Biology Industry News

Chitin from insects seems to be a rich source of protein and nutrients that contribute to healthy gut microbiota and planetary health, according to a recent paper made by Colorado State University. They started research on the effects of cricket consumption on gut microbiota. They found that cricket-derived chitin from...

Alkaloids produced by plants that are found both in nectar and pollen serve as protection against herbivores. A research study led by the University of Exeter and Bayer AG showed how genes of several species of pollinators called Hymenoptera - insects that include bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies - produce...

Considered a myth, drinking cranberry juice has been a prevention strategy for women with urinary tract infection (UTI) as early as the 1970s. However, new medical evidence suggested otherwise and implicated its effectiveness in treating UTI. Cranberry healthcare supplements, such as capsules and tablets, have since long been promoted as...

Using the distinct mechanical properties of spider silk from its large and repetitive protein sequence, scientists from the Washington University in St. Louis created a synthetic spider silk while retaining its strength and toughness using mussel proteins. This method of fabricating the synthetic spider silk gives rise to a novel,...

Researchers from the University of Reading partnered with Denmark, Germany, Norway, and Sweden to show how the reduction of a key protein prevents the formation of blood clots in three mammal species - bears, pigs, and humans - when they remain immobile for an extended period of time. A protein,...

Diet affects our mental health. Countless research has shown how some foods have short- to long-term positive impacts on the brain and the reduction of stress. It includes fermented foods - such as kimchi or kombucha - which are good sources of tryptophan, an amino acid that is crucial in...

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University discovered the mechanism by which histone H3, a protein, regulates when and how worm embryos produce both highly specific cells and pluripotent cells. This could give hints on how mutations connected to proteins influence various diseases, like cancer. The team spotted increasing H3 levels in...

Also known as dream plastics, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a class of natural polymers produced by living organisms. Thus, they are sustainable and environmentally-benign. They can also be produced synthetically from biorenewable feedstocks. However, PHAs haven’t taken off as a better alternative to traditional plastics due to crystalline PHAs’ thermal instability...

Engineered tobacco plants manufacture a captivating scent of insect sex pheromones which confuse pests and leads to the reduction of use for harmful pesticides. Previously, tobacco has been engineered to produce Ebola antibodies and even coronavirus-like particles for use in COVID vaccines. Researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich used...

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio produced a drug that promotes efficient metabolism of sugar and fat in the mitochondria. The team first explored how magnesium affects metabolism. Being the fourth most abundant in the element, it plays fundamental roles in regulating blood sugar,...

Developing electronic skin with various senses has many applications - from rehabilitation, healthcare, prosthetic devices, to robotics and human machine interfaces. Stretchable pressure sensors lend the ability to detect numerous types of touch and pressure, a key component of this type of technology. Teams from POSTECH and the University of...

A research conducted by the University of Alberta on fish suggested that waiting before reaching for medications may be beneficial for humans. Letting the mild fever run its course helped the fish clear their bodies of infection rapidly (within 7 days) with controlled inflammation and repairing of damaged tissues. Since...

The University of Utah Health research team sought to explain how our bodies and senses respond to everyday constant demands. They were able to discover a wide network of interactions that exhibited how cells adjust in real time in response to day-to-day stressors. Jared Rutter, Ph.D, one of the corresponding...

Influenza viruses’ stealthiness can be attributed to its ability to mutate rapidly, making them more resilient to medicines. Consequently, there is a dire need for the production of new active ingredients to be able to continuously provide effective treatment of the illness in the future. A team from the University...

In earlier cytological studies on chromatids of metaphase, chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) sequencing supported the assumption that chromosomes coil into a spiral called chromonema. However, the direct visualization of the chromonema advocating the helical model is lacking. The Leibniz Institute and the Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy...

Abundant evidence has shown metabolic benefits of fasting. However, a new mechanistic study conducted on mouse models from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, provided a word of caution that skipping meals might pose detrimental health risks that could lead to heart disease. They exhibited the fundamental biology...

In the context of climate change, one of the factors that affect plant physiology on all plant ecosystems worldwide is drought. Even though new tools, such as transcriptomic or metabolomic technologies, have been designed to evaluate drought stress in plants, they are still hard to apply in natural ecosystems especially...

Bacterial resistance typically impedes antibiotic development as failure on this stage never gets the drug to clinical practice. It also limits the drug’s potential marketplace value. A research team from the University of California - Santa Barbara developed a drug that simultaneously disintegrates most bacterial functions, explaining its ability to...

p97 protein’s role in the human body includes disposing of proteins that are already past their shelf life. They work with co-factors or binding partners which help them target proteins that need to be eliminated. In a study conducted by experts from the Tufts University School of Medicine, they’ve disclosed...

Physicist Robert Prevedel designed a microscope that could solve the research problems at European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. The challenge lies in capturing neural activity deep inside a live mouse brain when the organ itself is moving. He said that the deeper the imaging goes, the more distortions...