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Study suggests new approaches to fighting diseases using the power of illusion

Magic tricks work because they take advantage of the brain's sensory assumptions, tricking audiences into seeing phantoms or overlooking sleights of hand. Now a team of UC San Francisco researchers has discovered that even brainless single-celled yeast have sensory biases that can be hacked by a carefully engineered illusion, a finding that could be used to develop new approaches to fighting diseases such as cancer.

20 Nov 2015

Ingenza and Imperial researchers work together to improve nasogastric feeding tube placement

Ingenza has teamed up with clinical scientists at Imperial College London to trial an improved diagnostic assay for confirming nasogastric (NG) tube placement. Professor George Hanna, Director of the National Institute for Health Research Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative London at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which specialises in In Vitro Diagnostics, explained: “Correct placement of NG tubes is vital, as accidental insertion of the tube into the lung instead of the gut can have serious consequences.

3 Nov 2015

New initiative launched to accelerate search for effective HIV vaccine

A new 23 million euro initiative to accelerate the search for an effective HIV vaccine begins today. Financed by the European Commission, the European AIDS Vaccine Initiative (EAVI2020) brings together leading HIV researchers from public organisations and biotech companies from across Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA in a focused effort to develop protective and therapeutic HIV vaccines.

2 Nov 2015

New anti-malarial ‘biobricks' could pave way for easier, cost-effective production of artemisinin drug

Students from Trinity College Dublin have successfully created anti-malarial ‘biobricks', which could pave the way for easier and more cost-effective production of the key drug artemisinin.

31 Oct 2015

Study addresses the problem of how cells tackle naturally occurring variation

Everyone who has played in a band or orchestra knows that playing in time creates music, while playing out of time creates cacophony. In an orchestra, each player may be out of tune when warming up, but eventually, all players must reach the same pitch, rhythm, and timing to produce a viable piece of music.

31 Oct 2015

Scientists call for coordinated effort to drive cutting edge microbiome research

A consortium of 48 scientists from 50 institutions in the United States - including Pamela Silver, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University - are calling for a Unified Microbiome Initiative that would span national cross-institutional and cross-governmental agency support.

29 Oct 2015

UW researchers develop new model to more accurately predict harmful genetic mutations

Between any two people, there are likely to be at least 10 million differences in the genetic sequence that makes up their DNA.

26 Oct 2015

Plymouth University and Ingenza partner to develop efficient, scalable microbial production system for epidermicin

Ingenza is collaborating with researchers at Plymouth University to develop an efficient, scalable microbial production system for epidermicin, an exciting new antibiotic that rapidly kills methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and other harmful bacteria.

1 Oct 2015

New RNA tools for CRISPR/Cas9

Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) will host an informative webinar, entitled ‘New RNA Tools for Optimized CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing’, on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. Ashley Jacobi, a scientist in the Molecular Genetics Applied Research Group at IDT, and an expert in the application of synthetic nucleic acids, will present the webinar at 9 am and 1 pm Central Standard Time.

From Integrated DNA Technologies 1 Oct 2015

Quethera receives seed investment funding to develop gene therapy for glaucoma

Quethera, a gene therapy company developing a treatment for glaucoma that could prevent blindness, has received seed investment funding led by Midven’s Rainbow Seed Fund alongside co-investor Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, to continue pre-clinical development of their therapy.

18 Sep 2015

Researchers now have a way to study special proteins linked to different diseases, cancer

Researchers from Northwestern University and Yale University have developed a user-friendly technology to help scientists understand how proteins work and fix them when they are broken. Such knowledge could pave the way for new drugs for a myriad of diseases, including cancer.

11 Sep 2015

New approach may bring scientists one-step closer to DNA nanomachines

Scientists have been studying ways to use synthetic DNA as a building block for smaller and faster devices. DNA has the advantage of being inherently "coded". Each DNA strand is formed of one of four "codes" that can link to only one complementary code each, thus binding two DNA strands together.

2 Sep 2015

KAIST scientists predict how biological circuits sustain rhythms

Our bodies have a variety of biological clocks that follow rhythms or oscillations with periods ranging from seconds to days. For example, our hearts beat every second, and cells divide periodically. The circadian clock located in the hypothalamus generates twenty-four hour rhythms, timing our sleep and hormone release.

29 Aug 2015

UCSF study reveals molecular timing mechanism of stem cells

UC San Francisco researchers have for the first time developed a method to precisely control embryonic stem cell differentiation with beams of light, enabling them to be transformed into neurons in response to a precise external cue.

27 Aug 2015

IDT webinar explores effective RNAi and antisense oligo methods

Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) will host an informative webinar, entitled ‘Knockdown of lncRNAs: exploring RNAi and antisense oligo methods’, on Tuesday, August 25, 2015. Kim Lennox, a research scientist at IDT and expert in the suppression of gene expression, will present the webinar at 9 am and 1 pm Central Standard Time.

From Integrated DNA Technologies 19 Aug 2015

NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering researcher awarded grant to advance protein hydrogels that mimic nature

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Army Research Office recently awarded a New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering researcher a grant to advance protein-engineered, environmentally responsive hydrogels that could replicate biochemical processes currently found only in nature. These protein hydrogels could become fundamental building blocks of important new biomimetic materials.

12 Aug 2015

Intrexon, Synthetic Biologics form ECC to develop and commercialize novel biotherapeutics for phenylketonuria

Intrexon Corporation, a leader in synthetic biology, and Synthetic Biologics, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on developing therapeutics to protect the microbiome while targeting pathogen-specific diseases, today announced an Exclusive Channel Collaboration (ECC) to pursue the development and commercialization of novel biotherapeutics for the treatment of patients with phenylketonuria (PKU), a serious and debilitating metabolic disorder.

10 Aug 2015

New biosensors detect efficient microbial workers that produce chemical, pharmaceutical commodities

Super productive factories of the future could employ fleets of genetically engineered bacterial cells, such as common E. coli, to produce valuable chemical commodities in an environmentally friendly way.

5 Aug 2015

SGI-DNA recognized by Frost & Sullivan for BioXp 3200 System

SGI-DNA, a Synthetic Genomics, Inc. company, was recently recognized by Frost & Sullivan for its groundbreaking innovation in genomic technologies for the BioXp 3200 System, an instrument with the capacity to simultaneously build 32 unique, double-stranded DNA fragments to study gene function, pathways, and whole genomes.

4 Aug 2015

Prokarium receives funding to complete pre-clinical development of new Chlamydia vaccine

Prokarium Ltd, a biotechnology company developing transformational oral vaccines, today announced new funding from SynbiCITE, the UK’s Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Synthetic Biology.