Food poisoning is an ongoing problem in the food supply line around the world. Even in the cleanest and most stringent of countries, outbreaks of illness still occur every now and then from some contaminated food source. This isn’t surprising, though, as there are so many parts of the food processing pipeline, from farm to […]
Yellow fever is one of those diseases that you really want to avoid contracting. But for 200,000 people every year, they don’t receive that option. A Yellow Condition The yellow fever virus is the originating name for its parent genus of Flaviviruses, where the yellow of its name in Latin (Flavus) colors all the rest […]
When discussing pathogens infecting cells, we often turn to discussing viruses. But bacteria also have their methods of infection and one of those ways involves injecting toxic compounds into target cells. This usually helps in their bodily invasion by weakening the immune system or outright killing cells. A Dangerous Concoction These compounds come in the […]
It’s best just to start off with the most basic, blatant information about gluten and claims of reactions to it, before we get into today’s study. Debunking Some Pseudoscience Unless you have celiac disease, you cannot have a reaction to gluten. So-called “gluten intolerance” was debunked by the very team of scientists that claimed its […]
Parasites are some of the most diverse organisms found in nature. They can take a number of different forms and are spread liberally across the kingdom of life. From bacteria to plants to even some creatures in the mammal realm, parasites are everywhere. The Diverse World of Parasites However, even with that understanding, that doesn’t […]
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 […]
When dealing with fungi, it is never just the organism itself that is the problem, but also the many mutualistic relationships it has in the soil. In some cases, those relationships are antagonistic and can be used against fungi that attack crops, such as by using specialized mycoviruses. But even in the cases where the […]
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 […]
Antibiotic resistance continues to be a growing problem in medicine. While overuse of antibiotics plays its role, the general fact of population and usage over time lends itself to the same outcome. Some resistance can be mitigated by use of multi-drug systems that make it mathematically impossible for any one bacteria to become resistant to […]
