Editing a plant's genes is only half the battle. Before a new, improved trait can ever reach a farmer's field, scientists must be able to grow a whole plant from just a few edited cellsβa process that can be slow, unreliable and, for some plant species, impossible.
Editing a plant's genes is only half the battle. Before a new, improved trait can ever reach a farmer's field, scientists must be able to grow a whole plant from just a few edited cellsβa process that can be slow, unreliable and, for some plant species, impossible.
MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to behave like transistors, making it possible to build living βcircuit boardsβ that can be printed onto growth material in a Petri dish. In conventional electronics, transistors act as switches that control whether electrical current flows. In the biological system developed at MIT, engineered bacteria perform a similar role by [...]
Rice University engineers have developed a new strategy for controlling how therapeutic peptides are released from gelatin-based materials, a step that could make the small but powerful molecules more useful in tissue engineering and drug delivery.
Rice University engineers have developed a new strategy for controlling how therapeutic peptides are released from gelatin-based materials, a step that could make the small but powerful molecules more useful in tissue engineering and drug delivery.
A new genomic resource from the Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant genomics team is providing a powerful new foundation for faster, more precise turfgrass genetics and breeding. The team discovered a breakthrough genome that finally reveals the full genetic blueprint of zoysia grass.
The human genome contains more than 20,000 genes. However, at any given time and in a given cell, only a fraction are active. Researchers from EMBL Heidelberg's Krebs Group have developed an innovative experimental approach to understand how cells determine which genes to turn on and when.
All cells in the human bodyβand the motions they enable, from our beating hearts to our wiggling toesβuse energy generated by a molecule called ATP. Its energy is thought to be released to fuel cellular processes in only one way: when ATP's decomposition is initiated by an enzyme, a specific type of protein.
When scientists want to create a protein that can potentially treat disease, one approach is to begin with a different protein and evolve it in the lab, selecting over many generations for versions with a new, desired function.
A rare CO chondrite meteorite was the probable impacter that struck Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out 75% of Earth's species, including nonavian dinosaurs. These findings are published in Science Advances. Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Paris, Brussels and Vienna, used advanced nickel isotope analysis of samples to narrow down the composition of the deadly Cretaceous-Paleogene meteorite.
Scientists have made many advances using traditional CRISPR technology, especially in medicine, but they are now seeking ways to create genuinely new gene-editing enzymes with properties that have not already evolved naturally. A new study, published in Science, describes a new AI-designed synthetic TnpB enzyme, called SynTnpBs, that has outperformed the natural reference enzyme.
Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a serious threat to global food safety. As a toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal, cadmium can accumulate in agricultural soils through industrialization and urbanization before entering the human food chain. Rice is especially vulnerable because it absorbs more cadmium than other major cereal crops, making it one of the largest dietary sources of cadmium exposure for nearly half the world's population.
Researchers have uncovered a molecular pathway that appears to block kidney regeneration after injury. The bodyβs ability to repair damaged organs is surprisingly limited, especially after serious injuries to the heart or kidneys. Now, UCLA researchers have found that a drug originally developed to help heart tissue regenerate after a heart attack may also accelerate [...]
Researchers are replacing rigid silicon-based AI hardware with stretchable, neuromorphic electronics that mimic how the brain processes information, opening new possibilities for long-term human-machine integration. Modern artificial intelligence can outperform humans in tasks ranging from image recognition to medical data analysis, but there is one environment where todayβs hardware still struggles: the human body. The [...]
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have created a new DNA sequencing method called Chem-map, which can detect where and how small molecule drugs interact with the targeted genome. The method enables researchers to conduct in situ mapping of small molecule-genome interactions with unprecedented precision. Chem-map was used in the study to determine the direct [β¦]