Biotechnology

Artificial intelligence is rapidly learning to autonomously design and run biological experiments, but the systems intended to govern those capabilities are struggling to keep pace.... Read more

Research and innovation in Texas A&M University's biomedical engineering department often centers around clinical impact on patients. Beyond the lab, however, some faculty are finding breakthroughs in the classroom.... Read more

Engineered cells are a high-value genetic asset that is key to many fields, including biotechnology, medicine, aging, and stem cell research, with the global market projected to reach $8.0 trillion USD by 2035. Yet the only ways to keep the cells safe are strong locks and watchful guards.... Read more

Making wheat more resilient to climate change without compromising yields has become an urgent priority for the agricultural sector. Now, a study led by a research team from the University of Barcelona and the Agrotecnio research center has identified an innovative way to address this challenge: combining advanced technology and... Read more

Researchers at DTU have developed a new method that can reduce the time needed to find new bacteria for fermentation. They have now identified a bacterium that can be used both for acidification and to increase the vitamin B2 content of soya drinks.... Read more

Bird flu—specifically H5N1—is no longer just a poultry problem in Asia. What started as a major United States outbreak, first in wildlife, then in poultry, and later in dairy cattle, is raising new concerns about food security, the economy, the health of farm workers, and the potential for future human... Read more

Professor Gyu Rie Lee of the Department of Biological Sciences successfully designed artificial proteins that selectively recognize specific compounds using AI through joint research with Professor David Baker. The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, is characterized by using AI to design proteins that recognize specific compounds from scratch... Read more

Researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have solved a long-standing mystery of how a model green microalga reorganizes its central metabolism to supercharge growth when given access to both light and a carbon source—a finding with broad implications for developing algae as a sustainable source of renewable fuels,... Read more

University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have developed a bold new approach to drug development and discovery that could dramatically accelerate the creation of new medicines. UVA's Nikolay V. Dokholyan, Ph.D., and colleagues have developed a suite of artificial intelligence-powered tools, called YuelDesign, YuelPocket and YuelBond, that work together... Read more

In a study published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Nagoya University researchers demonstrated that native soil bacteria, when treated with decoy molecules, can degrade non-native compounds, including persistent pollutants such as dioxins, without genetic modification. "In other words, we can effectively give these bacteria capabilities they do not... Read more

In science, ethical guidelines ensure that research takes place in a way that respects public trust and is conducted responsibly. Traditional ethics approval procedures work well for projects following established practices, but they offer little flexibility when unexpected challenges, novel approaches, unanticipated research directions, or unforeseen results arise. For research... Read more

A study published in Cell Research advances a central idea in stem cell biology by identifying a checkpoint that controls the identity of many different types of stem cells across developmental stages. For nearly two decades, scientists have understood that stem cell self-renewal depends on blocking differentiation signals—a concept described... Read more

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have built a molecular "leash" to pull directly on a force-sensing protein called Piezo1, and discovered it switches on at about 15 piconewtons, proving that it can be activated by physical tethers, not only by membrane deformation. The study is published in... Read more

Stem cells are the body's ultimate shape-shifters, sustaining tissues by balancing two competing demands: maintaining their own population and generating specialized descendants. In many tissues, some early descendants can revert to a stem cell state through a process known as dedifferentiation. This ability can help replenish the stem cell pool... Read more

A new tool makes it possible to screen millions of tiny protein fragments and select those that can be recognized by the immune system. The CIC biomaGUNE Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials has developed epiGPTope, a system that uses machine learning to generate and classify epitopes, in collaboration with... Read more