Gut microbiota and antibiotics: Missing puzzle piece discovered

HIRI scientists identify small RNA that influences the sensitivity of the intestinal pathogen Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron to certain antibiotics

28-Mar-2024 - The intricacies of how intestinal bacteria adapt to their environment have yet to be fully explored. Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg and the University of California, Berkeley, USA, have now successfully closed a gap in this knowledge: ...

Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Tissue-Integrated Sensitive Glucose Nanosenor Using Inactive Glucose Oxidase Enzyme

09-Jan-2024 - Monitoring glucose levels is one of the key elements in health monitoring. A research team has now developed a battery-independent fluorescent nanosensor based on single-wall carbon nanotubes and an inactive form of the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx). Because the enzyme is not in its active form, ...

Tiny microbes could brew big benefits for green biomanufacturing

The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals

15-May-2023 - Scientists find new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. A research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals. The advance ...

Seasonal temperature impacts patient lab results

14-Dec-2021 - Ambient temperature influences the results of some of the most used laboratory tests, and these distortions likely affect medical decision making, such as whether to prescribe medications, researchers report December 10th in the journal Med. The authors say that laboratories could statistically ...

How sugar-loving microbes could help power future cars

Genetically engineered E. coli eat glucose, then help turn it into molecules found in gasoline

24-Nov-2021 - It sounds like modern-day alchemy: Transforming sugar into hydrocarbons found in gasoline. But that’s exactly what scientists have done. In a study in Nature Chemistry, researchers report harnessing the wonders of biology and chemistry to turn glucose (a type of sugar) into olefins (a type of ...

So-called junk DNA plays critical role in mammalian development

Knocking out transposon promoter leads to pup death in mice; similar promoters found in many mammals

20-Oct-2021 - Nearly half of our DNA has been written off as junk, the discards of evolution: sidelined or broken genes, viruses that got stuck in our genome and were dismembered or silenced, none of it relevant to the human organism or human evolution. But research over the last decade has shown that some of ...

Smallest life forms have smallest working CRISPR system

Metagenomic search turns up compact Cas protein ideal for disease diagnostics

22-Oct-2018 - An ancient group of microbes that contains some of the smallest life forms on Earth also has the smallest CRISPR gene-editing machinery discovered to date. The peewee protein machinery, dubbed Cas14, is related to but one-third the size of the Cas9 protein, the business end of the revolutionary ...

This bacterium gets paid in gold

Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium's unusual appetite for gold

11-Oct-2018 - A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won't work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis. M. ...

CRISPR editing reduces repetitive behavior in mice with a form of autism

28-Jun-2018 - Scientists have used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to lessen some autism symptoms in mice with a form of fragile X syndrome, the most common known single-gene cause of autism spectrum disorder. Employing gold nanoparticles to deliver the DNA-cutting Cas9 enzyme into the brain - a technique developed ...

New DNA synthesis technique promises rapid, high-fidelity DNA printing

20-Jun-2018 - Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have invented a new way to synthesize DNA that promises to be easier and faster, does not require the use of toxic chemicals and is potentially more accurate. With greater accuracy, the technique could ...