Genetic Engineering
Synthetic biology method dramatically cuts down “manufacturing” time
January 31, 2013 12:13 pm | News | CommentsScientists in the U.K. have reported that they have developed a method that cuts down the time it takes to make new “parts” for microscopic biological factories from two days to only six hours. The technique does away with the need to re-engineer a cell’s DNA every time a new part is needed. The researchers say their research brings them another step closer to a new kind of industrial revolution, where parts for these biological factories could be mass-produced.
Maglev tissues could speed toxicity tests
January 25, 2013 7:55 am | News | CommentsIn a development that could lead to faster and more effective toxicity tests for airborne chemicals, scientists from Rice University and the Rice spinoff company Nano3D Biosciences have used magnetic levitation to grow some of the most realistic lung tissue ever produced in a laboratory.
Study: Digital information can be stored in DNA
January 24, 2013 11:42 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsUsing genetic material as their medium, researchers reported Wednesday that they had stored all 154 Shakespeare sonnets, a photo, a scientific paper, and a 26-second sound clip from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. That all fit in a barely visible bit of DNA in a test tube.
Molecular forces are key to proper cell division
January 21, 2013 5:09 pm | News | CommentsThe purpose of cell division is to evenly distribute the genome between two daughter cells. But this process is highly prone to interaction errors between chromosomes and spindles. Studies led by cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases
A light switch inside the brain
January 18, 2013 11:06 am | News | CommentsScientists in Germany and Switzerland have developed an implant that is able to genetically modify specific nerve cells, control them with light stimuli, and measure their electrical activity all at the same time. This new tool relies on an innovative genetic technique that forces nerve cells to change their activity by shining light of different colors onto them.
A new way to build collagen scaffolds
December 28, 2012 12:51 pm | News | CommentsTufts University School of Engineering researchers have developed a novel method for fabricating collagen structures that maintains the collagen's natural strength and fiber structure, making it useful for a number of biomedical applications.
New calculations solve an old problem with DNA
December 21, 2012 12:37 pm | News | CommentsIt has been known since the 1970s that excessive salt causes DNA to reverse its twist, from a right-handed spiral to a left-handed one. The complexity of the DNA molecule has prevented a theoretical explanation which correctly predicts the amount of salt to do this. In a recent publication, however, researchers achieved new accuracy in the ability to measure energy differences between states of molecules, thus predicting which states will be observed.
New approach destroys disease-associated RNAs in cells
December 20, 2012 8:01 pm | News | CommentsScientists from The Scripps Research Institute have developed a way to alter the function of RNA in living cells by designing molecules that recognize and disable RNA targets. As a proof of principle, the team designed a molecule that disabled the RNA causing myotonic dystrophy. This small molecule is cell-permeable, offering benefits over traditional methods of targeting RNAs for degradation.
Heart cells beat in bioscaffold for babies
December 12, 2012 11:01 am | News | CommentsA painstaking effort to create a biocompatible patch to heal infant hearts is paying off at Rice University and Texas Children’s Hospital. The proof is in a petri dish in Jeffrey Jacot's laboratory, where a small slab of gelatinous material beats with the rhythm of a living heart.
Fast-growing fish may never wind up on your plate
December 5, 2012 10:45 am | by Matthew Perrone, AP Health Writer | News | CommentsAfter weathering concerns about everything from the safety of humans eating the salmon to their impact on the environment, Aquabounty was in a position to become the world's first company to sell fish whose DNA has been altered to speed up growth. But after positive feedback from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2010, the agency still has not approved the fish and the company could soon run out of money.
The precise engineering of 3D brain tissues
November 30, 2012 9:54 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsBorrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create 3D brain tissues in a laboratory dish. The new technique yields tissue constructs that closely mimic the cellular composition of those in the living brain, allowing scientists to study how neurons form connections and to predict how cells from individual patients might respond to different drugs.
Garbage bug may help lower the cost of biofuel
November 30, 2012 8:57 am | News | CommentsOne reason that biofuels are expensive to make is that the organisms used to ferment the biomass cannot make effective use of hemicellulose, the next most abundant cell wall component after cellulose. However, a microbe found in the garbage dump of a canning plant in 1993 may hold the right enzymes for the job. Researchers are now working on isolating the gene cluster responsible for this ability.
Synthetic membrane channels built with DNA nanotechnology
November 21, 2012 9:13 am | News | CommentsIn a shape inspired by a natural channel protein, the DNA-based membrane channel recently built by researchers in Michigan and Germany consists of a needle-like stem 42-nm long with an internal diameter of just 2 nm. The devices has been shown to function with lipid vesicles, and further experimentation shows the pores can act like voltage-controlled gates, just like the ion channels in living cells.
New type of gel allows scientists to control its properties at will
November 6, 2012 11:44 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Switzerland have just published research on how to combine two gels in such a way that they can monitor and change, almost at will, the transparency, electrical properties, and stiffness of the material. Called a “bigel”, the unique material was built by combining DNA fragments with nanoparticles.
Oregon scientists make embryos with 2 women, 1 man
October 26, 2012 9:26 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsScientists in Oregon have created embryos with genes from one man and two women, using a provocative technique that could someday be used to prevent babies from inheriting certain rare incurable diseases. The embryos are not being used to produce children, but it has already stirred a debate over its risks and ethics in Britain, where scientists did similar work a few years ago.
Scientists build “mechanically active” DNA material
October 23, 2012 4:40 pm | News | CommentsA pair of University of California, Santa Barbara researchers have created a dynamic gel made of DNA that mechanically responds to stimuli in much the same way that cells do. This DNA gel, at only 10 μm in width, is roughly the size of a eukaryotic cell, the type of cell of which humans are made. When “fed”, it can generate forces independently, leading to changes in elasticity or shape.
Cell mechanism finding could be used to engineer organs
October 19, 2012 1:49 pm | News | CommentsBiologists have teamed up with mechanical engineers from The University of Texas at Dallas to conduct cell research that provides information that may one day be used to engineer organs. The research sheds light on the mechanics of cell, tissue, and organ formation. The research revealed basic mechanisms about how a group of bacterial cells can form large 3D structures.
Complex logic circuits can be made from bacterial genes
October 12, 2012 5:07 pm | by Diana Lutz, Washington University in St. Louis, Tae Seok Moon, logic circuit, gene circuit | News | CommentsLogic circuits can be built from just about anything, including billiard balls, pipes of water, or animals in a maze. Tae Seok Moon, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, intends to build logic gates out of genes, and has already built the largest such device yet reported. But the purpose of these circuits is not to crunch numbers.
Scientists discover that shape matters in DNA nanoparticle therapy
October 12, 2012 10:03 am | News | CommentsResearchers from Johns Hopkins and Northwestern universities have discovered how to control the shape of nanoparticles that move DNA through the body and have shown that the shapes of these carriers may make a big difference in how well they work in treating cancer and other diseases. The technique is noteworthy because it does not use a virus to carry DNA into cells.
Cells control energy metabolism via hedgehog signalling pathway
October 11, 2012 5:48 pm | News | CommentsCancer, diabetes, and excess body weight have one thing in common: they alter cellular metabolism. An international research team has resolved a new molecular circuit controlling cellular metabolism. The finding highlights a potential cause of side effects from inhibitors used as cancer treatment, and could lead to new diabetes and obesity therapies.
Super-microbes engineered to solve world environmental problems
October 8, 2012 1:29 pm | News | CommentsMicroorganisms isolated from nature use their own metabolism to produce certain chemicals. But they are often inefficient, so metabolic engineering is used to improve microbial performance. Recent work at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology highlights the potential for engineered organism, such as Escherichia coli, to aid in common industrial processes such as polymer production.
Scientists prevent heart failure in mice
October 3, 2012 7:52 am | News | CommentsCardiac stress, such as a heart attack,frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in this detrimental development in mice, and when researchers in Germany recently inhibited one of those two specific molecules, they were able to protect the rodent against pathological heart growth and failure. These new findings may guide therapeutic approaches for humans.
Optimized substance forces cancer cells into death
October 2, 2012 3:47 am | News | CommentsMany tumor cells have a defective cellular equipment. It is only by a special trick that they manage to distribute their chromosomes correctly to their daughter cells during cell division. Researchers have now developed a substance that thwarts this trick and forces cancer cells into death during cell division.
Loop the loop, DNA style
September 28, 2012 10:06 am | News | CommentsIn certain toy racecar tracks, sneaky players can flip a switch, trapping their opponents’ vehicles in a loop of track. Cells employ a less subtle approach: they change the track’s layout. In a recent study, scientists in Europe have discovered that, by forming or undoing gene loops, cells manipulate the path of the transcription machinery—which reads out instructions from DNA—controlling whether it moves along the genetic material in one direction or two.
How bees decide what to be
September 18, 2012 3:40 am | News | CommentsJohns Hopkins Medicine scientists have recently reported what is believed to be the first evidence that complex, reversible behavioral patterns in bees—and presumably other animals—are linked to reversible chemical tags on genes. They say the most significant aspect of the new study is that for the first time DNA methylation “tagging” has been linked to something at the behavioral level of a whole organism.
