NEWS and OPINIONS
Bacterial ‘Nanosyringe’ Could Deliver Gene Therapy to Human Cells
By Ingrid Wickelgren - Scientific American This novel injection system could help advance gene therapy by nimbly inserting gene-editing enzymes into a variety of cell types nside the gut of a caterpillar lives a worm, and inside the worm lurks a bioluminescent...
New RNA-based toolkit to regulate gene activity could advance regenerative medicine, gene therapy and biotechnology
By Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Turning genes on and off as easily and predictably as flicking a switch could be a powerful tool in medicine and biotech. A type of technology called a riboswitch might be the key. The Okinawa Institute of Science and...
Veterans Affairs to Be First Major Insurer to Cover Alzheimer’s Drug Leqembi
Roughly 168,000 veterans receiving care have Alzheimer’s dementia By Joseph Walker - The Wall Street journal Eisai Co.’s new Alzheimer’s disease drug Leqembi will be covered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the first major insurer to agree to pay for the...
Silicon Valley Bank failure spooks digital health, biotech industries
By Tina Reed - Axios Digital health and biotech firms made up a substantial part of Silicon Valley Bank's client base. And its historic failure is raising troubling questions about how much the fallout will hurt emerging health companies in need of capital. Driving...
Gene-edited rice may be able to grow on Mars
By Leah Crane - New Scientist Gene-edited rice plants may be able to grow on Mars. Researchers have now identified a gene that, when modified, seems to give rice plants a better chance of surviving in harsh Martian soil. Martian soil, or regolith, has fewer nutrients...
Methods for growing skeletal muscle tissue from stem cells to help understand disease
by The Francis Crick Institute Head of the Crick's Stem Cells and Neuromuscular Regeneration Lab, Francesco Saverio Tedesco, is also a doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he specializes in neurological and neuromuscular diseases of childhood, like muscular...
Stem Cells May Move to the Front Line against Multiple Sclerosis
By Sue Pearson - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News Multiple sclerosis (MS), a potentially disabling disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath of nerve cells, currently lacks a cure. The available treatments are designed to speed the...
Athenex’s cash dries up as it faces clinical hold on cancer therapy in wake of patient death
By Gabrielle Masson - Fierce Biotech News Athenex is in a tight spot, trying to stretch out its remaining cash and ward off an unruly creditor just as the FDA slaps a clinical hold on its neuroblastoma cell therapy while it explores a patient's death in a phase 1...
To Ward Off Aging, Stem Cells Must Take Out the Trash
Nicole Mlynaryk - University of California Sab Diego News UC San Diego scientists find stem cells’ unique way of discarding misfolded proteins could be the key to maintaining long-term health and preventing disease In humanity’s ongoing quest for the elixir of life,...
Scientists identify a method to rejuvenate old stem cells
By Linda Wang - UCLA Health A research team led by Dr. Thomas Rando, director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, has discovered that restoring glutathione—a key antioxidant that prevents cell damage—rejuvenates...
How Japanese science is trying to reassert its research strength
By Tim Hornyak - Nature Successes in life sciences and international collaboration could be key to boosting the country’s high-quality output. After five years studying genome editing at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, Keiji Nishida returned to Japan...
3D bioprinting inside the human body could be possible thanks to new soft robot
by Neil Martin - UNSW Sydney Newsroom UNSW researchers unveil prototype device that can directly 3D print living cells onto internal organs and potentially be used as an all-in-one endoscopic surgical tool. Engineers from UNSW Sydney have developed a miniature and...