What is new in Biotech
How bacteria vaccinate themselves with genetic material from dormant viruses
24.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Like people, bacteria get invaded by viruses. In bacteria, the viral invaders are called bacteriophages, derived from the Greek word for bacteria-eaters, or in shortened form, "phages." Scientists have sought to learn how the single-cell organisms survive phage infection in a bid to further understand human immunity and develop ways to combat...
Nanotech-induced cooling found to improve crop yields in arid climates
21.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have developed and combined a new nanoplastic and biodegradable mulch to passively cool greenhouses in hot, arid climates like those in the Middle East. Applying their technology, they lowered temperatures of miniature greenhouses by 25 degrees Celsius and increased crop...
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Add some spice: Curcumin helps treat Mycobacterium abscessus
19.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Mycobacterium abscessus is a fast-growing, pathogenic mycobacteria that can cause lung infections, and people who have respiratory conditions or are immunocompromised face a higher risk. It can also cause skin infections. The microbe is closely related to the one that causes tuberculosis and is naturally resistant to many antibiotics. Infections...
Magnetic microalgae: Tiny swimmers are on a mission to become robots
17.3.2025 | Press monitoring
A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart developed a biohybrid micro swimmer covered with magnetic material, whose swimming ability is largely unaffected by the coating. In nature, the ten-micron small, single-cell microalgae are fantastic swimmers, propelled by their two whip-like flagella...
Directly converting skin cells to brain cells yields 1,000% success
14.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Cooking up a batch of stem cells to treat illness or injury used to involve the ethically hairy practice of harvesting them from embryonic tissue. But in 2006, Japanese scientists identified a way to revert mature cells back into stem cells. From there, these induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be coaxed to become whatever cell type is...
Tardigrade Protein Protects Healthy Cells from Radiation Damage
12.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of Iowa have developed a strategy that could help mitigate radiation-induced damage by harnessing a unique protein found in tardigrades, microscopic organisms renowned for their resilience. Tardigrades, often referred to as water bears,...
Liquid nanofoam innovation designed to protect the brain now tested on internal organs
10.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Researchers at Michigan State niversity have refined an innovation that has the potential to improve safety, reduce severe injury and increase survival rates in situations ranging from car accidents, sports, law enforcement operations and more. In 2020 and 2022, Weiyi Lu, an associate professor in MSU's College of Engineering, developed a liquid...
Gene-edited lettuce: A new approach to fighting micronutrient deficiencies
7.3.2025 | Press monitoring
A research team led by Prof. Alexander Vainstein from the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed a new variety of lettuce with significantly higher levels of essential vitamins and antioxidants. Their findings, published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, demonstrate how...
Introducing Evo 2, a predictive and generative genomic AI for all domains of life
5.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the Arc Institute, Stanford University, and NVIDIA have developed Evo 2, an advanced AI model capable of predicting genetic variations and generating genomic sequences across all domains of life. Testing shows that Evo 2 accurately predicts the functional effects of mutations across prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes. It also...
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Xolography-based method enables 3D printing of living tissues with light
3.3.2025 | Press monitoring
Xolography is a novel light printing technique that has been explored for dental products and in-space manufacturing. At Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), this technique has now been adapted to 3D print living cells. This research can pave the way for 3D-printed kidneys and muscle tissue. The team pioneered the Xolography-based method to...
