Asco Candida albicans

Gene Editing Tool Allows Dozens Of Modifications Without DNA Cleavage

The benefits of modern gene editing techniques and tools come with some downsides. While the precision of new and improved CRISPR systems is continually on the rise, there are some fundamental aspects of the tools that scientists have long wished we could work around, in order to reduce even the most minimal risk of off-target […]

Insect eye

Developmental Biology Causes Extra Beetle Eyes To Form

Developmental biology can be a wild field to study. Through looking into the fundamental genes controlling body structure and the formation of the body as a whole, strange and bizarre effects can be discovered from the smallest of changes. One of the most famous being the creation of fruit flies that grow a pair of […]

Heat affected crop during a green drought

Drought Tolerance: Recent Efforts in Biotechnology

Drought continues to be a primary driver of famine and crop loss around the world, with the accompanied water shortages not only affecting food production, but also drinking water availability. It is predicted that, by 2025, over two and a half billion people will be facing those sort of water shortages, especially as the effects […]

Проводящий пучок Pteridium aquilinum

Plants Fight Flooding From Climate Change With Root Bending

Recent events shed a light on what we possibly face in the future, as hurricanes and other weather events become more severe due to the increased energy capacity of the atmosphere from greenhouse gas influx. The colloquial term for this process is climate change. And scientists are hard at work on finding ways to mitigate […]

Hippocampal neurons in culture

Buildup of Toxic Parkinson’s Protein Averted With CRISPR Screening

Decoding the impact of genetic manipulation is a convoluted task. When it comes to investigating multi-layered diseases like Parkinson’s, it is fully expected that a whole host of genes in sequence or applied in simultaneity are used to promote onset of the disease. The process of figuring out which genes are involved or, conversely, which […]

Mouse embryo

CRISPR Discovers Embryo Gene’s Fate And The Futility Of Mice Models

The field of embryology continues to be one with more mysteries than answers. Since it is difficult in many countries around the world to work directly with human embryos, animal models are often the best we can do. To a certain extent, stem cells allow us to at least observe the earliest stages of multicellular […]

Neuron-SEM-2

A Nematode Neuron Gene May Hold Key To Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders

Neurodegenerative disease research has long been focused on understanding the underlying genes and molecules involved in the breakdown of mental function. But it is a multi-faceted process, involving some of the most complicated cell types in the human body. The main focal point has been on determining how the diseases progress and what can be […]

PharbitisNil

Scientists Use CRISPR To Reinvent Traditional Japanese Flower

As things change, they ultimately stay the same. Or perhaps a better metaphor is that we always end up circling back to the beginning, retracing our own footsteps. That seems to be the case today, though not in a bad way. The Early Bloom One of the very first original biotech experiments back in the […]

SK8-18-2 human derived cells, fluorescence microscopy (29942101073)

An Official CRISPR Library For Genetic Silencing Guidance

While genetic modification tools like CRISPR have opened up new doors to making changes to genomes, it is still not as simple of a task as putting the CRISPR complex into a cell and having it go to work. It first must be given a target DNA sequence to focus on and, in most cases, […]

Corn and walnuts (26245603811)

First CRISPR Gene-Edited Crop Expected By 2020

Science in the field of biotechnology is changing rapidly and the effects of new technology is rippling out to affect many other parts of biology and medicine as a whole. It cannot be overstated how much of a revolution CRISPR tools have been and continue to be to dozens of scientific fields. While it may […]