Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology

Dr. Robert Davey, a virologist in the Department of Immunology and Virology at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, and his team focused their research on the mechanism by which Ebola virus infects a cell and discovered a promising drug therapy. They tested a small molecule called Tetrandrine, which was derived from a Chinese herb, on mice. Read on to find the results of this study. 

Researchers have been attempting to find ways to make humans immune to the HIV virus. Now, viral immunologist Michael Farzan of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, and his team have discovered a synthetic molecule that mimics an antibody from our immune system, and can provide immunity to the HIV virus. Read on to find out more. 

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied 5000 individuals over 14 years for chemical changes in their DNA that accumulate over a lifetime, and found a new indicator of aging. Read on to find out more. 

Biocontainment measures form a vital aspect of genetic engineering. Two US teams have independently created genetically modified bacteria whose survival depends on an amino acid that does not occur naturally in nature. While the engineered bacteria have the potential of pioneering the use of GM organisms in areas such as agriculture, medicine, and environmental clean-up, find out why some researchers are skeptical of how they will behave when introduced to the natural ecosystem.  

Researchers have attributed the cause of cancer to two factors: heredity and lifestyle. However, environmental risk factors can alter the cancer rates among adult tissues contribute to the development of cancer. Now scientists at Johns Hopkins University have identified a third factor that helps explain why the chances of developing some kinds of cancer are higher than others.

A team of researchers has created human sperm and egg precursor cells in a lab using a person's skin cells. The team modeled their experiment on the research by stem-cell biologist Mitinori Saitou of Kyoto University, Japan, who created the first artificial primordial germ cells (PGCs) in mice but with an extremely low efficacy rate. Read on to know how this team built on the previous research. 

Researchers have been able to study 2 percent of the human genome in depth, which includes protein-coding DNA sequences. Professor Brendan Frey of the University of Toronto, has developed a “deep-learning” machine algorithm that can recognize patterns of mutation across coding and noncoding DNA. Read on to find out more. 

Although researchers have succeeded in sequencing the human genome, a thorough study of how human proteins operate and interact is essential. A group of researchers has made this possible by creating a new human interactome map. Read on to find out more.

Cancer researcher and physician Jeffrey Engelman of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has found a promising way of treating drug-resistant cancer by growing patients’ tumor cells and testing various drug combinations on them to find a way of effective treatment. Read on to find out more. 

A professor of biotechnology and bioengineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has created a device that contains light-inducible transgenes that respond to light of a specific wavelength and produce proteins or chemical signals within cell implants. Read on to find out how this novel device works.