In Depth 14 Jan 2019 Life in Bioplastic, it’s More Fantastic Plastic is the staple material of modern life, and a sustainable future will need bioplastics. What is biotech doing to make this happen? “What do you include in bioplastics? Because bioplastics is a very large word,” commented Emmanuel Maille, formerly Director of Strategy and Development at French chemical company Carbios, which focuses on developing biobased […] January 14, 2019 - 10 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Aug 2017 Demo Day: Meet the Latest Generation of Synbio Startups from RebelBio The RebelBio startups of 2017 reach a major milestone as 15 young companies came forward to explain their ideas, science and how they are selling them. A mere 3 months after the 15 chosen projects for the RebelBio accelerator went off to the labs to refine their prototypes, Demo Day arrived last week on July […] August 4, 2017 - 6 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Jul 2017 Things are Looking Up for UK Synbio Clusters, says Report A survey of synbio startups in the last 16 years shows that the UK ecosystem is growing rapidly and approaching critical mass, says SynbiCITE. Dedicated to championing industrial uptake of synthetic biology, SynbiCITE is a knowledge center based at Imperial College London. Some of its initiatives have included opening a gene foundry last year to providing grants to […] July 28, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Jul 2017 Better than CRISPR? New Genetic Analysis Method ropes in Long-Read DNA Cloning After CRISPR, there’s a new genetic technique with a tongue-in-cheek name in town: LASSO cloning. Researchers from four institutions, including the US-based John Hopkins, Rutgers and Harvard, and the University of Trento in Italy, have developed a new technology to study large chunks of DNA and their function. The work behind it was recently published in Nature Biomedical […] July 7, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 30 Jun 2017 Fig Enzyme could Help to fight Infection and Heal Wounds Russian researchers have investigated the properties of ficin, an enzyme that breaks down proteins, in helping antibiotics be more effective against infections like Staphylococcus. At Kazan Federal University and Voronezh University, in Russia, researchers are turning their attention to an understudied protease extracted from fig’s latex. As now published in Scientific Reports, the enzyme turned out to […] June 30, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 12 Jun 2017 Bacteria copy a Powerhouse in Plants to Produce Useful Molecules Danish researchers managed to sneak the genetic information needed to make P450 enzymes into E. coli. These enzymes are used by plants to make bioactive compounds and can be used for new industrial production processes of several drugs. Researchers from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability have been focusing on developing an alternative way to produce a plant enzyme, the cytochrome P450, for industrial […] June 12, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 2 Jun 2017 Austrian Researchers build an improved Mini-Brain to support Psychiatry Researchers from Austria and the UK have made new advances in engineering brain-like structures. These lab-grown organoids mimic important functions of the real thing and could help improve understanding of mental illness and test new therapies. The Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) in Vienna is a pioneer of brain […] June 2, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 30 May 2017 In Geneva, the Capital of Peace, 10 Biotechs Are Putting up a Fight Geneva is the largest city in French-speaking Switzerland, a financial powerhouse, home to the United Nations and known as the “Peace Capital.” Can the city’s biotech industry justify its high profile? Geneva rose to recognition as a biotech hub in 2006, when Serono sealed its acquisition by Merck in the city’s biggest-ever licensing plan. However, a late-stage […] May 30, 2017 - 7 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 May 2017 Shining new Light on how to control Cell Circuits Controlling genes with light is a new therapeutic avenue, and researchers from Finland are exploring how it can be used to tinker with the cell’s biochemical circuitry. Their findings could provide a better understanding of degenerative diseases and yield new cancer treatments. Researchers from the Turku Centre for Biotechnology at the University of Turku and Åbo […] May 19, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 May 2017 Resurrected Proteins could be New Weapon against Crop Viruses Researchers from Spain have succeeded in expressing a 4 billion year-old enzyme in a present-day E. coli. It’s similar enough to the modern version to work, but different enough to dupe viruses. A new way to create virus resistance in crops? In a lab at the University of Granada, Spain, that specializes in reconstructing ancient gene sequences, researchers have […] May 12, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 9 May 2017 Hypermutation could be the Key to Biofuels – and Antibiotic Resistance Instead of taking a spa vacation, stressed out bacteria start mutating their DNA fast. This nearly suicidal behavior can yield a lucky survivor in nature. For us, it could mean new strategies for biofuel production and fighting antibiotic resistance, researchers say. Researchers from the Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics at KU Leuven, in Belgium, are shining […] May 9, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 Apr 2017 The Tires of the Future will be made with… Dandelions? Continental, famous producer of tires, is creating a research facility in Germany to investigate the use of rubber extracted from dandelions. An eventual switch to the material would mean less environmental impact, and maybe even better tires. The “green pet project” of Continental, a giant automotive manufacturer with almost €40Bn yearly revenues, consists of replacing conventional natural […] April 28, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email