Researchers at University of South Dakota have developed fire/thermal protective fabric which simultaneously provides potent, durable, and rechargeable biocidal activities against E. coli, S. aureus, C. tropicalis, MS2 virus and Bacillus subtilis spores. The study of University of South...

Research team led by University of Sunderland has discovered a novel technique for the early detection of pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is the major breakthrough in the fight against this superbug which kills thousands of patients every year. Scanning Electron Micrograph of Pseudomonas...

The European biotech industry continued to show strong growth, according to an analysis of the auditing company Ernst & Young (E&Y). In terms of financing, the continent’s sector had a very strong year, raising a total of EUR 5.5bn in debt and equity capital. This is an increase of 18%...

Researchers have combined the efforts of two kinds of bacteria to produce hydrogen in a bioreactor, with the product from one providing food for the other. According to an article in the August issue of Microbiology Today, this technology has an added bonus: leftover enzymes can be used to...

Although every cell of our bodies contains the same genetic instructions, specific genes typically act only in specific cells at particular times. Other genes are "silenced" in a variety of ways. One mode of gene silencing depends upon the way DNA, the genetic material, is packed in the...

An ambitious plan to sequence 100 genes in 1,000 healthy old people could shed light on genetic variations that insulate some people from the ailments of aging, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, allowing them to live a healthy life into their eighties and beyond. Rather than...

The unwanted growth of blood vessels is a key feature of a number of serious diseases including cancers, arthritis and macular degeneration. While there are a number of drugs that effectively inhibit the angiogenesis, or growth, of these vessels some only target a limited...

Scientists at HZI, MHH and LUH publish previously-unknown chemical mechanism. The effective treatment of many forms of cancer continues to pose a major problem for medicine. Many tumours fail to respond to standard forms of chemotherapy or become resistant to the medication. Scientists...

Microorganisms once reigned supreme on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. Now, this ability of microorganisms to grow from an almost infinite variety of food sources may play a significant...

In a move that promises to change the economics of biodiesel refining, chemical engineers at Rice University have unveiled a set of techniques for cleanly converting problematic biofuels waste into chemicals that fetch a profit. The latest research is available online in the...

A team of researchers at the Broad Institute has helped break new ground in stem cell research through work described in two recent Nature papers. The most recently published study, appearing in the July 6 advance online issue, involves an effort to map regions of cells’ genomes marked by...

Japanese scientists have made a micro-sized sewing machine to sew long threads of DNA into shape. The work published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Lab on a Chip demonstrates a unique way to manipulate delicate DNA chains without breaking them. Scientists can diagnose...

Scientists have identified about two dozen genes that control embryonic stem cell fate. The genes may either prod or restrain stem cells from drifting into a kind of limbo, they suspect. The limbo lies between the embryonic stage and fully differentiated, or specialized, cells, such as bone,...

Study shows how transgenic plants are used to produce a vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease. The humble tomato could be a suitable carrier for an oral vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease, according to HyunSoon Kim from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology...

Researchers at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have made a major step forward in their work to develop a biologically engineered organism that can effectively deliver an antigen in the body. The researchers report that they have been able to use live salmonella...

An ancient organism from the pit of a collapsed volcano may hold the key to tomorrow's hydrogen economy. Scientists from across the world have formed a team to unlock the process refined by a billions-year old archaea. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will...

The problem with antibiotics is that, eventually, bacteria outsmart them and become resistant. But by targeting the gene that confers such resistance, a new drug may be able to finally outwit them. Rockefeller University scientists tested the new drug, called Ceftobiprole, against some of the...

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a computational tool which allows scientists to analyze many bacterial genomes at once and it is more accurate than previous methods. The tool could hlep us more accurately study bacterial operons. Operons are units of clustered genes...

The new device which can detect minute numbers of tumour cells circulating in the blood of lung cancer patients may one day make monitoring the disease as simple as taking a blood test, reported journal Nature. In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a test to allow...

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a new way to predict with 70 percent accuracy whether a woman undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment will become pregnant. The researchers tried to identify the most important factors in predicting IVF...

Enzyme could create tailor-made cells to be injected back into patients. By creating a custom-designed enzyme that can sever a gene, researchers have made a key type of human blood cell more resistant to the HIV virus. They hope to use the technique to create disease-fighting...

Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel. K-State's Zhijian "Z.J." Pei, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Wenqiao "Wayne" Yuan, assistant...

Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig (Germany) have joined up with colleagues from Spain and Great Britain to identify an enzyme that requires acids and dissolved metals in order to function. The team describes its findings regarding the extreme protein...

Hunting for drought tolerance genes in ancient Andean landraces. Many modern varieties of potatoes are considered to be drought-sensitive. However, evolution and cultivation in the cold, dry Andean Altiplano gave rise to a number of potato varieties that could tolerate drought....

Manipulating stem cells in old muscle can restore youth to aging tissue, according to research from the University of California, Berkeley. Scientists altered the activity of a molecular pathway to make stem cells in older tissue produce new muscle fibers at levels comparable to young stem...

Biofuels can be a sustainable part of the world's energy future, especially if bioenergy agriculture is developed on currently abandoned or degraded agricultural lands, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution and Stanford University. Using these lands for energy crops, instead of...

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, solve an important piece of the puzzle behind how proteins are shaped. Proteins are the workhorses of our cells. They help to digest our food, are at the core of our immune system, and literally shape our body from top to toe. Proteins...

A unique technique for analyzing the function of microRNAs developed by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem doctoral student has led to the discovery of a new mechanism by which viruses evade the human immune system. This discovery has important implications for human intervention in the...

International team of researchers is on the brink of a discovery which will facilitate the development of more sustainable ways of controlling the world’s worst agricultural insect pest Helicoptera armigera. The moth Helicoptera armigera causes to crops globally $5 billion of damage...

Exploiting liver cells’ appetite for polystyrene ring “doughnuts”, just a few microns across, might give scientists a new way to deliver drugs selectively, potentially eliminating nasty side effects of life-saving treatments such as chemotherapy. AlphaGalileo...

Finding offers hope of recapitulating developmental events to regenerate tissue Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston are continuing to document the heart's earliest origins. Now, they have pinpointed a new, previously unrecognized group of stem cells that give rise to cardiomyocytes, or...

A new study, presented at the SNM 55th Annual Meeting, shows the potential to pre-target the treatment of cancer cells - bringing personalized medicine one step closer from the laboratory to patients. By combining new molecular imaging techniques with targeted therapy, pre-targeting offers...

Predicting the potential distribution of agricultural pests, both indigenous and introduced, plays a key role in determining the impact of global change on agricultural, horticultural and forestry ecosystems. This study investigates changes in the climatic niche of one of the most important...

Scotland's leading crop research institute said yesterday that genetically modified harvests could play a crucial role in feeding a growing planet and welcomed calls for a "grown up" debate on the issue as renewed protests against the farming experiment grew. Whole article on...

A week before a key vote by EU environment ministers on tightening GMO cultivation rules, leading Czech scientists have called on European politicians to start a rational debate on the future of genetically modified plants. Claiming that GMOs are safe both for consumers and the...

In the first study of its kind, bioengineers and bioscientists at Rice University and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, have shown they can grow denser bone tissue by sprinkling stick-like nanoparticles throughout the porous material used to pattern the bone. Rice...

Some argue that the lack of modern agricultural development in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has made cutting edge biotechnology attractive. However, the enthusiasm in planting transgenic crops is far from being homogenous amoung the New Member States. While during...

Biomaterials and sustainable industrial processes increasingly driving investment interest. Despite recent controversies over crop-based biofuels, biotechnology offers some of the best opportunities to create a more sustainable world, with applications as diverse as new sources of energy,...

Researchers in Switzerland are reporting discovery of natural plant materials that may regulate starch digestion -- slowing down the body's conversion of potatoes, rice, and other carbohydrate-rich foods into sugar. The findings could lead to new functional foods that fight diabetes, they say in...

In 2005, with the introduction of 270 hectares of Bt maize, the first transgenic crops appeared in the Czech Republic. The present study is the first attempt to estimate the size and distribution of the ex ante welfare effects of transgenic grain maize, sugar beet, and oilseed rape in the Czech...

Inspired by a chance discovery during another experiment, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have created a small molecule that stimulates nerve stem cells to begin maturing into nerve cells in culture. This finding might someday allow a person's own nerve stem cells...

A synthetic chemical based on a compound found in cocoa beans slowed growth and accelerated destruction of human tumors in laboratory studies, and should be tested further for cancer chemoprevention or even treatment, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. Georgetown...

Brokerage or matchmaking events offer you a unique opportunity to market your company in several different countries at the same time. At each event, upward of a hundred companies from the European Union and further visit the host country. Each event has a focus on one or...

University of Pittsburgh-led researchers discovered that the primary bacteria behind tuberculosis can grow on surfaces and that drug-tolerant strains flourish in these bacterial communities, the research team recently reported in Molecular Microbiology. The findings suggest a possible reason...

Corn grain is an important component of feed for non-ruminant animals and food for humans. It is an excellent source of starch, but is a poor source of protein nutrition. Protein content is low, usually less than 10% of the kernel mass, and moreover, the quality of maize protein is not...

This is one biofuel that lives up to its green billing in more ways than one. It's an emerald-green crude oil, produced by photosynthesis in algae, which could fuel cars, trucks and aircraft - without consuming crops that can be used as food. Whole article on checkbiote...

A possible novel approach to remove bacteria and viruses from drinking water using a genetic tool was developed by researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The engineers have used the RNA interference (RNAi) technology. This method uses short snippets of RNA which match with...

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist says it could be tougher than first thought to harness the healing power of stem cells in medicine. It had been hoped a single "master" cell could potentially be used to repair all damage in a single organ. Professor Mario Capecchi, from the...

The answer to the looming fuel crisis in the 21st century may be found by thinking small, microscopic in fact. Microscopic organisms from bacteria and cyanobacteria, to fungi to microalgae, are biological factories that are proving to efficient sources of inexpensive, environmentally friendly...

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system turns against the body’s own tissues and organs, wreaking havoc and destruction for no apparent reason. Partly because the origins of these diseases are so obscure, no effective treatment exists, and the suffering they inflict is enormous. Now...