Depending on your point of view about biotechnology, recent revelations about the effects of CRISPR on organisms could be good or bad. As a science writer for Bioscription, I take the news as a little of both. Gene Drives So, what happened? Recent research between the University of Kansas and Cornell University has discovered that […]
Another success of CRISPR-Cas9 has just been announced with the production of pigs that are likely resistant to one of the scourges of porcine husbandry, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS). This viral disease infects thousands of pigs worldwide and is highly fatal, especially for pregnant sows or young pigs. As for the industry itself, […]
The other day on Bioscription, we discussed the South Korean Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and their work with CRISPR-Cpf1 in soybeans. Today, the same organization has released a study on a new form of CRISPR-Cas9 that they isolated from Campylobacter jejuni. This resulted in the acronym CjCas9 for it. A Problem Of Size A […]
CRISPR’s capabilities have been expanded once again, this time to be used to increase the amount of healthy fats in soybeans. Let’s skip right into the details for once without any backstory. To The Research! Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea have been working on their own variant of CRISPR […]
What do the terms biorobotics and biocomputing mean to you? For some of you in the know, you may think to bring up the research to design robotic systems that mimic living movements and activities, a la the MIT Cheetah robot. And, while this is indeed a form of biorobotics, it’s on the opposite end […]
Is it ethical to conduct genetic modifications on humans? It’s one thing to discuss such modifications to be done on adults that are requesting it, but what about with infants or fetuses? That’s where the conversation becomes much more complicated. The Other Concerns Most people would likely agree that modification of defective genes that would […]
Welcome to Miniposts, a series of articles based on posts made to the Bioscription Facebook page. Due to their often lengthy nature, it was decided that reposting them to the main site was appropriate. Please go here to view the original post. A significant accomplishment with CRISPR has been recently achieved. You may have heard […]
Perfectly mapping and even regrowing parts of a brain has long been something only considered to be a thing in science fiction. The technology has always seemed like it was centuries away from ever becoming a reality. But, day by day, researchers continue to develop new techniques and methods that push the boundaries of what […]
Agriculture is a constant battle against viruses and bacteria, while farmers try to protect their crops through the means available to them. The cost of yield losses and undesirable crops worldwide due to these invaders is an astronomical number every single year. Thus, any opportunity to provide protection against a wide swath of the attackers […]
