When is genome sequencing advisable?

Human geneticists conduct clinical reference study for the diagnosis of genetic diseases

10-Jun-2024 - Scientists from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Leipzig Medical Center (UKL) have shown in two independent patient cohorts when a genome sequencing is beneficial in the diagnosis of genetic diseases. The jointly published study provides ...

Glow sticks – Not just for parties anymore

University of Houston researcher using popular party favor to detect biothreats for US Navy

12-Jan-2024 - Remember that party where you were swinging glow sticks above your head or wearing them as necklaces? Fun times, right? Science times, too. Turns out those fun party favors are now being used by a University of Houston researcher to identify emerging biothreats for the United States Navy. It’s ...

How a CRISPR protein might yield new tests for many viruses

18-Jan-2023 - In a first for the genetic toolset known as CRISPR, a recently discovered protein has been found to act as a kind of multipurpose self-destruct system for bacteria, capable of degrading single-stranded RNA, single-stranded DNA and double-stranded DNA. With its abilities to target so many types of ...

Texas A&M research aims to improve Lyme disease diagnostics

Scientists are testing Raman spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool for Lyme disease

10-Jan-2023 - Research by two Texas A&M University scientists is focused on improving Lyme disease treatment outcomes by developing a test that’s both more accurate and more efficient than the current test for the infection. Lyme disease, the fastest growing vector-borne illness in the U.S., according to the ...

Researchers discover new type of CRISPR gene scissors

Component of bacterial immune defense paralyzes infected cells and could advance molecular biology diagnostics

05-Jan-2023 - It is an unexpected discovery by scientists at the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg in cooperation with Benson Hill, Inc. (Missouri) and Utah State University in the U.S.: They have found a nuclease, which they dubbed Cas12a2, that represents an entirely new type of CRISPR immune defense. Unlike any ...

Smart contact lenses for cancer diagnostics and screening

15-Aug-2022 - Scientists from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have developed a contact lens that can capture and detect exosomes, nanometer-sized vesicles found in bodily secretions which have the potential for being diagnostic cancer biomarkers. The lens was designed with microchambers ...

An innovative new diagnostic for Lyme disease

28-Aug-2019 - When researchers examined the DNA of Ötzi, a man entombed in ice high in the Tyrolean Alps some 5,300 years ago, they made a startling discovery. Secreted within the tangles of the ice man's genetic code was evidence he'd been infected with a bacterial pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi. Ötzi is the ...

Biosensor 'bandage' collects and analyzes sweat

23-Apr-2019 - Like other biofluids, sweat contains a wealth of information about what's going on inside the body. However, collecting the fluid for analysis, usually by dripping or absorbing it from the skin's surface, can be time-consuming and messy. Now, researchers have developed a bandage-like biosensor ...

15 emerging technologies that could reduce global catastrophic biological risks

11-Oct-2018 - Strategic investment in 15 promising technologies could help make the world better prepared and equipped to prevent future infectious disease outbreaks from becoming catastrophic events. This subset of emerging technologies and their potential application are the focus of a new report, ...

New sensors could enable more affordable detection of pollution and diseases

23-Jun-2017 - When it comes to testing for cancer, environmental pollution and food contaminants, traditional sensors can help. The challenges are that they often are bulky, expensive, non-intuitive and complicated. Now, one team reports in ACS Sensors that portable pressure-based detectors coupled with ...