving them through these environments is much easier said than done. Scientists at the University of Illinois have come up with a promising new possibility, describing biohybrid robots that can be propelled purely...
Cable bacteria: Living electrical wires with record conductivity
13.9.2019 | Press monitoring
A team of scientists from the University of Antwerp (Belgium), Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) and the University of Hasselt (Belgium) have reported on bacteria that power themselves using electricity and can send electrical currents over long distances through highly conductive power lines. Centimeter-long bacteria from the seafloor...
Super shrimp could increase yield and prevent disease
11.9.2019 | Press monitoring
Single-sex prawns could help alleviate poverty, reduce disease and protect the environment, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) who have developed a monosex prawn that may make this winning trifecta possible. In a groundbreaking study in Nature's Scientific Reports, the BGU group highlights the development of a...
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Studying heart cells with nanovolcanoes
9.9.2019 | Press monitoring
Researchers at EPFL and the University of Bern have developed a groundbreaking method for studying the electrical signals of cardiac muscle cells. The technology has numerous potential applications in basic and applied research – such as improving the search for mechanisms underlying cardiac arrhythmias. Excitable cells such as neurons and...
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Part cow, part… bacterium? Biotech company makes heifer of gene-editing blunder
6.9.2019 | Press monitoring
A Minnesota-based gene-editing company is left red in the face after it took on bull genetics – and got slammed. The company, Recombinetics, set out years ago to genetically engineer Holstein dairy cattle to come without their troublesome horns, which farmers typically remove to keep themselves and other cows safe. In 2015, the company seemed to...
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Plant research could benefit wastewater treatment, biofuels and antibiotics
4.9.2019 | Press monitoring
Chinese and Rutgers scientists have discovered how aquatic plants cope with water pollution, a major ecological question that could help boost their use in wastewater treatment, biofuels, antibiotics and other applications. The researchers used a new DNA sequencing approach to study the genome of Spirodela polyrhiza, one of 37 species of...
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Woman is first to receive cornea made from reprogrammed stem cells
2.9.2019 | Press monitoring
A Japanese woman in her forties has become the first person in the world to have her cornea repaired using reprogrammed stem cells. At a press conference on 29 August, ophthalmologist Kohji Nishida from Osaka University, Japan, said the woman has a disease in which the stem cells that repair the cornea, a transparent layer that covers and...
Pancreas on a chip: Scientists combine organ-on-a-chip and stem-cell technologies
30.8.2019 | Press monitoring
By combining two powerful technologies, scientists are taking diabetes research to a whole new level. In a study led by Harvard University's Kevin Kit Parker, microfluidics and human, insulin-producing beta cells have been integrated in an "Islet-on-a-Chip". The new device makes it easier for scientists to screen insulin-producing cells before...
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Scientists find new cancer-killing compound in sea snail goo
28.8.2019 | Press monitoring
The natural world is a huge source of important medicines, and among all the species that scientists turn to for inspiration the humble snail continues to provide the goods. New and improved insulins and painkillers are a couple of possibilities these mollusks have put forward, and researchers have uncovered yet another in the form of an...
