By combining nanoscience and biology, researchers led by scientists at University of California, Berkeley, have taken a big step in that direction.
and a variety of biochemical building blocks. The research is a major advance toward synthetic photosynthesis, a type of solar power based on the ability of plants to transform sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars.
Yang said his hybrid inorganic/biological systems give researchers new tools to study photosynthesis --and learn its secrets."
Moore is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State university, where he previously headed the Center for Bioenergy & Photosynthesis. Ultimately,
By combining nanoscience and biology, researchers led by scientists at University of California, Berkeley, have taken a big step in that direction.
and a variety of biochemical building blocks. The research is a major advance toward synthetic photosynthesis a type of solar power based on the ability of plants to transform sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars.
In a roundtable discussion on his recent breakthroughs and the future of synthetic photosynthesis, Yang said his hybrid inorganic/biological systems give researchers new tools to study photosynthesis
Moore is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State university, where he previously headed the Center for Bioenergy & Photosynthesis. Ultimately,
"said Joseph Falkinham, a professor of microbiology in the College of Science and an affiliate of the Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery."
"It's essential that we continue to research basic biology to further understand how cells become cancerous.
#Microbiologists describe new insights into human neurodegenerative disease Microbiology researchers at the University of Georgia studying a soil bacterium have identified a potential mechanism for neurodegenerative diseases.
The UGA research team, led by microbiology professor Lawrence Shimkets, showed for the first time that HSD10 can mitigate oxidative damage."
Mooney--who is also the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering
and Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald Ingber, M d.,Ph d.,who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical school and Boston Children's Hospital and Professor of Bioengineering
which was chosen as the Paper of the Week in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the scientists created novel assays to more accurately measure the brain's energy production.
They found that the genetic mutation associated with Leigh's disease compromised ATP levels, and this reduction of ATP was enough to cause significant cellular dysfunction."
"We really need to understand the basics of cell biology in a normal setting in order to comprehend changes in disease,
#Whole genome-sequencing uncovers new genetic cause for osteoporosis Using extensive genetic data compiled by the UK10K project,
The UK10K project has measured genetic variations in 10,000 individuals in great detail, allowing researchers to correlate rare genetic changes with human disease by comparing the DNA of healthy individuals with those who have health problems.
that sophisticated analysis of the genome would reveal those genes associated with disease. The promise for the contribution genetics can make to human health lies in the discovery of novel compounds that can counter the effect of deleterious genetic variants influencing these genes s
#Research breakthrough in fight against muscle wasting diseases It is estimated that half of all cancer patients suffer from a muscle wasting syndrome called cachexia.
which were published in September's print edition of the FASEB Journal (Federation of American Societies for Experimental biology),
Hervé and Professor Keevil (Centre for Biological sciences, Faculty of Natural and Environmental sciences. The team that conducted the study now forms the basis of the University's Network for Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Prevention (NAMRIP) Strategic Research Group,
a leading journal in the field of developmental biology, open up new avenues for design of drugs for ataxia, a motor coordination disorder.
from the Department of Biological sciences and Mechanobiology Institute at NUS, collaborated with researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of medicine at NUS
by Professor Margit Burmeister of U-M. The research team looked at the biological roles of BNIP
-H in cell lines, primary neuron cultures and zebrafish using molecular genetics, protein biochemistry and high speed imaging.
suggesting that the loss of acetylcholine secretion resulting from BNIP-H mutation could explain some of the symptoms of Cayman ataxia.
which protects the body from harmful mutations and infections. However, scientists had understood not fully RIPK3's role in the immune system.
Patricia A. Martin-Deleon, a reproductive biologist at the University of Delaware, has witnessed this behavior many times in her studies of fertility in mice, the closest genetic model to humans (and with a much faster reproductive cycle.
who Is distinguished the Trustees Professor of Biological sciences at UD. The research, supported by the National institutes of health-National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Delaware INBRE program, is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
It is one of the top most viewed articles published online this summer under the Membrane Biology affinity group, according to the editorial offices of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular biology.
Understanding what happens in the fertilization process takes a little walk down biological memory lane
a reminder of nature's course that led to most of us. Once the egg is released from an ovary
since individuals carrying mutations of one of a variety of genes account for the largest group of infertile couples."
and Chromosomes,"examining the impact of marijuana on embryonic cells--in The Lancet in 1969, as a master's student at the University of the West indies in her native Jamaica.
and 3d printing techniques to create a custom silicone guide implanted with biochemical cues to help nerve regeneration.
a journal in the field of developmental biology, open up new avenues for design of drugs for ataxia, a motor coordination disorder.
from the Department of Biological sciences and Mechanobiology Institute at NUS, collaborated with researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of medicine at NUS
by Professor Margit Burmeister of U-M. The research team looked at the biological roles of BNIP
-H in cell lines, primary neuron cultures and zebrafish using molecular genetics, protein biochemistry and high speed imaging.
suggesting that the loss of acetylcholine secretion resulting from BNIP-H mutation could explain some of the symptoms of Cayman ataxia.
#Scientists reveal how stem cells defend against viruses Scientists from the Institute of Molecular and Cell biology (IMCB), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR),
and VIRAL DNA residing in the host genome. This characteristic property, known as proviral silencing, however, has not been understood fully.
and virus biology that could translate into valuable therapeutic and diagnostic applications Dr Jonathan Loh,
"Fundamental research on human biology seeks to understand crucial biological processes occurring within humans in order to bring advancement in therapeutics
or kill cancer cells MIT biological engineers have developed a modular system of proteins that can detect a particular DNA sequence in a cell
"says James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT's Department of Biological engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering and Science (IMES)."
whether genetic material has been delivered successfully to cells that scientists are trying to genetically alter. Cells that did not receive the new gene could be induced to undergo cell death
or to study the 3-D structure of normal chromosomes by testing whether two genes located far from each other on a chromosome fold in such a way that they end up next to each other,
the researchers say y
#Silicone vaginal rings deliver antiviral drugs, protect women against HIV Researchers at University Jean Monnet of Saint-Etienne,
or tissue which are telltale signs of DNA mutation or the presence of cellular malfunctions such as cancer.
the professor of chemical engineering and of bioengineering at Stanford who led the study.""We make it smart by adding molecular tags that act like addresses to send the therapeutic payload where we want it to go."
Next steps Biotechnologists know how to build the complex protein structures they find in nature, but the Stanford team took this further.
and different aspects are licensed to a biotechnology company in which Swartz has a founding interest. The approach is in its early stages
Macdonald, a Canada Research Chair in Islet Biology, associate professor in the University of Alberta's Faculty of medicine & Dentistry and member of the Alberta Diabetes Institute, is the senior author of a landmark study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
"For this research, Gonzalez-Esquer worked with Cheryl Kerfeld, the Hannah Distinguished Professor of Structural Bioengineering in the Michigan State university-DOE Plant Research Lab,
BMCS have enormous potential for bioengineering, said Kerfeld, who also is an affiliate of the Berkeley National Laboratory's Physical Biosciences Division."
"We've showed that we can greatly simplify the construction of these factories, "she said."
disassemble on command Scientists have deciphered the genetic code that instructs proteins to either self-assemble or disassemble in response to environmental stimuli, such as changes in temperature, salinity or acidity.
and is the first time that scientists have reported the ability to create biological structures that are programmed readily to assemble
biotechnology and medical treatments.""The very simple design rules that we have discovered provide a powerful engineering tool for many biomedical
and biotechnology applications,"said Ashutosh Chilkoti, chair of the Department of Biomedical engineering at Duke.""We can now,
with a flick of a switch and a temperature jump, make a huge range of biological molecules that either assemble or disassemble."
"The study investigated several triggers that can cause protein structures to assemble or break apart, but it primarily focused on heat.
Because the laboratory identified the genetic sequences that encode this behavior, they were able to point out a long list of human proteins that likely exhibit it."
and the biochemistry communities,"said Quiroz.""They'll be able to push the limits of what we know about these kinds of materials
and then go back to explore how biology is already making use of them
#Two-drug combination shows promise against one type of pancreatic cancer One form of pancreatic cancer has a new enemy:
an associate professor in the UF College of Medicine's department of anatomy and cell biology. Finding new treatments is critical
a team of researchers led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck from NUS'Department of Biomedical engineering achieves a significant technological breakthrough by adopting a liquid-based pressure sensing method in the design of such sensors.
Researchers at Unit 1121"Biomaterials and Bioengineering"(Inserm/Strasbourg university) have succeeded in creating a biofilm with antimicrobial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties.
A biofilm invisible to the naked eye It is within this context that researchers at the"Bioengineering
and Biomaterials"Unit 1121 (Inserm/Strasbourg University) with four laboratories1 have developed a biofilm with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.
#Physiologists uncover a new code at the heart of biology UT Southwestern physiologists trying to understand the genetic code have found a previously unknown code that helps explain which protein should be created to form a particular type of cell.
"Our results uncovered a new'code'within the genetic code. We feel this is quite important, as the finding uncovers an important regulatory process that impacts all biology,
"said Dr. Yi Liu, Professor of Physiology. It was known long that almost every amino acid can be encoded by multiple synonymous codons and that every organism,
"The genetic code of nucleic acids is central to life, as it specifies the amino acid sequences of proteins,
Therefore, the genetic code not only specifies the sequence of amino acids but also the shape of the protein."
This can have important implications for identifying human disease-causing mutations because this study indicates that a mutation does not have to change amino acid identity to cause a disease.
In fact, most mutations in human DNA do not result in amino acid change.""Therefore, our study indicates that the new"code"--the speed limit of assembly--within the genetic code can dictate the ultimate function of a given protein,
"said Dr. Liu u
#Metastatic breast cancer cells turn on stem cell genes It only takes seconds: one cancerous cell breaks off from a tumor, slips into the bloodstream and quickly lodges elsewhere in the body.
These colonizers may bloom into deadly metastatic cancer right away or lie dormant for years, only to trigger a recurrence decades after the primary tumor is removed.
and is now an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at UC Irvine.""It's a big black box in the cancer field--mostly
In the new paper, the researchers used a technique called patient derived xenograft (PDX), which involves transplanting human tumor cells into mice.
"We were able to look at gene expression at a whole new level of resolution, "Lawson said."
"Metastases show stem cell qualities The team compared patterns of gene expression in human cancer cells lodged in different organs of the PDX mice and found stark differences between early-stage and more advanced metastatic colonies.
In other words, the genetic program that makes a cell metastatic did not depend on the genetics of its tumor of origin--suggesting that new techniques might allow researchers to find
Insights could lead to targeted therapies The research team performed a proof of principle experiment to demonstrate how valuable information about metastatic gene expression could be for drug development.
said Andrei Goga, MD, Phd, professor of cell and tissue biology, and of medicine at UCSF and a co-corresponding author on the new study."
because if you know the genetics of these early metastatic cells you can go after them specifically,
--which a consortium of researchers at UCSF are applying to diverse biological and clinical questions--could have a major impact on the emerging field of precision medicine."
By tweaking the genomes of these viruses, known as bacteriophages, researchers hope to customize them to target any type of pathogenic bacteria.
MIT biological engineers have devised a new mix-and-match system to genetically engineer viruses that target specific bacteria.
says Timothy Lu, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering.""These bacteriophages are designed in a way that's relatively modular.
Also, each family of bacteriophages can have a different genome organization and life cycle, making it difficult to engineer them
the researchers combed through databases of phage genomes looking for sequences that appear to code for the key tail fiber section, known as gp17.
they had to create a new system for performing the genetic engineering. Existing techniques for editing viral genomes are fairly laborious,
so the researchers came up with an efficient approach in which they insert the phage genome into a yeast cell,
where it exists as an"artificial chromosome"separate from the yeast cell's own genome.
During this process the researchers can easily swap genes in and out of the phage genome."
"Once we had that method, it allowed us very easily to identify the genes that code for the tails
Other co-authors are UW computer science and neurobiology undergraduate student Darby Losey, UW bioengineering doctoral student Jeneva Cronin, UW bioengineering doctoral student Joseph Wu,
#Scientists discover new system for human genome editing A team including the scientist who first harnessed the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 system for mammalian genome editing has identified now a different CRISPR system with the potential for even simpler and more precise
genome engineering. In a study published in Cell, Feng Zhang and his colleagues at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT,
describe the unexpected biological features of this new system and demonstrate that it can be engineered to edit the genomes of human cells."
"This has dramatic potential to advance genetic engineering, "said Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute and one of the principal leaders of the human genome project."
"The paper not only reveals the function of a previously uncharacterized CRISPR system, but also shows that Cpf1 can be harnessed for human genome editing
and has remarkable and powerful features. The Cpf1 system represents a new generation of genome editing technology."
"CRISPR sequences were described first in 1987 and their natural biological function was described initially in 2010 and 2011.
The application of the CRISPR-Cas9 system for mammalian genome editing was reported first in 2013, by Zhang and separately by George Church at Harvard.
In the new study, Zhang and his collaborators searched through hundreds of CRISPR systems in different types of bacteria,
searching for enzymes with useful properties that could be engineered for use in human cells. Two promising candidates were the Cpf1 enzymes from bacterial species Acidaminococcus and Lachnospiraceae,
leaving'blunt ends'that often undergo mutations as they are rejoined. With the Cpf1 complex the cuts in the two strands are offset, leaving short overhangs on the exposed ends.
This could be an advantage in targeting some genomes, such as in the malaria parasite as well as in humans."
The Zhang lab also offers free online tools and resources for researchers through its website, http://www. genome-engineering. org.
with other enzymes that may be repurposed for further genome editing advances
#Cabozantinib improves survival in patients with advanced kidney cancer: Results from the METEOR trial Patients with advanced kidney cancer live for nearly twice as long without their disease progressing
Pioneered by Associate professor Leo Hwa Liang from the Department of Biomedical engineering at NUS'Faculty of engineering and Dr Jimmy Hon from the Department of Surgery at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of medicine, this novel invention addresses a clinical gap in the current treatment of mitral valve regurgitation.
a current Biomedical engineering Masters student who is working on the design of the device under the supervision of Assoc Prof Leo,
led by Dr Esther Julián, of the Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has discovered that one of these,
and with the group Bacterial Infections and Antimicrobial Therapies led by Dr Eduard Torrents, of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) I
Now, researchers at DTU Systems Biology have combined genetics with computer science and created a new diagnostic technology based on advanced self learning computer algorithms
are based on analyses of DNA mutations in cancer tissue samples from patients with metastasized cancer,
The pattern of mutations is analysed in a computer program which has been trained to find possible primary tumour localizations.
researchers have discovered several ways of using genome sequencing of tumours to predict whether an individual cancer patient will benefit from a specific type of medicine.
Associate professor Aron Eklund from DTU Systems Biology explains:""We are pleased very that we can now use the same sequencing data together with our new algorithms to provide a much faster diagnosis for cancer cases that are difficult to diagnose,
The method combines genetics and computer science, and can analyse a biopsy from a metastasis, and on this basis provide a number of possible scenarios for where the cancer may have developed
or replaced by modern techniques that give the physician an indication of the elasticity of a biological tissue.
'Complex array of mutations found in rare, aggressive leukemia Sezary syndrome (SS), an aggressive leukemia of mature T cells, is complicated more at a molecular level than ever suspected, according to investigators from the Perelman School of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
complementary gene sequencing approaches to look for mutations in tumor cells from SS patients: whole-genome sequencing in six subjects,
sequencing of all protein-coding regions (exomes) in 66 subjects, and comparing variation in the number of copies of all genes across the genome in 80 subjects."
"We did not expect the degree of genetic complexity that we found in our study,"Elenitoba-Johnson added.
They identified previously unknown recurrent loss-of-function mutations that target genes regulating epigenetic pathways--ones that act on how tightly
or loosely chromosomes are wound and thus accessible for genes to be expressed. One of these targets is called ARID1A,
and they found that loss-of-function mutations and/or deletions in ARID1A occurred in over 40 percent of the SS genome studied.
They also identified"gain-of-function"mutations in PLCG1, and JAK1, JAK3, STAT3 and STAT5B.
In preliminary drug-mutation matching studies they found that JAK1-mutated SS cells were sensitive to JAK inhibitors,
drugs that are approved currently for treatment of other hematologic cancers such as polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis."
"With knowledge like this, we can design clinical trials using JAK inhibitors for SS patients based on their JAK mutations,
"The Penn team, in collaboration with Alain Rook, MD, director of the Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma Program and a professor of Dermatology, aims to develop a molecular taxonomy for mutations in SS patients.
From this, they will also be able to identify distinct subsets of the disease to stratify patients for precision therapy based on their unique mutations and the inhibitors available for those mutations s
#Bacterium capable of aquifer decontamination characterized, cultivated for first time in Europe UAB researchers have identified in the Besòs river estuary (Barcelona, Spain) a bacterium of the genus Dehalogenimonas,
This bacterial genus was described first not long ago--in 2009--and only two strains had previously been isolated, in chloroalkane-contaminated aquifers in Louisiana
though sequences of its genome have been identified in various locations, such as the Arctic ocean, the Baltic sea, Canada, China, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Taiwan and the USA.
and subsequent application in contaminated aquifers, using the strategy of bioaugmentation, which involves adding bacteria with specific catabolic capacities
and that bioaugmentation is a low-cost, efficient technique, compatible with other remediation techniques, these bacteria could even be applied eventually at source,
& Technology, was conducted at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Department of Chemical engineering and Department of Genetics and Microbiology) in collaboration with the University of Barcelona (Research Group in Applied Mineralogy and Fluid Geochemistry) and the Helmholtz Centre
Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. While current HIV treatments involve pills that are taken daily, the new regimens'long-lasting effects suggest that HIV treatment could be administered perhaps once or twice per year.
borrowing tools from the developing field of optogenetics, which so far has been used mainly in brain science.
'Optogenetics uses genetic modification to alter cells so that they can be activated by light. Until now, it has mainly been used to activate individual cells
'A protein called channelrhodopsin was delivered to heart cells using gene therapy techniques so that they could be controlled by light.
However, as gene therapy moves into the clinic and with miniaturization of optical devices, use of this all-optical technology may become possible.
Rice bioengineer David Zhang and his colleagues have developed a unique way to adjust their nucleic acid probe reagents on the fly
especially mutations, has become critically important for the detection of diseases and design of therapies to treat them.
But finding a specific biomarker in a massive amount of genetic code is hard. Zhang and his team at Rice's Bioscience Research Collaborative have become specialists in finding such needles in haystacks.
In previous work, the lab designed probes that find single-nucleotide mutations in DNA while using"competing"probes to bind to healthy sequences
and effectively get them out of the way. This time the lab is developing synthetic DNA"protectors"that mimic the target sequence
"In one of many successful tests, the lab designed molecules to detect mutation sequences in historic biopsy samples preserved in wax from cancer patients.
faster and cheaper answers for researchers and clinicians who are looking at hundreds or thousands of different mutations,
Dassarma, Phd, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the school,"GVNPS offer a designer platform for vaccines
#Genome-edited plants, without DNA The public and scientists are at odds over the safety of genetically modified (GM) food.
Scientists at the IBS Center for Genome Engineering in South korea have created a way to genetically modify plants using CRISPR-Cas9 without the addition of DNA.
the resulting genome-edited plants could likely be exempt from current GMO regulations and given a warmer reception by the public.
so groundbreaking is that these genetic modifications look just like genetic variations resulting from the selective breeding that farmers have been doing for millennia.
IBS Director of the Center for Genome Engineering Jin-Soo Kim explains that"the targeted sites contained germline-transmissible small insertions
or deletions that are indistinguishable from naturally occurring genetic variation.""CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat,
CRISPR is used now widely for genome editing. What's crucial in genetic engineering is for the gene editing tool to be accurate and precise,
which is where CRISPR-Cas9 excels. CRISPR-Cas9 uses a single GUIDE RNA (sgrna) to identify
and no longer uses DNA, being unshackled from GMO regulations. To do this, purified Cas9 protein was mixed with sgrnas targeting specific genes from three plant species to form preassembled ribonucleoproteins (RNPS.
lettuce and rice to achieve targeted mutagenesis in protoplasts. To test the efficacy of this process,
and foundcas9 RNP-induced mutations 24 hours after transfection. These newly cloned lettuce cells showed no mosaicism
Finally, the team demonstrated that RGEN-induced mutations were maintained after regeneration. Using a Cas9 RNP
They grew full plants from the seeds of these genome edited and regenerated plants, which had the mutation from the previous generation.
They were able to definitively show that Cas9 RNPS can be used to genetically modify plants,
which Jin-Soo Kim points out,"paves the way for the widespread use of RNA-guided genome editing in plant biotechnology and agriculture."
"The IBS team's technique of genome editing without inserting DNA could be revolutionary for the future of the seed industry.
Currently European union GMO regulations don't allow for food with added DNA. Since the Cas9 RNP technique does not use DNA,
faster and more accurate to apply to plants than previous breeding techniques (like radiation-induced mutations).
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