Biotechnology and Bioengineering News

June 11, 2025

Top Headlines

Engineered Microglia Show Promise for Treating Alzheimer's and Other Brain Diseases

Apr. 21, 2025 — A new way to deliver disease-fighting proteins throughout the brain may improve the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders, according to scientists. By engineering human ...

Engineering Smart Delivery for Gene Editors

Apr. 9, 2025 — A research team has developed an advanced delivery system that transports gene-editing tools based on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system into living cells with significantly greater efficiency than before. Their technology, ENVLPE, uses engineered ...

Universal RNA Barcoding System for Tracking Gene Transfer in Bacteria

Mar. 18, 2025 — In the microscopic world of bacteria, gene transfer is a powerful mechanism that can alter cellular function, drive antibiotic resistance and even shape entire ecosystems. Now an interdisciplinary group of researchers has developed an innovative RNA ...

How Bacteria 'Vaccinate' Themselves With Genetic Material from Dormant Viruses

Mar. 21, 2025 — Scientists say they have shed new light on how bacteria protect themselves from certain phage invaders -- by seizing genetic material from weakened, dormant phages and using it to 'vaccinate' ...

New CRISPR Tool Enables More Seamless Gene Editing -- And Improved Disease Modeling

Mar. 20, 2025 — Advances in the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 over the past 15 years have yielded important new insights into the roles that specific genes play in many diseases. But to date this ...

RNA Origami: Artificial Cytoskeletons to Build Synthetic Cells

Mar. 17, 2025 — With the long-term goal of creating living cells from non-living components, scientists in the field of synthetic biology work with RNA origami. This tool uses the multifunctionality of the natural RNA biomolecule to fold new building blocks, making ...

New CRISPRs Expand Upon the Original's Abilities

Mar. 13, 2025 — Researchers have discovered a handful of new CRISPR-Cas systems that could add to the capabilities of the already transformational gene editing and DNA manipulation toolbox. Of the new recruits, one system from bacteria commonly found in dairy cows ...

Breakthrough CRISPR-Based Test Offers Faster, More Accurate Diagnosis for Fungal Pneumonia

Mar. 3, 2025 — Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is the most common fungal pneumonia in children. But current diagnostic methods can take days an require an invasive bronchoscopy procedure. Now, a new ...

Engineering Biological Reaction Crucibles to Rapidly Produce Proteins

Feb. 11, 2025 — Biomedical engineers have demonstrated a new synthetic approach that turbocharges bacteria into producing more of a specific protein, even proteins that would normally destroy them, such as antibiotics. The technique could be a boon to industries ...

Engineered Animals Show New Way to Fight Mercury Pollution

Feb. 12, 2025 — Using genes borrowed from bacteria, researchers have demonstrated fish and flies can be engineered to break down methylmercury and remove it from their bodies as a less harmful gas, offering new ways to tackle one of the world's most dangerous ...

Novel 'Living' Biomaterial Aims to Advance Regenerative Medicine

Feb. 6, 2025 — A biomaterial that can mimic certain behaviors within biological tissues could advance regenerative medicine, disease modeling, soft robotics and more, according to ...

Researchers Discover New Way to Customize Living Materials for Tissue Engineering, Drug Delivery and 3D Printing

Feb. 5, 2025 — Researchers have revealed novel sequence-structure-property relationships for customizing engineered living materials (ELMs), enabling more precise control over their structure and how they respond ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:30am EDT

New Light-Tuned Chemical Tools Control Processes in Living Cells

Jan. 30, 2025 — A research group has developed new advanced light-controlled tools that enable precise control of proteins in real time in living cells. This groundbreaking research opens doors to new methods for ...

Final Synthetic Yeast Chromosome Unlocks New Era in Biotechnology

Jan. 22, 2025 — Scientists have completed construction of the final chromosome in the worlds' first synthetic yeast genome following more than a decade of work, opening new possibilities for creating resilient, ...

Research Using Non-Toxic Bacteria to Fight High-Mortality Cancers Prepares for Clinical Trials

Jan. 16, 2025 — Scientists have made 'exciting,' patient-friendly advances in developing a non-toxic bacterial therapy, BacID, to deliver cancer-fighting drugs ...

Programming Cells: Revolutionizing Genetic Circuits With Cutting-Edge RNA Tools

Dec. 20, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new technology that improves the precision and integration density of synthetic genetic ...

Researchers Challenge Longstanding Theories in Cellular Reprogramming

Nov. 1, 2024 — A team led by researchers has discovered that a group of cells located in the skin and other areas of the body, called neural crest stem cells, are the source of reprogrammed neurons found by other ...

Tailored Microbe Communities

Sep. 12, 2024 — How can computer models help design microbial communities? Researchers examined the development perspectives of so-called synthetic biology. In a new article, they explain why computer-aided biology ...

New Research on Plant Stem Cells Shines Light on How Plants Grow Stronger

Sep. 12, 2024 — A professor of plant molecular biology wants people to know that plants have stem cells too. Just like in the medical world, plant stem cells could support human growth and development when used to ...

Searching Old Stem Cells That Stay Young Forever

Aug. 19, 2024 — The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is potentially immortal. Using molecular genetic methods, developmental biologists have now identified possible candidates for multipotent stem cells in the sea ...

Reduce, Reuse, 'Re-Fly-Cle'

Aug. 13, 2024 — Black soldier flies are now commercially used to consume organic waste -- but genetic modifications proposed by bioscientists could see the insects digesting a wider variety of refuse, while also ...

New Genetically Engineered Wood Can Store Carbon and Reduce Emissions

Aug. 12, 2024 — Researchers genetically modified poplar trees to produce high-performance, structural wood without the use of chemicals or energy intensive ...

New, Holistic Way to Teach Synthetic Biology

June 27, 2024 — Synthetic biology combines principles from science, engineering and social science, creating emerging technologies such as alternative meats and mRNA vaccines; Deconstructing synthetic biology across ...

Unlocking the World of Bacteria

June 26, 2024 — Bacteria possess unique traits with great potential for benefiting society. However, current genetic engineering methods to harness these advantages are limited to a small fraction of bacterial ...

New, Modified CRISPR Protein Can Fit Inside Virus Used for Gene Therapy

May 30, 2024 — Researchers have developed a novel version of a key CRISPR gene-editing protein that shows efficient editing activity and is small enough to be packaged within a non-pathogenic virus that can deliver ...

Researchers Expose New Symbiosis Origin Theories, Identify Experimental Systems for Plant Life

May 29, 2024 — Research work on symbiosis -- a mutually beneficial relationship between living organisms -- is pushing back against the newer theory of a 'single-origin' of root nodule symbiosis (RNS) -- ...

Marriage of Synthetic Biology and 3D Printing Produces Programmable Living Materials

May 1, 2024 — Scientists are harnessing cells to make new types of materials that can grow, repair themselves and even respond to their environment. These solid 'engineered living materials' are made by ...

Discovery of Mechanism Plants Use to Change Seed Oil Could Impact Industrial, Food Oils

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new mechanism of oil biosynthesis and found a way to genetically engineer a type of test plant to more efficiently produce different kinds of seed oil that it otherwise ...

Research on RNA Editing Illuminates Possible Lifesaving Treatments for Genetic Diseases

Apr. 29, 2024 — The research explores how CRISPR can be used to edit ...

Plastic-Free Vegan Leather That Dyes Itself Grown from Bacteria

Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers have genetically engineered bacteria to grow animal- and plastic-free leather that dyes ...

Synthetic Gene Helps Explain the Mysteries of Transcription Across Species

Mar. 6, 2024 — 'Random DNA' is naturally active in the one-celled fungi yeast, while such DNA is turned off as its natural state in mammalian cells, despite their having a common ancestor a billion years ...

Key Genes Linked to DNA Damage and Human Disease Uncovered

Feb. 14, 2024 — Scientists unveil 145 genes vital for genome health, and possible strategies to curb progression of human genomic ...

Low-Cost Microbe Can Speed Biological Discovery

Feb. 13, 2024 — Researchers have created a new version of a microbe to compete economically with E. coli -- a bacteria commonly used as a research tool due to its ability to synthesize proteins -- to conduct ...

Scientists Develop New Biocontainment Method for Industrial Organisms

Feb. 6, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new biocontainment method for limiting the escape of genetically engineered organisms used in industrial ...

Using Computers to Design Proteins Allows Researchers to Make Tunable Hydrogels That Can Form Both Inside and Outside of Cells

Jan. 30, 2024 — New research demonstrates a new class of hydrogels that can form not just outside cells, but also inside of them. These hydrogels exhibited similar mechanical properties both inside and outside of ...

Smart Skin Bacteria Are Able to Secrete and Produce Molecules to Treat Acne

Jan. 9, 2024 — An experimental study has shown that a type of skin bacterium can efficiently be engineered to produce a protein to regulate sebum production. This application could treat acne without compromising ...

How Researchers Are 'CReATiNG' Synthetic Chromosomes Faster and Cheaper

Dec. 21, 2023 — A new technique to clone and reassemble DNA, dubbed CReATiNG, could simplify and lower the cost to make synthetic chromosomes. Potential applications are numerous, including pharmaceutical ...

Enzymes Can't Tell Artificial DNA from the Real Thing

Dec. 13, 2023 — Researchers have come one step closer to unlocking the potential of synthetic DNA, which could help scientists develop never-before-seen proteins in the ...

Team Creates Synthetic Enzymes to Unravel Molecular Mysteries

Nov. 9, 2023 — A bioengineer has developed synthetic enzymes that can control the behavior of the signaling protein Vg1, which plays a key role in the development of muscle, bone and blood in vertebrate embryos. ...

Scientists Use Quantum Biology, AI to Sharpen Genome Editing Tool

Nov. 9, 2023 — Scientists 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 ...

First Live Birth of a Chimeric Monkey Using Embryonic Stem Cell Lines

Nov. 9, 2023 — A team of researchers has reported for the first time the live birth of a monkey that contains a high proportion of cells derived from a monkey stem cell line. This 'chimeric' monkey is ...

Yeast With an Over Half Synthetic Genome Is Created in the Lab

Nov. 8, 2023 — Researchers have combined over seven synthetic chromosomes that were made in the lab into a single yeast cell, resulting in a strain with more than 50% synthetic DNA that survives and replicates ...