Biotechnology news

Study reveals lack of diversity in embryonic stem cell lines

Biology / Biotechnology

created 2 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The most widely used human embryonic stem cell lines lack genetic diversity, a finding that raises social justice questions that must be addressed to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from stem cell advances, according ...


Toward reading your own personal 'Book of Life'

Biology / Biotechnology

created 6 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

What secrets about your risk for diseases are written in your own personal "Book of Life" -- the 30,000 or so genes that make you you?


Cloning plants from seeds

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Wageningen geneticists (The Netherlands) are developing a method to replicate the parents of a chosen plant. Known as 'reverse breeding', this will have a big impact for the breeding industry.


Late-surviving megafauna exposed by ancient DNA in frozen soil

Late-surviving megafauna exposed by ancient DNA in frozen soil

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Extinct woolly mammoths and ancient American horses may have been grazing the North American steppe for several thousand years longer than previously thought. After plucking ancient DNA from frozen soil in ...


Watermelon: Fruit on the Fast Track

Watermelon: Fruit on the Fast Track

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are studying how watermelons grow from tiny flowers to plus-size, market-ready produce in only five weeks. Their findings have resulted in the ...


Chinese experts say there are only about 1,600 wild pandas in China

Panda genome resembles dog: Chinese media

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 13, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (8) | comments 1

A detailed genome map of the giant panda completed by Chinese scientists has shown that the notoriously shy animal is genetically similar to the dog, state media reported Sunday.


Researchers engineer bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel

Researchers engineer bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (42) | comments 25

(PhysOrg.com) -- The genetically modified cyanobacterium consumes carbon dioxide and produces the liquid fuel isobutanol by using energy from sunlight.


New ethical questions are being raised in stem cell research

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A groundbreaking discovery two years ago that turned ordinary skin cells back into an embryonic or "pluripotent" state was hailed as the solution to the controversial ethical question that has plagued stem-cell science for ...


The battle of the sexes

Ovaries must suppress their inner male

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 0

For an ovary to remain an ovary, the female organ has to continuously suppress its inner capacity to become male. That's the conclusion of a study in the December 11th issue of the journal Cell revealing that t ...


Researchers show 'trigger' to stem cell differentiation

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A gene which is essential for stem cells' capabilities to become any cell type has been identified by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of California, San Francisco.


Japanese researchers say they have found a way to make plant leaves absorb more carbon dioxide

Extra pores on plants could ease global warming: Japan study

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (10) | comments 4

Japanese researchers said Thursday they had found a way to make plant leaves absorb more carbon dioxide in an innovation that may one day help ease global warming and boost food production.


Precision breeding creates super potato

Precision breeding creates super potato

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The skin is light brown, the meat luscious and yellow: from the outside alone, this new potato looks like any other. But on the inside, it is different. Its cells produce pure amylopectin, a starch used in ...


Study finds new relationship between gene duplication and alternative splicing in plants

Study finds new relationship between gene duplication and alternative splicing in plants

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

University of Georgia scientists looking to understand the genetic mechanisms of plant defense and growth have found for the first time in plants an inverse relationship between gene duplication and alternative ...


Appetite, consumption controlled by clockwork genes at cross-purposes in flies

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 06, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

One of the pioneers in research on sleep:wake circadian genes, Amita Sehgal, Ph.D., has discovered that fruit flies' appetite and consumption are controlled by two rival sets of clocks, one in neurons and the other in the ...


UCSB, UCL scientists rescue visual function in rats using induced pluripotent stem cells

Scientists rescue visual function in rats using induced pluripotent stem cells

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

An international team of scientists has rescued visual function in laboratory rats with eye disease by using cells similar to stem cells. The research shows the potential for stem cell-based therapies to treat ...