Biology Net: Biotechnology

Biology News Net - Biotechnology

• Blind mice can 'see' thanks to special retinal cells
  

  It would make the perfect question for the popular television show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader:" What parts of the eye allow us to see?

  
  
  
• Pinpoint precision: Delivering a biochemical payload to 1 cell
  

  Imagine being able to drop a toothpick on the head of one particular person standing among 100,000 people in a stadium. It sounds impossible, yet this degree of precision at the cellular level has been demonstrated by researchers affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Their study was published online in June in Nature Nanotechnology.

  
  
  
• With magnetic nanoparticles, scientists remotely control neurons and animal behavior
  

  Clusters of heated, magnetic nanoparticles targeted to cell membranes can remotely control ion channels, neurons and even animal behavior, according to a paper published by University at Buffalo physicists in Nature Nanotechnology.

  
  
  
• How genetic 'chips' could help to understand heart disease
  

  New research at the University of Leicester will use the latest genetic techniques to examine DNA from over 20,000 patients with heart disease.

  
  
  
• Government funding for synthetic biology on the rise
  

  A new analysis by the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center found that the U.S. government has spent around $430 million on research related to synthetic biology since 2005, with the Department of Energy funding a majority of the research. By comparison, the analysis indicated that the European Union and three individual European countries – the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Germany – had spent approximately $160 million during that same period.

  
  
  
• New rust resistance genes added to common beans
  

  New cultivars of common bean developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university scientists could shore up the legume crop's defenses against the fungal disease common bean rust.

  
  
  
• New weapon against highly resistant microbes within grasp
  

  An active compound from fungi and lower animals may well be suitable as an effective weapon against dangerous bacteria. We're talking about plectasin, a small protein molecule that can even destroy highly resistant bacteria . Researchers at the Universities of Bonn, Utrecht, Aalborg and of the Danish company Novozymes AS have shed light on how the substance does this. The authors see plectasin as a promising lead compound for new antibiotics.

  
  
  
• Modified measles virus shows potential for treating childhood brain tumors
  

  The use of modified measles virus may represent a new treatment for a childhood brain tumor known as medulloblastoma, according to a new study appearing in Neuro-Oncology.

  
  
  
• Novel RNA interference screening technique identifies possible path for malignant glioma treatment
  

  Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School report in the journal Nature Medicine on a cellular pathway in the deadly brain cancer malignant glioma, a pathway essential to the cancer's ability to grow – and a potential target for therapy that would stop the cancer's ability to thrive.

  
  
  
• Antibacterial silver nanoparticles are a blast
  

  Writing in the International Journal of Nanoparticles, Rani Pattabi and colleagues at Mangalore University, explain how blasting silver nitrate solution with an electron beam can generate nanoparticles that are more effective at killing all kinds of bacteria, including gram-negative species that are not harmed by conventional antibacterial agents.