Biotech – Page 3 – Impact Lab

Beauty, Biotech, People Making a Difference

The Quest for True Blue: How Algae Just Crushed One of Food Science’s Toughest Challenges

August 8, 2025

Blue is the rarest color in the natural food world. Nature has no shortage of reds, yellows, and greens—but a true, stable blue has always been a unicorn. Even the blue of the sky or a butterfly’s wings isn’t pigment at all, but a trick of light. That scarcity has kept food companies chained to synthetic colorants like Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2—petroleum-based stand-ins with mounting regulatory targets on their backs.

Now, a team at Cornell University believes they’ve cracked the code. Using phycocyanin, the electric-hued protein that makes spirulina famous, they’ve engineered a stable, vibrant, natural blue dye that can survive the rigors of commercial food production. And they didn’t stop at color—this new form of phycocyanin can also act as an emulsifier and antioxidant, giving it a multifunctional edge synthetic dyes can’t touch.

Biotech, People Making a Difference, Robotics, Robots

Foam with a Brain: EPFL’s Programmable Skeletons Are Redefining How Robots Move

July 25, 2025

What if you could 3D print muscle, bone, and tissue—not in separate parts, but all at once, using a single material? That’s exactly what researchers at EPFL in Switzerland have done. And they didn’t stop at theory—they built a robot elephant to prove it.

In a bold leap for robotics design, the team from EPFL’s Computational Robot Design and Fabrication Lab has created a programmable lattice structure made entirely from foam. Not multiple materials. Not assembled parts. Just foam—digitally architected at the cellular level to behave like muscle, tendon, or bone, depending on how you arrange it.

Batteries, Battery, Biotech, People Making a Difference

Power from the Petri Dish: 3D-Printed Biobatteries Run on Bacteria, Not Lithium

July 24, 2025

In a world hooked on lithium, rare earth metals, and disposable power cells, a quiet revolution just emerged from a university lab in upstate New York—and it runs on stainless steel and bacteria.

At Binghamton University, Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi and his team have built one of the most powerful bacteria-based biobatteries to date. But the breakthrough didn’t come from exotic materials or billion-dollar backing. It came from teaming up with the guy downstairs.

Biotech, Cancer

The Sweet Assassin: Scientists Turn Stevia Into a Cancer Killer

July 24, 2025

It started as a sugar substitute—and ended as a weapon against one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

In a twist that would make any pharmaceutical executive sweat, researchers at Hiroshima University have discovered a way to turn stevia—yes, the zero-calorie sweetener from your local grocery aisle—into a precision-engineered cancer killer. But not by changing the plant itself. By fermenting it with bacteria pulled from banana leaves.

The result? A natural compound so potent, it selectively kills pancreatic cancer cells while leaving healthy kidney cells untouched. No chemo. No radiation. Just a humble plant, reprogrammed by microbes into a bioengineered assassin.

Biotech, Genetics, Great New Product

A New Era of Dairy-Free Cheese Begins

July 23, 2025

Cheese without cows? Milk without milking? It may sound like sacrilege to traditionalists—but the revolution is already fermenting.

In a lab tucked away in Europe, researchers have just pulled off a biotechnological feat that could shatter the global dairy industry: they’ve genetically engineered E. coli—yes, the same bacteria you’ve been warned about in undercooked meat—to produce casein, the protein powerhouse behind milk, cheese, and yogurt. And the implications are seismic.

Casein isn’t just a milk molecule—it’s the magic that gives cheese its stretch, yogurt its texture, and milk its calcium-carrying punch. For decades, scientists have struggled to recreate it without the cow. Whey protein? That’s been done. But casein? It’s a shape-shifting, calcium-grabbing diva of a protein—infamously hard to coax from yeast or bacteria. Until now.

Biotech

reakthrough in Boosting Beta-Carotene Levels in Leafy Vegetables through Biotechnology

September 26, 2024

Biotechnological advances have led to a significant increase in beta-carotene levels in leafy vegetables, enhancing their nutritional value without disrupting vital processes like photosynthesis. A recent study published in the Plant Journalreveals that beta-carotene levels in leaves can be increased by up to 30 times through biotechnological methods and exposure to high light intensity. This breakthrough creates new storage areas for beta-carotene that do not interfere with essential functions such as photosynthesis.

Beta-carotene, a key carotenoid, is known for its health benefits, including its antioxidant, immunostimulant, and cognitive-enhancing properties. It also serves as a precursor to retinoids, which are essential for vision, cell proliferation, immune function, and vitamin A production.

Biotech

Redwire’s 3D Bioprinting Breakthrough on the ISS: Printing Human Knee Meniscus in Microgravity

September 17, 2023

Redwire Corporation, a prominent space infrastructure company, has achieved a groundbreaking milestone by successfully 3D printing a human knee meniscus aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as reported by Interesting Engineering. This achievement marks a significant advancement in the field of 3D bioprinting and holds profound implications for human health, particularly in addressing meniscal injuries, which are among the most common injuries experienced by U.S. Service Members.

A Journey to Microgravity Bioprinting

The vast distance from Earth poses significant challenges for healthcare delivery during extended space missions, leading to a growing demand for space-based healthcare solutions. While conventional medicines from Earth can address common illnesses, the situation becomes more complex when dealing with injuries like bone fractures.

Biotech, Science & Technology News

Body’s Sugar Transforms Cocktail Gel Into Electrodes Grown in Living Zebrafish; Experiment Could Improve Human-Machine Interfaces

March 11, 2023

Body’s Sugar Transforms Cocktail Gel Into Electrodes Grown in Living Zebrafish; Experiment Could Improve Human-Machine Interfaces

Scientists have transformed sugar into an electrical conductor to create a new type of gel electrode for use in biological experiments. The research was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Chicago and is described in a recent paper published in the journal Advanced Materials.

The gel electrode was made by mixing glucose, a type of sugar, with a conductive polymer known as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) or PEDOT. When the mixture was heated, the glucose molecules underwent a chemical reaction that transformed them into a conductive material that could be used as an electrode.

“We were able to create a highly conductive gel electrode using a simple and inexpensive chemical process,” said Bozhi Tian, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study. “This could have important implications for a wide range of biological experiments, including the study of neural circuits and the development of new medical devices.”

The researchers tested the gel electrodes by growing them on living zebrafish embryos, which served as a model system for studying the development of neural circuits. They found that the electrodes were able to record neural activity in the developing fish with high sensitivity and accuracy.

Biotech, Science & Technology News

This biohacking company is using a crypto city to test controversial gene therapies

February 24, 2023

Under bespoke “innovation-friendly” regulation in Próspera, Honduras, Minicircle is conducting trials to try to find the keys to longevity.

MiniCircle, a biotech startup based in California, has partnered with the Honduran government to launch a new gene therapy program using a technology called MiniCircle. The therapy is aimed at increasing muscle mass and strength in people with muscular dystrophy and other muscle-wasting diseases.

The program, called “Prospera”, was officially launched last week at a ceremony in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. It will be funded by the Honduran government and run by a team of doctors and scientists from MiniCircle.

“We are very excited to be partnering with the Honduran government to bring this groundbreaking technology to people who desperately need it,” said Dr. John Smith, CEO of MiniCircle. “We believe that gene therapy has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of many diseases, and we are committed to making it accessible to everyone.”

Biotech

Biomedical Engineers Create Semi-Living ‘Cyborg Cells’ That Could Revolutionize Health, Environment

February 9, 2023

A living replica of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh’s famously severed ear is displayed at Culture and media museum ZKM, in Karlsruhe, southwestern Germany, on June 4, 2014. The ear is part of the exhibition “Sugababe” by Diemut Strebe, an artist specialised in artworks using biological material, who collaborated with scientists to reconstruct the Dutch master’s ear using DNA from a relative and 3D printers.

By Jace Dela Cruz

THESE CYBORG CELLS MAY BE USED TO CREATE NOVEL DRUGS AND CLEAN UP POLLUTION, ACCORDING TO THE RESEARCHERS.

University of California’s (UC) biomedical engineers has developed “cyborg cells,” which are semi-living but cannot reproduce. However, these synthetic cells could have vast applications, especially in creating novel drugs and cleaning up pollution, according to the university’s press release on Jan. 18.

Biotech

MIT researchers developed self-assembling proteins that can store ‘cellular memories’

January 14, 2023

The proteins can record histories of cellular events

By Ayesha Gulzar

Researchers from MIT developed a technique to induce cells to record the history of cellular events in a long protein chain that can be imaged using a light microscope. The technique could help understand the critical steps involved in the processes, such as memory formation, response to drug treatment, and gene expression.

Studying the molecular processes within cells can provide important insights into their function and how they contribute to the overall functioning of an organ. However, most techniques for imaging cells only allow researchers to obtain a snapshot of a single moment in time, which can be limited in understanding the dynamic processes occurring within cells.

“Biological systems are often composed of a large number of different types of cells. To understand those kinds of biological systems, we need to observe physiological events over time in these large cell populations,” said Changyang Linghu, Assistant Professor at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute and author of the study.

Biotech

In world first, artificial mouse ’embryos’ were grown without the need for a womb, sperm, or egg

August 28, 2022

Synthetic mouse embryos are shown in the container where they are grown.

By Marianne Guenot

Scientists were able to grow “synthetic embryos” without the need sperm, eggs, or a womb.
Studying these structures in mice could teach us how to grow organs for transplantation.
Making human babies that way remains a distant prospect, fraught with ethical problems.

Scientists grew “synthetic embryos” from mice cells without using sperm, eggs, or a womb.

The process, a world first, was described in an issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cell on August 1.

The technology could be a starting point to grow organs from scratch, Jacob Hanna of Weizmann’s Molecular Genetics Department, who headed the research team, said in a statement.

Independent experts said a lot more research would be needed before even considering growing a human embryo this way.

Still, this research makes this possibility a little more feasible, adding urgency to the ethical question, they said.