Spider and centipede venom evolved from insulin-like hormone
But when we did a structural search and it pulled up the hormone, that’s what really surprised us–the sequence didn’t tell us where the toxins evolved from, but the structure did pre...
New research shows Earth’s core contains 90 percent of Earth’s sulfur
New research confirms that the Earth’s core does in fact contain vast amounts of sulphur, estimated to be up to 8.5 x 1018 tonnes. This is the first time that scientists have conclus...
Electroporation delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 system improves efficiency and throughput
Jackson Laboratory researchers have shown that using an electric current to deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 system, in order to engineer genetic changes in laboratory mice, is highly efficie...
Artificial intelligence discovers planarian regeneration model
The work, published in PLOS Computational Biology, demonstrates how robot science can help human scientists in the future. To mine the fast-growing mountain of published experimental...
A microscopic approach to the magnetic sensitivity of animals
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have succeeded in developing a new microscope capable of observing the magnetic sensitivity of photochemical reactions believed to be responsib...
Using CRISPR, biologists find a way to comprehensively identify anti-cancer drug targets
That experience got us thinking, explains Vakoc, Is there a way we can look at hundreds or thousands of proteins at a time in a given cancer cell type - proteins with druggable bindi...
Supercomputer unlocks secrets of plant cells to pave the way for more resilient crops
Scientists from IBM Research and the Universities of Melbourne and Queensland have moved a step closer to identifying the nanostructure of cellulose – the basic structural component ...
Robotic sonar system inspired by bats
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 20, 2015 – Engineers at Virginia Tech have taken the first steps toward building a novel dynamic sonar system inspired by horseshoe bats that could be more effi...
NAS and NAM announce initiative on human gene editing
WASHINGTON – The National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine are launching a major initiative to guide decision making about controversial new research involvin...
MIT engineers hand ‘cognitive’ control to underwater robots
Using the system devised by the MIT team, the robot can then plan out a mission, choosing which locations to explore, in what order, within a given timeframe. The MIT researchers tes...
Analysis of fluid that bathes the human eye identifies 386 new proteins as biomarker candidates
These proteins could have a role in disease processes affecting the eye and serve as valuable biomarkers for the development of diagnostics and drug candidates to improve visual heal...
What can brain-controlled prosthetics tell us about the brain?
More than 15 years after that neuroscience benchmark, Moxon’s lab is showing that it’s now possible to glean new insight about how the brain stores and accesses information, and into...
UAB researchers develop a harmless artificial virus for gene therapy
Researchers of the Nanobiology Unit from the UAB Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, led by Antonio Villaverde, managed to create artificial viruses, protein complexes with t...
To stop cancer: Block its messages
This whole membrane-to-nucleus communications system is known as a cellular signaling pathway, and there are about 15 different pathways for transferring the cell’s main internal mes...
The shortest DNA sequences reveal insights into the world’s tallest trees
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, are uncovering important information about patterns of coast redwood clones with a new DNA analysis method that could help fo...
The next step in DNA computing: GPS mapping?
Conventional silicon-based computing, which has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent decades, is pushing against its practical limits. DNA computing could help take the digital era...
Skin tough
Collagen fibrils and fibers rotate, straighten, stretch and slide to carry load and reduce the stresses at the tip of any tear in the skin, says Robert Ritchie of Berkeley Lab’s Mate...
New lab technique reveals structure and function of proteins critical in DNA repair
We found that a single UvrD helicase can do something–it unwinds the DNA, but not very far. There are two distinct structures or states that are associated with UvrD, with the molecu...
Modular brains help organisms learn new skills without forgetting old skills
The findings–published this week in PLOS Computational Biology–not only shed light on the evolution of intelligence in natural animals, but will also accelerate attempts to create ar...
Intelligent neuroprostheses mimic natural motor control
In new work, researchers have tested a range of brain-controlled devices - from wheelchairs to robots to advanced limbs - that work with their users to intelligently perform tasks. T...
Improving accuracy in genome editing
We engineered a form of Cas9 that is only active in the presence of a harmless, drug-like small molecule which we provide to the cell, Liu explained. We showed it’s possible to achie...
How deep-brain stimulation reshapes neural circuits in Parkinson’s disease
When the DBS device was activated and began stimulating the STN, the effect of the stimulation reached the motor cortex, where over-synchronization rapidly diminished. Importantly, s...
Genome editing in mitochondria prevents inheritance of diseases
To test this approach, the researchers used a mouse model that carries two different types of mitochondrial DNA and designed TALENs and restriction endonucleases to target and destro...
Broad Institute-MIT team identifies highly efficient new cas9 for in vivo genome editing
The Broad/MIT team, led by Feng Zhang, core member of the Broad Institute and investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, along with collaborators at MIT, led b...
A CRISPR antiviral tool
Emory scientists have adapted an antiviral enzyme from bacteria called Cas9 into an instrument for inhibiting hepatitis C virus in human cells. Cas9 is part of the CRISPR genetic def...