Biotechnology

The CANMILK project is developing a plasma-based system suitable for direct operation in barns to reduce methane emissions from livestock. The goal is to capture dilute methane present in barn air and convert it into CO₂ through the combined action of plasma and catalytic processes. As a low-TRL project, CANMILK... Read more

At a time when millions of Americans have turkey on their minds, a team of researchers led by an animal scientist at Penn State has successfully tested a new way for poultry producers to keep their turkeys in sight.... Read more

Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo have joined forces to take on a pressing environmental problem by using synthetic biology to turn plastic waste into valuable resources. The multidisciplinary group is working together to review and identify strategies that leverage synthetic biology, microbial engineering and engineering design to... Read more

Ever wonder why some palm varieties flourish while others suddenly bend at the trunk or topple over completely?... Read more

An innovative alternative to concrete could enable important coastal restoration work to take place. The material Xiriton, made with local grass species and seawater, captures CO2 instead of emitting it, as conventional concrete does. NIOZ researchers successfully tested the material for its suitability as a substrate for shell banks or... Read more

The same technology used in COVID-19 vaccines could help prevent muscle damage from snakebites, according to a study published in Trends in Biotechnology.... Read more

In a perfect world, people would have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices. They would not live in food deserts and 30% to 40% of food produced in the U.S. would not be lost annually through overproduction, surplus and waste.... Read more

Cornell researchers have found that a new DNA sequencing technology can be used to study how transposons move within and bind to the genome. Transposons play critical roles in immune response, neurological function and genetic evolution, and implications of the finding include agricultural advancements and understanding disease development and treatment.... Read more

Whether you're a home gardener or an industrial farmer, you might be familiar with mulching films—plastic sheets laid over the soil to protect seedlings and promote crop growth. But like many other plastic materials, these films can release damaging microplastics and don't have any insect-repelling power. So, a team reporting... Read more

Although existing CRISPR-Cas-based imaging methods can target endogenous genomic sequences, their applications are limited by system complexity and sensitivity, particularly when imaging non-repetitive loci, performing multi-locus visualization, or working with primary cells.... Read more

Higher yields, greater resilience to climatic changes or diseases—the demands on crop plants are constantly growing. To address these challenges, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are developing new methods in genetic engineering.... Read more

Only two weeks after fertilization, the first sign of the formation of the three axes of the human body (head/tail, ventral/dorsal, and right/left) begins to appear. At this stage, known as gastrulation, a flat and featureless sheet of cells folds into a living blueprint for the body, a fleeting transformation... Read more

Researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), working in close collaboration with KeyGene, have developed a method that enables plant cells to regenerate into complete plants without the need for added hormones.... Read more

A team led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has engineered poplar trees to produce valuable chemicals that can be used to make biodegradable plastics and other products. The modified trees were more tolerant of high salt levels in soil and were easier to... Read more

Cancer research, drug safety testing and aging biology may all gain a major boost from a new fluorescent sensor developed at Utrecht University. This new tool allows scientists to watch DNA damage and repair unfold in real time inside living cells. The development, which opens the door to experiments that... Read more