Archive for the ‘bioengineering’ category: Page 94
Oct 9, 2019
Cervical cancer ‘cure’ closer with gene-editing breakthrough, scientists say
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics
Queensland researchers say they can cure cervical cancer in mice using gene editing technology and are now working towards human trials.
Oct 7, 2019
‘Next industrial revolution’: How synthetic biology will transform manufacturing and improve sustainability
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: bioengineering, biological, sustainability
Oct 6, 2019
China Grows Cotton Plant on the Far Side of the Moon in Biological First
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: bioengineering, biological, space
China has broken new lunar ground, successfully growing cotton on the moon for the first time. The experiment was part of the Chang’e 4 project, in which China is exploring the far side of the moon with a lander. This is the same lander that recently discovered a mysterious gel-like substance on the moon’s surface.
The cotton plant was one of several organisms encased in a mini biosphere weighing just 2.6 kilograms (5.7 lbs) with a pressure of 1 atmosphere which was aboard the lander. The organisms experienced an environment largely similar to that on Earth, however, they did have to contend with both space radiation and microgravity.
In an interview with engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum, project leader for the experiment Xie Gengxin explained more about the challenges of growing plants in the restricted environment. “The weight of the Chang’e-4 probe demanded that the weight [of the experiment] can’t exceed three kilograms,” he said. That’s why it was important to select the biological samples in the experiment carefully.
Oct 5, 2019
Dr. Kelly Drew — Institute of Arctic Biology — University of Alaska — Human Hibernation Biotech — ideaXme — Ira Pastor
Posted by Ira S. Pastor in categories: aging, bioengineering, biotech/medical, cryonics, genetics, health, life extension, neuroscience, science, space travel
Oct 3, 2019
Is the World Ready for Synthetic People?
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, computing, food, genetics
Drew Endy almost can’t talk fast enough to convey everything he has to say. It’s a wonderfully complex message filled with nuance, a kind of intricate puzzle box being built by a pioneer of synthetic biology who wants to fundamentally rejigger the living world.
Endy heads a research team at Stanford that is, as he puts it, building genetically encoded computers and redesigning genomes. What that means: he’s trying to engineer life forms to do useful things. Just about anything could come out of this toolkit: new foods, new materials, new medicines. So you are unlikely to find anyone who is more optimistic than he is about the potential for synthetic biology to solve big problems.
That’s what makes Endy so compelling when he worries about how the technology is being developed. Perhaps more than anyone else working in synthetic biology, Endy has tried to hold the community to account.
Oct 2, 2019
Scientists recreate in flies the mutations that let monarch butterfly eat toxic milkweed with impunity
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, food, genetics, health
The fruit flies in Noah Whiteman’s lab may be hazardous to your health.
Whiteman and his University of California, Berkeley, colleagues have turned perfectly palatable fruit flies—palatable, at least, to frogs and birds—into potentially poisonous prey that may cause anything that eats them to puke. In large enough quantities, the flies likely would make a human puke, too, much like the emetic effect of ipecac syrup.
That’s because the team genetically engineered the flies, using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, to be able to eat milkweed without dying and to sequester its toxins, just as America’s most beloved butterfly, the monarch, does to deter predators.
Oct 2, 2019
Checkerspot raises $13M Series A to produce biotech-enabled performance materials
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, chemistry
Checkerspot, a biotech startup using microalgae to produce performance materials, announced today that it has closed its Series A financing for $13 million. The round was led by Builders VC, and included Breakout Ventures, Viking Global Investors, KdT Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Sahsen Ventures, and Godfrey Capital, among others.
Checkerspot combines bioengineering, chemistry, and materials science to go from microalgae to next-generation performance materials.
“This is a pretty significant milestone for us,” said Checkerspot CEO Charles Dimmler. He said the funding would support the company’s continued infrastructure development, as well as ongoing commercial activities with Beyond Surface Technologies and DIC that focus on novel triglycerides and polyols. He also said it would help complete the development of a direct-to-consumer product later this year.
Oct 1, 2019
Meet The Synthetic Biology Company Engineering Your Immune System
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical
It’s taken 30 years of biotech, but synthetic biology can now engineer antibodies faster than your body can, enabling cures for anything from snakebites to a universal flu vaccine. Meet the company that aims to revolutionize the entire pharmaceutical industry.