Biotechnology News – Latest Headlines

New 3D hair follicle model to accelerate cure for baldness

Hair loss is a common disorder that affects many men and women due to aging or medical conditions. Current FDA-approved drugs can minimize further hair loss but are unable to regrow new hair. The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has recently engineered a new hair follicle model that could help discover new drugs for hair regeneration.

July 19, 2013 Read more

A secret to making macrophages (w/video)

Biologists at the Caltech have worked out the details of a mechanism that leads undifferentiated blood stem cells to become macrophages - immune cells that attack bacteria and other foreign pathogens. The process involves an unexpected cycle in which cell division slows, leading to an increased accumulation of a particular regulatory protein that in turn slows cell division further. The finding provides new insight into how stem cells are guided to generate one cell type as opposed to another.

July 18, 2013 Read more

Another beautiful helix for biology, this time reminiscent of a parking garage

Researchers have refined a new microscopy imaging method to visualize exactly how the endoplasmic reticulum sheets are stacked, revealing that the 3D structure of the sheets resembles a parking garage with helical ramps connecting the different levels.

July 18, 2013 Read more

Innovative technique can tell if drugs have hit their target in the human body

The search for new drugs, including those for cancer, is set to speed up thanks to a new research technique invented by scientists at the Nanyang Technological University.

July 18, 2013 Read more

New methods to visualize bacterial cell-to-cell communication

Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a live-cell fluorescent labeling that makes bacterial cell-to-cell communication pathways visible. The communication between bacterial cells is essential in the regulation of processes within bacterial populations, such as biofilm development.

July 18, 2013 Read more

Scientists successfully generate 'artificial bones' from umbilical cord stem cells

Granada-based researchers patent a new biomaterial based on an activated carbon cloth support that acts as scaffolding for the construction of cells capable of bone regeneration.

July 18, 2013 Read more

Unraveling bacterial behavior

Michael Laub studies the complex interactions that underlie cells' responses to their environment.

July 18, 2013 Read more

New way to target an old foe: malaria

Engineered liver tissue developed at MIT could help scientists test new drugs and vaccines.

July 18, 2013 Read more

Time to investigate the whole human genome

How to cure malignant brain tumour? Why two cells from the same organism, in spite of having identical gene set up, have different shape and functions? How small variations in human genes determine changes in the way we think, feel and behave? Answers to such questions are sought by scientists from the new Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology of the Nencki Institute.

July 18, 2013 Read more

Amyloid formation: Designer proteins light the way forward

Insight into the mechanism of protein aggregation provides a model system that could lead to treatments for several associated diseases.

July 17, 2013 Read more

Researchers step closer to custom-building new blood vessels

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have coaxed stem cells into forming networks of new blood vessels in the laboratory, then successfully transplanted them into mice. The stem cells are made by reprogramming ordinary cells, so the new technique could potentially be used to make blood vessels genetically matched to individual patients and unlikely to be rejected by their immune systems, the investigators say.

July 16, 2013 Read more

New mode of cellular communication discovered in the brain

Glial cells send 'care packages' including protective proteins and genetic information to nerve cells.

July 16, 2013 Read more

Scientists construct visual of intracellular 'zip code' signaling linked to learning, memory

New research provides a rare 'picture' of the activity taking place at the single molecular level: visual evidence of the mechanisms involved when a cell transports mRNA (or messenger RNA) to where a protein is needed to perform a cellular function.

July 15, 2013 Read more

Solving DNA puzzles is overwhelming computer systems, researchers warn

Imagine millions of jigsaw puzzle pieces scattered across a football field, with too few people and too little time available to assemble the picture. Scientists in the new but fast-growing field of computational genomics are facing a similar dilemma.

July 15, 2013 Read more

Key step in molecular 'dance' that duplicates DNA deciphered

Scientists have captured new details of the biochemical interactions necessary for cell division -- molecular images showing how the enzyme that unwinds the DNA double helix gets drawn to and wrapped around its target. The research may suggest ways for stopping cell division when it goes awry.

July 14, 2013 Read more

Researchers develop artificial cells to study molecular crowding and gene expression

Tightly packed macromolecules enhance gene expression in artificial cellular system.

July 14, 2013 Read more

Boldly illuminating biology's 'dark matter'

By employing next generation DNA sequencing of genomes isolated from single cells, great strides are being made in the monumental task of systematically bringing to light and filling in uncharted branches in the bacterial and archaeal tree of life.

July 14, 2013 Read more

New Innovation and Knowledge Centre to drive UK's Synthetic Biology progress

A new GBP10 million Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC), that will boost the UK's ability to translate the emerging field of synthetic biology into application and provide a bridge between academia and industry was announced yesterday.

July 12, 2013 Read more