Are trees the future for the production of industrial chemicals?

Finding could help turn trees into affordable, greener industrial chemicals

22-Oct-2024 - Trees are the most abundant natural resource living on Earth’s land masses, and North Carolina State University scientists and engineers are making headway in finding ways to use them as sustainable, environmentally benign alternatives to producing industrial chemicals from petroleum. Lignin, a ...

Turning bacteria into bioplastic factories

Biologists find new ways to encourage the plastic-producing power of purple microbes

28-Aug-2024 - In a world overrun by petroleum-based plastics, scientists are searching for alternatives that are more sustainable, more biodegradable and far less toxic to the environment. Two new studies by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis highlight one potential source of game-changing ...

Scientists use quantum biology, AI to sharpen genome editing tool

"This study represents an exciting advancement toward, understanding how we can avoid making costly ‘typos’ in an organism’s genetic code"

21-Nov-2023 - Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools work on organisms like microbes that can be modified to produce renewable fuels and chemicals. CRISPR is a powerful tool ...

Researchers visualise activity of CRISPR genetic scissors

New method allows precise observation of gene recognition

14-Jul-2023 - Scientists at Leipzig University, in collaboration with colleagues at Vilnius University in Lithuania, have developed a new method to measure the smallest twists and torques of molecules within milliseconds. The method makes it possible to track the gene recognition of CRISPR-Cas protein ...

When editing bacteria with CRISPR, less is more

Research team develops approach that increases efficiency of genome editing

13-Feb-2023 - Systematically attenuating DNA targeting activity can achieve CRISPR-driven editing in bacteria, greatly boosting colony counts and even increasing the frequency of precise genome editing. This was shown in a study of the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) in collaboration with the Helmholtz ...

Artificial Intelligence Improves Efficiency of Genome Editing

Long-term goal: repairing hereditary diseases

06-Feb-2023 - Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a new tool that uses artificial intelligence to predict the efficacy of various genome-editing repair options. Unintentional errors in the correction of DNA mutations of genetic diseases can thus be reduced. Genome editing technologies offer ...

Genome Editing Procedures Optimised

Scientists succeed in boosting the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 and related methods and modifying initially inaccessible DNA sequences

01-Feb-2023 - In the course of optimising key procedures of genome editing, researchers from the department of Developmental Biology / Physiology at the Centre for Organismal Studies of Heidelberg University have succeeded in substantially improving the efficiency of molecular genetic methods such as ...

Symbiotic CO₂ Sequestration

Bioengineered microbial community working together to store carbon

14-Dec-2022 - Photosynthesis is a valuable natural system for sequestering carbon dioxide. However, simply forming biomass does not fully exploit this system. A Chinese team of researchers, whose study is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, has now genetically engineered a microbial community which ...

Gene shear protects barley

07-Nov-2022 - Viruses can cause major crop losses in cereals. With the help of the Cas9 gene shear, it has now been possible to protect winter barley from future threats. Genome editing holds great promise for improving crop breeding to meet the challenges of climate change, disease resistance and more ...

Resistance to mosaic disease explained

22-Jul-2022 - Researchers from ETH Zurich, the United States and Uganda have identified the gene responsible for resistance in certain cassava cultivars against the devastating cassava mosaic disease. This is an important step for breeding virus-​resistant cassava varieties. Cassava, also known as manioc, is a ...