Recently, Tosin Thompson published a news article on Nature titled “How CRISPR gene editing could help treat Alzheimer’s”. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting over 55 million people worldwide. It is expected that this number will nearly double by 2050. Most research on Alzheimer’s disease is driven by the amyloid protein…
Less than a month after the world’s first approval of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing therapy, this therapy received a second approval – this time from the United States, due to its strict regulation and lucrative healthcare market. The UK regulatory agency approved this therapy on November 16th, which inactivates a gene as a means of treating…
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Land Microbiology have developed a synthetic biochemical cycle that directly converts carbon dioxide into the core acetyl CoA. Researchers are able to implement each of these three cycle modules in Escherichia coli, which represents an important step in achieving the synthesis of carbon dioxide fixation pathways in a…
Despite containing only 7.5 artificial chromosomes, highly edited strains still survive and replicate. Biologists have developed a yeast whose genome contains over 50% of artificially synthesized DNA. Standard brewing yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) stores its genetic blueprint on 16 chromosomes. In the new strain, 6.5 of these chromosomes were edited and synthesized in the laboratory, while…
Enzymes, as highly efficient catalysts evolved from nature, have fast turnover rates and precise specificity. Improving enzyme catalytic activity and stability is crucial in various biological, medical, and industrial applications. Multiple computational methods have been used to study the performance of enzyme variants, but accurately simulating the impact of mutants on enzyme catalytic ability remains…
Engineering proteins that enhance stability are widely used in the development of biological therapies or diagnostic reagents, as well as in other commercial and industrial applications. For this reason, many related experimental and computational methods have been developed, such as directed evolution, rational design, ancestor sequence reconstruction, and molecular dynamics simulation, which stabilize proteins by…
As is well known, microorganisms can produce abundant secondary metabolites and are an important source for drug development. Streptomyces is a star species in the development and research of microbial drugs, and many medical or agricultural antibiotics such as rapamycin (immunosuppressive agent), nystatin (antifungal), avermectin (insecticidal), and azamycin (antibacterial) are produced from Streptomyces. However, the…
Biobased Energy and Materials learned that recently, Dutch green chemical company Avantium announced that it will fully focus on the production and sales of FCDA and PEF technologies. It will stop investing in Ray technology for producing plantMEG (plant-based ethylene glycol) and plantMPG (plant-based propylene glycol) until suitable strategic equity partners are found. FDCA (Furanedicarboxylic…
Spider silk is a strong animal fiber derived from spiders and can be used to make bulletproof vests. For decades, materials scientists have regarded spider silk as an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic fibers such as nylon and Kevlar fibers, which are currently used in bulletproof clothing manufacturing. However, it is costly and requires a…
At present, Spain has a large amount of biomass (olive leaves) that has not been fully utilized, but discarded olive leaves are rich in valuable bioactive compounds, giving them the opportunity to become a potential carbon source for various industries. The number of underutilized olive leaves is astonishing. Olive trees planted for the production of…