Today’s Popular Posts
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Popular Posts
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Tag Archives: microbiology
Synthetic life, as developed by Craig Venter et al
May 21, 2010: This is one of those days when one story is likely to dominate the science news. It will also be writ large in the world’s news. Craig Venter, the name has to come first, and his research team has claimed creation of the first synthetic life. It should also be a good [...]
Posted in Impact: Synthetic Biology Also tagged artificial life, DNA, DNA transplant, genetics, genome, Splice, synthetic biology, synthetic life, Venter Leave a comment
Protein pathway competition regulates embryo development
One thing I’ve noticed in following scientific developments for a long time is that when something unexpected is discovered it very often adds to the complexity. Here’s a recent case in point, first, I’ll let a piece of the announcement speak for itself, and then I’ll explain the context: Until now, scientists believed these pathways [...]
Posted in Impact: Cell Biology Also tagged cell biology, DNA, enzyme, genes, MAPK, pathways, protein, proteomics Leave a comment
Ribozymes and the origin of life
It could be called the search for the origin of life, but instead of a sweeping theory (primordial soup and lightning), microbiologists are concentrating on the many pieces that, one way or another, came together to constitute ‘life.’ Some new research from a team at the University of Colorado (Boulder, USA) points to the smallest [...]
Posted in News: Origin of Life Also tagged biochemistry, enzyme, origin of life, primordial soup, proteins, ribozyme, RNA Leave a comment
New medical paradigm: Growing human organs in animals
The ability to manipulate genetics cuts in a number of ways. This way may sound a little strange: Take a mouse; implant human liver cells in it; watch them grow into a mouse-sized but human liver. It’s more complicated than that, but it works. There are reasons to do this. A lot of tests for [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Also tagged DNA, genetics, Hepatitis-C, liver cells, NBTC, synthetic biology Leave a comment
Disease linked genes have environmental factors too
Within the human body there are few diseases that aren’t influenced by some kind of environmental factors (stress, obesity, smoking, lack of sleep). Put another way, even diseases that have a genetic link (cancer, heart disease, diabetes) are not fully explained by genetics – environmental factors also play a role. Teasing apart the ‘who does [...]
Posted in News: Cell Biology Also tagged biochemistry, DNA, environmental factors, gene expression, genes, genetics Leave a comment
Four-letter codons: A new synthetic biology playground
All life (that we know of) is built from the 4 nucleotides of DNA (Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine and in RNA Uracil instead of Thymine), which provide the code for creating 22 amino acids, which are then combined into proteins. An important part of the process is the reading of the DNA code by RNA [...]
Posted in Impact: Proteomics Also tagged codons, DNA, genetics, nucleotides, proteomics, RNA, transcription, tRNA Leave a comment
Beyond the genome: Mapping the epigenome
Given all the coverage, most people have heard about the ‘mapping of the human genome.’ It was a big project, taking many years (1990-2003) and costing about three billion dollars. Typically it was heralded as ‘one of the greatest scientific achievements of the century.’ It was that, although among those involved it was clearly a [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged DNA, epigenome, genes, pathways, pluripotent, stem cells Leave a comment
Meet the hot dot-Janus particle
One of the big research tracks for nanotechnology is the ability to control the alignment and shape of nanoparticles. Control is vital for nano-manufacturing (building something with nanoparticles) and also for many medical uses of nanotechnology. “Control” in this sense means the ability to move nanoparticles on command in any dimension with the ultimate control [...]
Posted in News: Nanotechnology Also tagged Janus particles, nanoparticles, nanotechnology Leave a comment
More molecular medical delivery
One of the most important areas of nanotech research and development is the area of nanoscale delivery systems for drugs and genetic material. Advances occur frequently. Here’s another one: Theresa M. Reineke, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Science, and colleagues in her lab at Virginia Tech and at the University of Cincinnati [...]
Posted in News: Nanomedicine Also tagged biochemistry, biomarkers, cell biology, DNA, nano-medicine, nanotechnology Leave a comment
Learning over time better than cramming
We are just beginning to learn how memory works at the molecular and genetic level. Observations about how memory works are now acquiring fundamental explanations. For example: A new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro) of McGill University reveals that different patterns of training and learning lead to different types of [...]
Hand-held cancer detection device
Trekkers will remember Dr. McCoy carrying a hand-held device which could instantly diagnose (and often treat) diseases. We aren’t there yet, but this development is indicative of where we’re going: University of Toronto researchers have used nanomaterials to develop a microchip sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient’s cancer so [...]
Posted in News: Nanomedicine Also tagged biomarkers, cancer, DNA, electrical engineering, interdisciplinary, microchip, nanotechnology 1 Comment
Shaping DNA on demand
Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) and Harvard University have thrown the lid off a new toolbox for building nanoscale structures out of DNA, with complex twisting and curving shapes. In the August 7 issue of the journal Science, they report a series of experiments in which they folded DNA, origami-like, into three dimensional [...]
The microbiome: Our life in common with microorganisms