NEWSLETTER

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In the initial phase of the process […] the scientist works through imagination, as does the artist. Only later, when critical testing and experimentation come into play, does science diverge from art.

— François Jacob (translated from French).

📰 Bioengineering in the News

I wish I could engineer my metabolism.

MARS WITHIN REACH: Perseverance made it to Mars. But for humans to do the same, we will need biotechnology; this article takes a look at European companies developing technologies that will help heal astronauts, grow food and…

NEWSLETTER

Reach out on Twitter with feedback and questions. Receive this free newsletter every Friday morning by clicking here. Original artwork for this newsletter by Davey Ho.

100,000 Delivery Vehicles: AAVs — adeno-associated viruses — have a protein “shell” that wraps around the virus’s genetic material. The protein shell is called a capsid, and it can also be stuffed with DNA that encodes CRISPR machinery, for example. AAVs are used to deliver gene therapies. For a new study, published in Nature Biotechnology, researchers created 110,689 different viable AAV2 capsids, randomly adding mutations to a specific region of the protein sequence. The…

NEWSLETTER

Reach out on Twitter with feedback and questions. Receive this free newsletter every Friday morning by clicking here.

The light microscope opened the first gate to microcosm. The electron microscope opened the second gate to microcosm. What will we find opening the third gate?

— Ernst Ruska

📰 Bioengineering in the News

DNA is my love language.

THE mRNA POTENTIAL: mRNA vaccines can protect people from the novel coronavirus. In the future, they could protect people from much more. MIT Technology Review. Link

RIBOSOME REVIVAL: Ribosomes are exquisitely chaotic; pistons pumping, gears thrumming, they read through mRNA and spit out proteins with blistering pace. Now…

NEWSLETTER

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On-Demand Vaccines for Bacterial Infections: A new study, published in Science Advances, describes a method to produce conjugate vaccines — which are used to prevent some of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths, according to the World Health Organization — using ground up, freeze-dried bacteria. E. coli bacteria were first engineered to produce an antigen for a pathogenic microbe of choice. Then, the researchers ripped open the cells and added in a piece of DNA encoding a carrier protein, which attaches to…

NEWSLETTER

Reach out on Twitter with feedback and questions. Receive this free newsletter every Friday morning by clicking here.

I first set up a little laboratory in the attic at home just to grow crystals or try experiments described in books, such as adding a lot of concentrated sulfuric acid to the blood from a nosebleed which precipitates hemotin from the hemoglobin in the blood. That was quite a nice experiment. I still remember it.

— Dorothy Hodgkin

📰 Bioengineering in the News

Add yeast for flavor.

DETECT ENGINEERED PLANTS: The European Union imposed restrictions on genetically-modified foods in 2018. But making tests to spot plants…

NEWSLETTER

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How to Engineer SARS-CoV-2: A new protocol, published in Nature Protocols, describes a reverse genetic system to create SARS-CoV-2 viruses with desired mutations. Creating the coronavirus — which is about 30,000 nucleotides in length — requires six basic steps, each of which could likely be completed by an undergraduate student in molecular biology. First, plasmids are prepared that complement each part of the virus, then those plasmids are cut and stitched together, before being converted to RNA and inserted into cells, which…

NEWSLETTER

Reach out on Twitter with feedback and questions. Receive this free newsletter every Friday morning by clicking here.

I’ve spent more time than many will believe [making microscopic observations], but I’ve done them with joy, and I’ve taken no notice those who have said why take so much trouble and what good is it? — Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

📰 Bioengineering in the News

Now 100% more streamlined.

BIASED GENETIC GENEALOGIES: An investigation by The Atlantic found that, out of more than 100 homicide cases solved using genetic genealogy — which helped identify the Golden State Killer — only four involved a Black victim. The Atlantic…

NEWSLETTER

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A Restored Synapse Repairs Chemotaxis

C. elegans are tiny worms, just 1mm long, that live in the soil. Under a microscope, they look like simple rods with pointed tips. But beneath their simplicity lies an amazing ability: they can sense a huge variety of olfactory and water-soluble chemicals associated with food, or nearby enemies, or other animals. Most of their nervous system, and 5% of their genes, are devoted to this chemosensing ability, according to Worm Book.

For a brilliant, open access study, published in Cell Systems…