A massive new DNA sequencing project on the New York City subway has been completed and the results have just been published. And as many of us would have guessed, there’s a lot of bacteria on the subway, though most of it is harmless. More importantly, is what we don’t know about it. Continue reading… “Half the DNA on the NYC Subway is of no known organism”
Researchers announced in 2011 that they had reprogrammed the genome of the bacteria E. coli so that one of DNA’s methods of encoding information went unused. While a technological breakthrough, the scientists didn’t do anything with the new bit of genetic code. Now only a few years later, two different groups have taken this technological tour-de-force, and are using it in the same way: creating genetically modified organisms that may never be able to escape into the wild.
Continue reading… “Creating a bacterial kill switch using genome engineering”
A normal mitochondria (left) contain distinctive folds known as cristae, but these folds are lost in damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria (right).
A team of Penn State scientists have discovered a “maternal age effect” that could be used to predict the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations in maternal egg cells — and the transmission of these mutations to children — could provide valuable insights for genetic counseling. These mutations cause more than 200 diseases and contribute to others such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Brewbot
It isn’t easy to brew your own beer. It’s also hard to brew a good batch of beer, and even harder to duplicate that batch to drink later on. And it is near impossible to simplifying the process so that it’s as effortless as baking cookies because of all the factors involved with the brewing process, including fermentation, location, temperature, and of course the availability of equipment itself.
Continue reading… “Brewbot lets you download, brew and drink craft beer right in your own home”
Loring (front row, center) with the Loring Lab Group at the Center for Regenerative Medicine.
Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Scripps Research Institute, and her colleagues transplanted a set of cells into the spinal cords of mice that had lost use of their hind limbs to multiple sclerosis. Within a week, as the experimentalists had expected, the mice rejected the cells. But after another week, the mice began to walk.
Continue reading… “Reprogrammed cells could fight ‘untreatable’ diseases in the future”
Scientists launch a new landmark project to map the genetic causes of disease.
Within 20 years, chemotherapy will be obsolete. Scientists have predicted the end of chemotherapy after launching a landmark project to map 100,000 genomes to find the genes responsible for cancer and rare diseases.
By 2025 electric vehicles will take over traditional vehicles.
Technology is changing the way we live our day-to-day lives. It’s exciting to imagine what the future will bring. We may like to imagine one day living on Mars with technology that lets us teleport our toothpaste from CVS and the ability to apparate like Harry Potter.
Continue reading… “Top 10 ways technology will change the world by 2025”
“We’re considering the possibility that you can write software for living things with bio-code (aka DNA).”
May was a good month for miracles. During these first weeks in May, two separate teams working at two separate institutions announced that when it comes to creating life from scratch, well, there are a couple of new gods in town.
Researchers discovered a small molecule that inhibits an enzyme that degrades insulin.
Harvard researchers may have finally identified a chemical compound that could be used to study and treat diabetes after decades of searching. They have discovered a whole different method for maintaining insulin in the blood: by blocking the enzyme that breaks it down.
Continue reading… “Researchers discover new treatment for diabetes”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Some of us get bitten by the genealogical bug early in life, others a bit later. But there are few of us who haven’t been haunted by the question – where did I come from?
Continue reading… “Launching the Whole Earth Genealogy Project”
The new DNA test was over 80 percent successful in tracing people from around the world back to their ancestral origins.
Most people can broadly trace our ancestral roots to a country or general region on the planet. But a new DNA test can locate where your relatives lived over 1,000 years ago, and in some cases, even pinpoint the specific village or island your ancestors came from.
Continue reading… “New genetic test can trace your DNA back 1,000 years”
As much computing power as a 8-bit computer.
Nano-sized entities made of DNA that are able to perform the same kind of logic operations as a silicon-based computer have been introduced into a living animal. A computer inside a cockroach.
Continue reading… “DNA computers deliver drugs inside cockroaches”