Phys.org – Biotechnology

Insects that feed on starch can find veritable feasts in corn, pea, and bean crops or warehouses. It is no coincidence that the ancestors of these commercial plants developed α-amylase inhibitor proteins, which make the […]

From medicine to agriculture and aquaculture, bacteriophages are poised to have a huge global impact. As viruses which target only bacterial cells, they hold promise as an alternative to antibiotics, overcoming increasing issues around antibiotic […]

In the future, clothes might come from vats of living microbes. Reporting in the journal Trends in Biotechnology, researchers demonstrate that bacteria can both create fabric and dye it in every color of the rainbow—all […]

A new study shows, for the first time, that cow cells can naturally become immortal—continuing to divide indefinitely without genetic modification or any abnormal transformation. This overturns long-held assumptions that bovine cells could only be […]

Artificial light-type plant factories are an emerging agricultural innovation that enables crops to be grown year-round in precisely controlled environments. By adjusting factors such as light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and nutrient delivery, these […]

Pictures of DNA often look very tidy—the strands of the double helix neatly wind around each other, making it seem like studying genetics should be relatively straightforward. In truth, these strands aren’t often so perfectly […]

Using sophisticated RNA sequencing technology, biomedical researchers can measure the activity of our genes across millions of single cells, creating detailed maps of tissues, organs, and diseases. Analyzing these datasets requires a rare combination of […]

A team led by University of Pittsburgh’s Graham Hatfull has developed a method to construct bacteriophages with entirely synthetic genetic material, allowing researchers to add and subtract genes at will. The findings open the field […]

As Earth’s climate warms and changes, sustainable agricultural practices are critical for feeding a rapidly growing population. Can we genetically engineer crops to adapt to drought and other effects of a warming climate?This post was […]

Genetic engineers can design and assemble sophisticated gene circuits to program cells with new functions, but important signaling molecules can become diluted as these cells grow and divide, causing the synthetic gene circuits to lose […]