Biotechnology News

November 26, 2025

Top Headlines

CRISPR Wheat That Makes Its Own Fertilizer

Nov. 24, 2025 UC Davis researchers engineered wheat that encourages soil bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into plant-usable fertilizer. By boosting a natural compound in the plant, the wheat triggers bacteria to form biofilms that enable nitrogen ...

Scientists Capture Stunning Real-time Images of DNA Damage and Repair

Nov. 23, 2025 Scientists have created a live-cell DNA sensor that reveals how damage appears and disappears inside living cells, capturing the entire repair sequence as it unfolds. Instead of freezing cells at different points, researchers can now watch damage ...

This Engineered Fungus Cuts Emissions and Tastes Like Meat

Nov. 21, 2025 Scientists used CRISPR to boost the efficiency and digestibility of a fungus already known for its meatlike qualities. The modified strain grows protein far more quickly and with much less sugar while producing substantially fewer emissions. It also ...

Scientists Grow a Tiny Human “Blood Factory” That Actually Works

Nov. 20, 2025 Researchers have recreated a miniature human bone marrow system that mirrors the real structure found inside our bones. The model includes the full mix of cells and signals needed for blood production and even maintains this process for weeks. It ...

Scientists Finally Discover What’s Fueling Massive Sargassum Blooms

Nov. 19, 2025 Massive Sargassum blooms sweeping across the Caribbean and Atlantic are fueled by a powerful nutrient partnership: phosphorus pulled to the surface by equatorial upwelling and nitrogen supplied by cyanobacteria living directly on the drifting algae. ...

Amazon Scorpion Venom Shows Stunning Power Against Breast Cancer

Nov. 18, 2025 Scientists are turning venom, radioisotopes, engineered proteins, and AI into powerful new tools against cancer. From Amazonian scorpions yielding molecules that kill breast cancer cells as effectively as chemotherapy, to improved fibrin sealants ...

A Tiny Worm Just Revealed a Big Secret About Living Longer

Nov. 14, 2025 Scientists studying aging found that sensory inputs like touch and smell can cancel out the lifespan-boosting effects of dietary restriction by suppressing the key longevity gene fmo-2. When overactivated, the gene makes worms oddly indifferent to ...

Brain-like Learning Found in Bacterial Nanopores

Nov. 11, 2025 Scientists at EPFL have unraveled the mystery behind why biological nanopores, tiny molecular holes used in both nature and biotechnology, sometimes behave unpredictably. By experimenting with engineered versions of the bacterial pore aerolysin, ...

Microbes That Breathe Rust Could Help Save Earth’s Oceans

Nov. 9, 2025 Researchers from the University of Vienna discovered MISO bacteria that use iron minerals to oxidize toxic sulfide, creating energy and producing sulfate. This biological process reshapes how scientists understand global sulfur and iron cycles. By ...

Plastic-eating Bacteria Discovered in the Ocean

Nov. 4, 2025 Beneath the ocean’s surface, bacteria have evolved specialized enzymes that can digest PET plastic, the material used in bottles and clothes. Researchers at KAUST discovered that a unique molecular signature distinguishes enzymes capable of ...

Sunflowers May Be the Future of "Vegan Meat"

Nov. 4, 2025 A collaboration between Brazilian and German researchers has led to a sunflower-based meat substitute that’s high in protein and minerals. The new ingredient, made from refined sunflower flour, delivers excellent nutritional value and a mild ...

Ancient Viruses Hidden Inside Bacteria Could Help Defeat Modern Infections

Nov. 3, 2025 Penn State scientists uncovered an ancient bacterial defense where dormant viral DNA helps bacteria fight new viral threats. The enzyme PinQ flips bacterial genes to create protective proteins that block infection. Understanding this mechanism could ...

Latest Headlines

updated 2:47pm EST

The Surprising Reason Bees Replace Their Queens

Nov. 22, 2025 Worker bees stage coordinated revolts when viral infections weaken their queen and lower her pheromone output. This disruption drives many of the queen failures that beekeepers struggle with today. ...

Scientists Recover 40,000-Year-Old Mammoth RNA Still Packed With Clues

Nov. 15, 2025 Researchers have sequenced the oldest RNA ever recovered, taken from a woolly mammoth frozen for nearly 40,000 years. The RNA reveals which genes were active in its tissues, offering a rare glimpse ...

Scientists Uncover a Hidden Universal Law Limiting Life’s Growth

Nov. 11, 2025 Japanese researchers uncovered a universal rule describing why life’s growth slows despite abundant nutrients. Their “global constraint principle” integrates classic biological laws to show ...

Life Found in a Place Scientists Thought Impossible

Nov. 9, 2025 Deep beneath the ocean, scientists uncovered thriving microbial life in one of Earth’s harshest environments—an area with a pH of 12, where survival seems nearly impossible. Using lipid ...

Scientists Teach Bacteria the Octopus’s Secret to Camouflage

Nov. 3, 2025 Researchers at UC San Diego have figured out how to get bacteria to produce xanthommatin, the pigment that lets octopuses and squids camouflage. By linking the pigment’s production to bacterial ...

A New Microscopy Breakthrough Is Revealing the Oceans’ Invisible Life

Nov. 2, 2025 A pandemic-era breakthrough has allowed scientists to literally expand our view of plankton. By using ultrastructure expansion microscopy, researchers visualized the inner workings of hundreds of ...

Before Plants or Animals, Fungi Conquered Earth’s Surface

Oct. 28, 2025 Fungi’s evolutionary roots stretch far deeper than once believed — up to 1.4 billion years ago, long before plants or animals appeared. Using advanced molecular dating and gene transfer analysis, ...

MIT Scientists Discover Hidden 3D Genome Loops That Survive Cell Division

Oct. 24, 2025 MIT researchers discovered that the genome’s 3D structure doesn’t vanish during cell division as previously thought. Instead, tiny loops called microcompartments remain (and even strengthen) ...

How This Odd-Looking Animal Outsmarted Aging

Oct. 20, 2025 Naked mole-rats seem to have found nature’s cheat code for longevity. Scientists discovered that small tweaks in one of their proteins make it better at fixing DNA damage, helping the animals ...

Glowing Sugars Show How Microbes Eat the Ocean's Carbon

Oct. 19, 2025 Researchers have developed a light-emitting sugar probe that exposes how marine microbes break down complex carbohydrates. The innovative fluorescent tool allows scientists to visualize when and ...

Scientists Finally Read the Hidden DNA Code That Shapes Disease

Oct. 18, 2025 EMBL researchers created SDR-seq, a next-generation tool that decodes both DNA and RNA from the same cell. It finally opens access to non-coding regions, where most disease-associated genetic ...

Scientists Unlock Nature’s Secret to a Cancer-Fighting Molecule

Oct. 9, 2025 Researchers have cracked the code behind how plants make mitraphylline, a rare cancer-fighting molecule. Their discovery of two critical enzymes explains how nature builds complex spiro-shaped ...

The Billion-Year Reign of Fungi That Predated Plants and Made Earth Livable

Oct. 1, 2025 Fungi may have shaped Earth’s landscapes long before plants appeared. By combining rare gene transfers with fossil evidence, researchers have traced fungal origins back nearly a billion years ...

Pollen Holds a Secret That Could Save Honeybees

Sep. 30, 2025 Scientists have discovered that pollen is a hidden source of natural medicine for honeybees. Symbiotic bacteria called Streptomyces produce antimicrobial compounds that fight deadly bee and plant ...

Stunning Images Reveal How Antibiotics Shatter Bacterial Defenses

Sep. 29, 2025 Researchers have revealed how polymyxins, crucial last-resort antibiotics, break down bacterial armor by forcing cells to overproduce and shed it. Astonishingly, the drugs only kill bacteria when ...

It’s Not Just Genes — Parents Can Pass Down Longevity Another Way

Oct. 5, 2025 Scientists studying tiny roundworms have uncovered how the secrets of a long life can be passed from parents to their offspring — without changing DNA. The discovery shows that when certain ...

Miscarriages, Down Syndrome, and Infertility All Linked to This Hidden DNA Process

Sep. 28, 2025 Human fertility hinges on a delicate molecular ballet that begins even before birth. UC Davis researchers have uncovered how special protein networks safeguard chromosomes as eggs and sperm form, ...

Mushrooms Evolved Psychedelics Twice, Baffling Scientists

Sep. 24, 2025 Researchers found that magic mushrooms and fiber caps independently evolved different biochemical pathways to create psilocybin. This convergence shows nature’s ingenuity, but the reason why ...

Hidden Gene Trick Lets Ants Smell With Super Precision

Sep. 20, 2025 Researchers uncovered how ants keep their powerful sense of smell clear: by using a genetic safeguard that silences surrounding receptor genes. This discovery not only solves a decades-old puzzle but ...

A Plant Compound Might Be the Secret Weapon Against Gum Disease

Sep. 30, 2025 A team of researchers tested morin, a plant compound, against gum disease bacteria and found strong antimicrobial benefits. By encapsulating it in polymers, they created a powdered form for oral ...

Tiny Protein Pairs May Hold the Secret to Life’s Origin

Sep. 18, 2025 A team from the University of Illinois has uncovered surprising evolutionary links between the genetic code and tiny protein fragments called dipeptides. By analyzing billions of dipeptide sequences ...

Scientists Just Found the “master Switch” for Plant Growth

Sep. 16, 2025 Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cracked open the secrets of plant stem cells, mapping key genetic regulators in maize and Arabidopsis. By using single-cell RNA sequencing, they ...

Could These Strange Rocks Be the First True Evidence of Life on Mars?

Sep. 21, 2025 In Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel formation, Perseverance has found rocks rich in organic molecules and minerals linked to microbial metabolism. Their arrangement hints at redox reactions that ...

NASA's Perseverance Rover Finds Clues to Ancient Mars Chemistry and Possible Life

Sep. 12, 2025 Mars’ Jezero Crater holds signs of ancient water and strange mineral reactions, some linked with organic compounds. With Perseverance’s samples and AI-refined mineral maps, scientists are closing ...

Scientists Just Found Real Teeth Growing on a Fish’s Head

Oct. 16, 2025 Scientists discovered true teeth growing on the head of the spotted ratfish, a distant shark relative. The toothed structure, called a tenaculum, helps males hold onto females during mating. Genetic ...

A Tiny Embryo Fold Changed the Course of Evolution

Sep. 4, 2025 A small tissue fold in fly embryos, once thought purposeless, plays a vital role in stabilizing tissues. Researchers show that it absorbs stress during early development, and its position and timing ...

Cells “vomit” Waste in a Hidden Healing Shortcut That Could Also Fuel Cancer

Aug. 30, 2025 Scientists have uncovered a surprising new healing mechanism in injured cells called cathartocytosis, in which cells "vomit" out their internal machinery to revert more quickly to a stem ...

Living Night Lights: Succulents That Store Sunlight and Shine for Hours

Aug. 29, 2025 Scientists have created glow-in-the-dark succulents that can recharge with sunlight and shine for hours, rivaling small night lights. Unlike costly and complex genetic engineering methods, this ...

Scientists Recreate Life’s First Step: Linking Amino Acids to RNA

Aug. 28, 2025 Researchers demonstrated how amino acids could spontaneously attach to RNA under early Earth-like conditions using thioesters, providing a long-sought clue to the origins of protein synthesis. This ...

Extinct Human Relatives Left a Genetic Gift That Helped People Thrive in the Americas

Aug. 24, 2025 Scientists have discovered that a gene called MUC19, inherited from Denisovans through ancient interbreeding, may have played a vital role in helping Indigenous ancestors adapt as they migrated into ...