#A new breakthrough in thermoelectric materials French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered a key concept necessary for thermoelectric (TE) temperature control in 1834.
Recently, a team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering in the School of engineering and Applied science has shown how to do just that.
"The technique could even be modified for imaging biological systems without the need for fluorescent labels.
and Biomolecular engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a novel photolithographic technology enabling control over the functional shapes of micropatterns using oxygen diffusion.
The research was dedicated also to the late Professor Seung-Man Yang of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at KAIST.
"Professors Ray and Paul Dupree have discussed the possibility of working together to solve outstanding questions in plant biochemistry for twenty years.
#Scientists a step closer to developing renewable propane (Nanowerk News) Researchers at The University of Manchester have made a significant breakthrough in the development of synthetic pathways that will enable renewable biosynthesis of the gas propane.
In this latest study, published in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels("A microbial platform for renewable propane synthesis based on a fermentative butanol pathway"),scientists at the Universitys Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB
working with colleagues at Imperial College and University of Turku, have created a synthetic pathway for biosynthesis of the gas propane.
more sustainable forms of energy as well as using biotechnology techniques to produce synthetic chemicals are currently being developed at The University of Manchester.
Natural metabolic pathways for the renewable biosynthesis of propane do not exist but scientists at the University have developed an alternative microbial biosynthetic pathway to produce renewable propane.
The team was able to achieve propane biosynthesis creating a platform for next-generation microbial propane production.
a cancer biologist and an assistant professor of biomedical sciences and pathobiology at the Virginiaaryland College of Veterinary medicine. t was astounding.
said Kelly, the project lead scientist and a biophysicist with extensive expertise in high-resolution imaging.
She is also an assistant professor of biological sciences In virginia Tech College of Science. t exciting to see things no one else has seen before,
Nagoya, Japan-Yutaro Saito, Yasutomo Segawa and Professor Kenichiro Itami at the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (ITBM
"As altering the para position has been a common approach in biology and materials science for creating benzene-containing functional molecules,
"says Kenichiro Itami, the Director of the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules.""Since starting this research in 2009,
biological fl uids, strong electromagnetic fields, and fast-moving objects. The strategy followed to design this kind of devices relies on the thermal dependence of the phosphor luminescence,
biological fluids, strong electromagnetic fields, and fast-moving objects. The temperature determination is usually based on the change of the luminescence intensity or decay times.
#Millions of liters of juice from 1 grapefruit (Nanowerk News) The Austrian Centre of Industrial biotechnology (acib) uses the positive aspects of synthetic biology for the ecofriendly production of a natural compound("Production of the sesquiterpenoid
"The challenge of the biotechnologists Tamara Wriessnegger and Harald Pichler in Graz was to produce Nootkatone in large quantities.
as a biopharmaceutical component or as a natural insect repellent.""We have installed new genetic information in the yeast Pichia pastoris,
so that our cells are able to produce Nootkatone from sugar, "says acib researcher Tamara Wriessnegger.
The genome of the yeast cells has been extended with four foreign genes derived from the cress Arabidopsis thaliana, the Egyptian henbane Hyoscyamus muticus, the Nootka cypress Xanthocyparis nootkatensis and from baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The common biotech variant via Valencene and a chemical synthesis step is less ecofriendly, more difficult and expensive.
"Synthetic biology could be of vital importance to humanity, as Artemisinin shows. Thanks to this substance malaria is curable.
which measures oxygen in cells and other biological material with high precision. The compound is based on rare earths emitting coloured light that vary in colour with the amount of oxygen present in the sample.
which are suited poorly for biological samples, useless in a microscope and quite incapable of showing where the oxygen is located in a cell.
which is highly compatible with biological studies, because it penetrates deeply into tissue, explains Sørensen."
#Bio-inspired eye stabilizes robot's flight without need for an accelerometer Biorobotics researchers at the Institut des Sciences du Mouvement-Etienne-Jules Marey (CNRS/Aix-Marseille
& Biomimetics("Flying over uneven moving terrain based on optic-flow cues without any need for reference frames or accelerometers").
In an animal study being published in the March 10 issue of the Journal of Controlled Release("Corticosteroid-loaded biodegradable nanoparticles for prevention of corneal allograft rejection in rats),
as they are attached to the skin with a biocompatible, medical-grade adhesive. Users can therefore decide where they want to position the sensor patch
a new Biopart Assembly Standard for Idempotent Cloning provides accurate, single-tier DNA assembly for synthetic biology".
"The new system called BASIC is a major advance for the field of synthetic biology, which designs and builds organisms able to make useful products such as medicines, energy, food, materials and chemicals.
BASIC, created by researchers from Imperials Centre for Synthetic biology & Innovation combines the best features of the most popular methods while overcoming their limitations,
which is promoting the adoption of synthetic biology by industry. Two industrial partners Dr Reddys and Isogenica are also already making use of BASIC in their research laboratories.
Professor Paul Freemont, co-Director of the Centre for Synthetic biology & Innovation, says: This system is an exciting development for the field of synthetic biology.
If we are to make significant advances in this area of research, it is vital to be able to assemble DNA rapidly in multiple variations,
which is the future of synthetic biology. If innovations in the field are to be translated into the marketplace,
and will be one of the first protocols to be used in our new, fully automated platform for synthetic biology,
developed by researchers at University college London with funding from the Biotechnology & Biological sciences Research Council (BBSRC),
"Fundamental bioscience research is vital to reveal the biological mechanisms underlying normal physiology across the lifespan.
said lead researcher Prezioso. his memristor-based technology relies on a completely different way inspired by biological brain to carry on computation.
Elshout and his colleagues hope to investigate the payback times related to the impact on biodiversity y
and may even have implications for understanding biological systems. Working at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and the Advanced Photon Source (APS), two DOE Office of Science User Facilities located at Argonne,
and can be engineered for physical and biological applications. However, on their own, these materials are terrible for use in the electronics world.
The research jointly lead by Professor Christoph Hagemeyer, Head of the Vascular Biotechnology Laboratory at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Professor Frank Caruso,
an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at the University of Melbourne, was published today in Advanced Materials("Multifunctional Thrombin-Activatable Polymer Capsules for Specific Targeting to Activated Platelets").
But Ashutosh Chilkoti, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical engineering at Duke university thought his team could do better.
"Through a combination of high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (CRYO EM) and a unique methodology for image analysis, a team of researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley has produced an atomic view of microtubules
and reform into spindles that are used by the dividing cell to move chromosomes. For chromosome migration to occur,
the microtubules attached to them must disassemble, carrying the chromosomes in the process. The dynamic instability that makes it possible for microtubules to transition from a rigid polymerized
or"assembled"nucleotide state to a flexible depolymerized or"disassembled"nucleotide state is driven by guanosine triphosphate (GTP) hydrolysis in the microtubule lattice."
a biophysicist with Berkeley Lab's Life sciences Division who led this research. Nogales, who is also a professor of biophysics
and structural biology at UC Berkeley and investigator with the Howard hughes medical institute, is a leading authority on the structure and dynamics of microtubules.
In this latest study, she and her group used CRYO EM in which protein samples are flash-frozen at liquid nitrogen temperatures to preserve their natural structure,
to determine microtubule structures in different nucleotide states with and without EB3. With CRYO EM and their image analysis methodology, they achieved a resolution of 3. 5 Angstroms, a record for microtubules.
For perspective, the diameter of a hydrogen atom is about 1. 0 Angstroms.""We can now study the atomic details of microtubule polymerization
Beyond their importance to our understanding of basic cell biology, microtubules are a major target for anticancer drugs, such as Taxol,
#Super-small needle technology for the brain Microscale needle-electrode array technology has enhanced brain science and engineering applications, such as electrophysiological studies, drug and chemical delivery systems, and optogenetics.
and other biological tissues because of needle buckling or fracturing on penetration. high-aspect-ratio microneedles penetrating brain tissue A research team in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering
which dissolves upon contact with biological tissue. Silk fibroin is used as the dissolvable film because it has high biocompatibility,
and is known a biomaterial used in implantable devices.""We investigated preparation of a silk base scaffold for a microneedle, quantitatively analyzed needle stiffness,
including recording/stimulation electrodes, glass pipettes, and optogenetic fibers.""He added:""This has the potential to reduce invasiveness drastically
and probe biological molecules to explore their potential use as new drugs. The device has the potential to replace gold nanodevices used in current analytical techniques,
This quickly damages delicate biological samples and potentially melts the equipment. The innovation is expected to expand the ability of researchers to investigate potential new drugs more rapidly and accurately,
including investigating individual biochemical reactions and detecting molecules such as contaminants or explosives at extremely low concentrations.
Common laboratory analytical techniques such as Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy determine the properties of biological molecules,
"Amongst other things, this information can help to predict how the molecules might interact with biochemical processes in living cells,
such as in biochemical analysis,"said Dr Cortes. The discovery opens up the possibility for new equipment that can track individual biochemical reactions in over a period of time,
#Bioengineers identify the key genes and functions for sustaining microbial life (Nanowerk News) A new study led by bioengineers at the University of California,
San diego defines the core set of genes and functions that a bacterial cell needs to sustain life.
2015("Systems biology definition of the core proteome of metabolism and expression is consistent with high-throughput data".
"said Bernhard Palsson, the Galetti Professor of Bioengineering at UC San diego and corresponding author on the paper."
Consider, for example, the genetic engineering of microbes to make value-added chemicals. This engineering process is done typically by making changes to the genetic makeup of a cell,
"said Laurence Yang, a postdoctoral researcher in Palsson's Systems Biology Research Group at UC San diego and a co-first author of the paper.
"Other approaches have tried to define the paleome by comparing genome sequences and finding the gene portfolio that seemed to be similar in all of these sequences.
This just defines the minimal genome. Our definition of the paleome takes a more comprehensive approach.
It is a systems-biology-based definition that takes into account not just the minimum set of genes,
The team's approach to define the paleome is based on a genome-scale computational model for cellular growth in E coli.
and gene expression processes in the cell. Using this model the researchers simulated the growth of a well-studied strain of E coli across 333 different growth conditions.
We are hoping to use this paleome as a starter kit to rapidly build a new generation of genome-scale cellular growth models for other organisms,
and integrated them in the form of a computational model to arrive at our systems biology definition of the paleome
Its a future in which diseases like muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and many others are treated permanently through the science of genome engineering.
"demonstrates a new technology advancing the field of genome engineering. The method significantly improves the ability of scientists to target specific faulty genes
and then edit them, replacing the damaged genetic code with healthy DNA. There is a trend in the scientific community to develop therapeutics in a more rational fashion,
Your disease is caused by a mutation in gene X, and were going to correct this mutation to treat it.
In theory, genome engineering will eventually allow us to permanently cure genetic diseases by editing the specific faulty gene (s). Revolutionizing health care Genome engineering involves the targeted
specific modification of an organisms genetic information. Much like how a computer programmer edits computer code, scientists could one day replace a persons broken
or unhealthy genes with healthy ones through the use of sequence-specific DNA BINDING PROTEINS attached to DNA-editing tools.
Future applications Currently much of the research in the field of genome engineering is focused on treating monogenic diseasesdiseases that involve a single geneas theyre much easier for researchers to successfully target.
He hopes his current work will play a role in helping genome engineering reach its full potential
co-senior author of a paper describing the work and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel hill.
The technology consists of an elastic film that is studded with biocompatible microcapsules. These microcapsules, in turn, are packed with nanoparticles that can be filled with drugs.
at least with respect to a chosen trait, could significantly aid basic biological research and development of high-throughput assays, says John Slater, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware.
Now, Slater and a team of researchers from Duke university, Baylor College of Medicine and Rice university have developed an image-based,
biomimetic patterning strategy that produces a more homogeneous cell population for high-throughput cellular assays.
Biomimetic Patterning")."An important feature of the technique is that it could provide a means to decouple the influences of several factors on mechanotransduction-mediated processes,
which cells convert mechanical stimuli into biochemical activity. These factors include cytoskeletal structure, adhesion dynamics and intracellular tension,
"Our research shows how the structure of our genetic material-DNA-can be changed and used in a way we didn't realise."
#Water heals a bioplastic (w/video) A drop of water self-heals a multiphase polymer derived from the genetic code of squid ring teeth,
the researchers used biotechnology to create the proteins in bacteria. The polymer can then either be molded using heat
#3d bone marrow made from silk biomaterials successfully generates platelets (Nanowerk News) Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging
and Bioengineering at Tufts University and their collaborators have developed successfully a 3-dimensional (3d) tissue-engineered model of bone marrow that can produce functional human platelets outside the body (ex vivo).
The team knew from their previous work with silk protein scaffolds that silk is a very biocompatible material that is amenable to many manipulations to customize it for a specific use,
that was wrapped around a three-dimensional object about the size of a few biological cells and arbitrarily shaped with multiple bumps and dents.
and 3d printing techniques to create a custom silicone guide implanted with biochemical cues to help nerve regeneration.
#Proteins assemble and disassemble on command Scientists have deciphered the genetic code that instructs proteins to either self-assemble
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 study appears September 21 in Nature Materials("Sequence Heuristics To Encode Phase Behaviour In Intrinsically Disordered Protein Polymers"."
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
#A thermal invisibility cloak actively redirects heat Light, sound, and now, heat--just as optical invisibility cloaks can bend
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 Department of Biological engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).
a professor of biotechnology and bioengineering at The swiss Federal Institute of technology in Zurich, described this experiment as an legant proof of conceptthat could lead to greatly improved treatments for viral infection. entinel designer cells engineered with the DNA sense
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
#New frontiers in 3d printing Three dimensional printing is revolutionizing the production of new devices and structures, including soft robots,
. who is the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical school and Boston Children's Hospital as well as Professor of Bioengineering AT SEAS."
and biocompatible metal electrodes"),pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS.
The researchers used mouse embryonic fibroblast cells to determine biocompatibility; that, along with the fact that the stretchability of gold nanomesh on a slippery substrate resembles the bioenvironment of tissue
Biologists can zoom in on the organelles that make up a cell. Eventually he said, the researchers might be able to cut down on the exposure times even more
These sensors can detect biomolecule adsorption even at a few trillionth of a gram per millimeter square.
Owing to the above-mentioned merits, SPR biosensing is an outstanding platform to boost technological progress in the areas of medicine and biotechnology.
"SPR biosensing is a valuable tool to investigate a wide range of biochemical reactions, estimate their chemical kinetics and other characteristics.
Higher binding capacity for biomolecules increases the signal levels and accuracy of analysis. The last several years
and interaction with a wide range of biomolecules. Stebunov and the team from the Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics at MIPT created
Thereafter a layer of streptavidin protein was developed on GO FOR selective immobilization of biomolecules. Scientists conducted a series of experiments with the GO chip
#3d printed scaffolds could enable the release biomolecules into the body with exceptional control (w/video) Tissue development is guided by gradients of biomolecules that direct the growth, migration,
Now, researchers are one step closer to this goal thanks to the creation of new 3d printed scaffolds that enable researchers to release biomolecules into the body with exceptional control.
this time filled with blue food dye to represent a different type of biomolecule. The layering pattern continues until the gel achieves a predetermined height.
when different types of biomolecules are released from the gel by varying the shell coatings of the capsules
They can also be filled with a wide variety of biomolecules. ne can imagine filling the capsules with molecules such as medications
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.
Now, researchers report in Biomacromolecules("Biodegradable ph-Sensitive Poly (ethylene glycol) Nanocarriers for Allergen Encapsulation and Controlled Release")the development of a potentially better allergy shot that uses nanocarriers to address these unwanted issues.
The researchers designed a new type of nanocarrier based on the biocompatible molecule poly (ethylene glycol or PEG, that releases its cargo only in targeted immune cells.
#Ultrafast lasers offer 3-D micropatterning of biocompatible hydrogels Tufts University biomedical engineers are using low energy,
professor of biomedical engineering and Frank C. Doble professor at Tufts School of engineering and also holds an appointment in physics in the School of arts and Sciences.
The current gold standard for Ebola virus detection relies on a method called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the virus's genetic material for detection.
nontarget biomolecules are washed off, and the bound targets are released then by heating, labeled with fluorescent markers,
and the biotechnology company Illumina have created an innovative tool to directly detect the delicate, single-molecule interactions between DNA and enzymatic proteins.
As they report Sept. 28 in Nature Biotechnology("Subangstrom single-molecule measurements of motor proteins using a nanopore),
"In their approach, Gundlach and his team measure an electrical current through a biological pore called Mspa,
Biologists have recognized long that proteins have different structures to perform these roles, but the physical motion of proteins as they work on DNA has been difficult to detect directly."
These fine details may also help scientists understand how mutations in proteins can lead to disease
the Goizueta Foundation Professor of Biomedical engineering. anoparticles are large enough to keep from going through the skin surface,
#Brightness-equalized quantum dots improve biological imaging Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have introduced a new class of light-emitting quantum dots (QDS) with tunable and equalized fluorescence brightness
an assistant professor of bioengineering at Illinois."Previously light emission had an unknown correspondence with molecule number.
and tunable number of photons per tagged biomolecule. They are expected also to be used for precise color matching in light-emitting devices and displays,
allow quantitative multicolor imaging in biological tissue, and improve color tuning in light-emitting devices.
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and simulation and is the result of an international cooperation involving researchers from the Institute of Structural biology (ISB, CEA/CNRS/Joseph Fourier University) in Grenoble, France, Purdue University, USA,
Structural Biochemistry) at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany. The results were published in Nature Communications. X-ray crystallography is the most prolific method for determining protein structures.
and flatter than any biological structure. The Berkeley Lab scientists say this never-before-seen design rule could be used to piece together complex nanosheet structures and other peptoid assemblies such as nanotubes and crystalline solids.
the atomic-resolution structure of peptoid nanosheets. his research suggests new ways to design biomimetic structures,
and Ron Zuckermann, who directs the Molecular Foundry Biological Nanostructures Facility. They used the high-performance computing resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC),
they were surprised to see a design rule not found in the field of protein structural biology.
and extended into large sheets that are flatter than anything nature can produce. t was a big surprise to find the design rule that makes peptoid nanosheets possible has eluded the field of biology until now,
which could lead to even more biomimetic nanostructures. n
#Analyzing protein structures in their native environment Proteins can fold in different ways depending on their environment.
isolated from their usual environment. ynamic nuclear polarization has a capacity to transform our understanding of biological structures in their native contexts,
says Susan Lindquist, a professor of biology at MIT, member of the Whitehead Institute, and one of the senior authors of the paper, which appears in the Oct 8 issue of Cell("Sensitivity-Enhanced NMR Reveals Alterations in Protein Structure by Cellular Milieus").
when youe thinking about its biology. To make sure they are getting data only on the protein of interest,
and has the purpose of generating height profiles of soft surfaces like biofilms or cell membranes.
Alexander Rohrbach conducts research at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) and is an associate member of the Cluster of Excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies of the University of Freiburg g
Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. While current HIV treatments involve pills that are taken daily, the new regimenslong-lasting effects suggest that HIV treatment could be administered perhaps once or twice per year.
The new SLIPS-enhanced steel is described in Nature Communications("Extremely durable biofouling-resistant metallic surfaces based on electrodeposited nanoporous tungstite films on steel"."
biological fluids containing bacteria and blood. Not only did the material repel all the liquid and show anti-biofouling behavior but the tungsten oxide actually made the steel stronger than steel without the coating.
Medical steel devices are one of the material's most promising applications, said Philseok Kim,
Another avenue for application is functional 3d printing and microarray devices, especially in printing highly viscous and sticky biological and polymeric materials where friction and contamination are major obstacles.
U s. Navy spends tens of millions of dollars each year dealing with the ramifications of biofouling on hulls.
Organisms such as barnacles and algae create drag and increased energy expenditure, not to mention the costs of cleaning
and modelling complex biological molecules s
#Buildings producing their own energy prepared for tomorrow's cities An innovative façade, able to turn solar energy into heat for residentsuse,
"said Ellington, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and member of the UT Center for Systems and Synthetic biology."
an essential function for every living cell,"said Huilin Li, a biologist with a joint appointment at Brookhaven Lab and Stony Brook University."
and separates the two strands of the DNA double helix as it passes through a central pore in the structureand how the helicase coordinates with the two'polymerase'enzymes that duplicate each strand to copy the genome."
when DNA is miscopieda major source of mutation that can lead to canceror learn more about how a single cell can eventually develop into the many cell types that make up a multicellular organism.
and work are based on biochemical and genetic studies, "Li said, likening the situation to the famous parable of the three blind men trying to describe an elephant,
and C bases of the genetic code) to the side-by-side split ends as they move out of the helicase to form two new complete double helix DNA strands.
O'Donnell's group had published previously biochemical results related to this work.""DNA replication is one of the most fundamental processes of life,
so it is every biochemist's dream to see what a replisome looks like, "Sun said."
The scientists are conducting additional studies to explore the biological significance of this unexpected location.
This architecture could also potentially play an important role in developmental biology by providing a pathway for treating the two daughter strands differently.
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