Biotech

Many aromatic compounds, such as phenols, cresols and styrenes, are toxic to organisms and harmful to the environment. They can accumulate as a result of industrial processes and harm ecosystems. Soil bacteria can help to […]

For more than 40 years, the Golden State Killer haunted California. A serial rapist and murderer active in the 1970s and ’80s, he eluded detectives for decades. By 2018, hope of identifying him was fading, […]

Seals are carnivorous marine mammals that are well adapted to hunting for fish underwater, where visibility is poor. In such conditions, seals rely on their highly sensitive whiskers to detect tiny water movements left behind […]

Today’s nearly $70 billion U.S. biofuels economy is powered by two technology toolboxes. Biochemical technologies—used to produce around 17 billion gallons of ethanol annually—leverage microorganisms to convert plant biomass sugars into alcohols, other biofuels, or […]

For many people, “protein” is the key element of a food order. However, beyond the preferred choice of meats or plant-based alternatives, proteins encompass a large class of complex biomolecules whose chemical structure is encoded […]

Proteins are far more than nutrients we track on a food label. Present in every cell of our bodies, they work like nature’s molecular machines. They walk, stretch, bend, and flex to do their jobs, […]

A multi-institutional team of scientists, co-led by Northwestern University, has taken a crucial step toward implantable “living pharmacies”—tiny devices containing engineered cells that continuously produce medicines inside the body. In a new study published in […]

In a major advance applying insights from quantum physics to the inner workings of biology, a team of WashU researchers has successfully implanted quantum sensors in living cells to measure shifts in magnetism and temperature. […]

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” goes the old adage, which Rice University professor James Chappell completely ignored in a recent Nature Communications publication. In the study, Chappell describes an innovation in plasmids, circular […]

CRISPR is a powerful DNA-editing tool that has underpinned huge advancements in human health care in the last decade. It is a precision tool, but is not perfect, and misplaced DNA edits can compromise safety […]