Ever since Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka found a way to treat skin cells with four genes and reprogram them back to their embryonic state, scientists have been buzzing over the promise of stem cell therapies. Stem cells can be coaxed to become any of the body’s cell types, so they could potentially replace diseased or …
Category: Posts
Dec 03 2014
Artificial enzymes created from synthetic genetic material
Scientists have made a breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology by creating, for the first time, enzymes from artificial genetic material that does not exist in nature. This exciting new work not only offers new insights into the origins of life on Earth, but also has implications for our search for extraterrestrial life on …
Nov 05 2014
Ebola: a diagnostic test in 15 minutes developed by French researchers
The test, a same as a pregnancy test format “will be used in the field without special equipment, from a drop of blood, plasma or urine,” says the Commissioner of Atomic Energy. To identify patients infected with the Ebola virus to prevent its spread is one of the challenges in the fight against the epidemic.
Nov 05 2014
Study suggests only 8.2% of human DNA is functional
Over the years, there’s been plenty of back and forth over how much of our DNA is important – for decades much of it was thought of as “junk DNA”, but geneticists have gradually come to believe that some of these seemingly pointless segments of DNA may be crucial to regulating the rest of the …
Oct 15 2014
New Stem Cell Treatment May Cure Type 1 Diabetes
In a paper published in the journal Cell, Douglas Melton announces that he has created a virtually unlimited supply of the cells that are missing in people with type 1 diabetes. By replacing these cells—and then protecting them from attack by the body’s immune system—Melton, now a professor and stem cell researcher at Harvard, says …
Oct 08 2014
Spider preys almost exclusively on mosquitoes
Paracyrba wanlessi, the Malaysian jumping spider, eats swarms of mosquitoes, the disease-transmitting insects responsible for millions of deaths a year due to malaria and other illnesses. “Many other animals, including other spiders, may sometimes eat mosquitoes,” says study co-author Fiona Cross, a biologist at the U.K.’s University of Canterbury ,“but this spider is different, because this is a species that loves mosquitoes …
Sep 04 2014
Successful Marburg Virus Treatment Offers Hope for Ebola Patients
A new treatment has successfully protected monkeys infected with Marburg virus, a disease with a course so similar to Ebola‘s that it’s impossible to clinically differentiate the two. Though the technique has not yet been tested in people, the development has researchers noting that what’s helpful for Marburg could well be helpful for Ebola, which …
Jul 30 2014
Discovery of a new intestinal virus
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown virus that lives in the human gut, according to a study published in Nature Communications. An international team of scientists discovered the virus in CrAssphage genetic material from samples of intestine. Scientists believe the virus can affect the behavior of some of the most common bacteria in the …
Jul 24 2014
Gene editing treat rare liver disease
Using a new system of genetic editing based on bacterial proteins by researchers from MIT cured rare liver disease caused by a single genetic mutation. The findings described in the edition of Nature Biotechnology, provide the first evidence that the technique of editing of a gene known as CRISPR, can reverse disease symptoms. CRISPR, which offers an …
Jul 23 2014
Protein in the body – effective against hepatitis C
Protein in the body can improve its ability to detect and treat viral infections such as influenza and hepatitis C. This conclusion leads a laboratory study by researchers from the University Institute of cancer in Pittsburgh, USA. To start playback in the body, the virus actually “invaded”cells and “takes” control over them. Experts explain that, despite progress in the field of vaccines …