Biotechnology news
Researchers engineer bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel
Dec 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The genetically modified cyanobacterium consumes carbon dioxide and produces the liquid fuel isobutanol by using energy from sunlight.
Pork meat grown in the laboratory
Dec 01, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Eindhoven University in The Netherlands have for the first time grown pork meat in the laboratory by extracting cells from a live pig and growing them in a petri dish.
When is a stem cell really a stem cell?
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells -- adult cells reprogrammed to look and function like versatile embryonic stem cells -- are of growing interest in medicine. They may provide a way to ...
Bioengineers succeed in producing plastic without the use of fossil fuels
Nov 23, 2009 |
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A team of pioneering South Korean scientists have succeeded in producing the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel based chemicals. This groundbreaking research, ...
Reference Genome of Maize Published (w/ Podcast)
Nov 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A four-year, multi-institutional effort co-led by three Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists culminated today in publication of a landmark series of papers in the journal Science reveal ...
Scientists discover gene that 'cancer-proofs' rodent's cells
Oct 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumors of any kind—and now biologists ...
A solution to Darwin's 'mystery of the mysteries' emerges from the dark matter of the genome
Oct 26, 2009 |
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Biological species are often defined on the basis of reproductive isolation. Ever since Darwin pointed out his difficulty in explaining why crosses between two species often yield sterile or inviable progeny (for instance, ...
Algae may be secret weapon in climate change war
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.
Smart rat 'Hobbie-J' produced by over-expressing a gene that helps brain cells communicate
Oct 19, 2009 |
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Over-expressing a gene that lets brain cells communicate just a fraction of a second longer makes a smarter rat, report researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University.
Going out on a limb: 'Scaffold' to regenerate lost or damaged bones and tissues
Oct 19, 2009 |
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Mother Nature has provided the lizard with a unique ability to regrow body tissue that is damaged or torn ― if its tail is pulled off, it grows right back. She has not been quite so generous with human ...
Genome of Irish potato famine pathogen decoded
Sep 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A large international research team has decoded the genome of the notorious organism that triggered the Irish potato famine in the mid-19th century and now threatens this season's tomato and ...
Researchers improve zebrafish cloning methods
Aug 30, 2009 |
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A team of Michigan State University researchers has developed a new, more efficient way of cloning zebra fish, a breakthrough that could have implications for human health research.
Why Obama's Dog Has Curly Hair? Study Finds 3 Dog Coat Genes
Aug 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Utah researchers used data from Portuguese water dogs - the breed of President Barack Obama's dog Bo - to help find a gene that gives some dogs curly hair and others long, wavy ...
Watching stem cells repair the human brain
Aug 19, 2009 |
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There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient's own bone marrow, can be found ― ...
Professor sequences his entire genome at low cost, with small team
Aug 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The first few times that scientists mapped out all the DNA in a human being in 2001, each effort cost hundreds of millions of dollars and involved more than 250 people. Even last year, when ...
