Category Biology/Biotechnology

22 people die each day while waiting for a transplant and 10 minutes someone is added to the national transplant waiting list. #Revivicor is producing genetically engineered pigs to provide #human-compatible #cells. This would be relevant for organs and tissues for use in transplant surgery, ie #xenografts.

Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine for MIT Technology Review said the team has done nothing less than “shattering records in xenotransplantation, or between-species organ transplants...

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Tungsten is exceptionally rare in biological systems. Thus, it came as a huge surprise to researchers when they discovered this novel enzyme in hot spring-inhabiting bacterium, Caldicellulosiruptor bescii. This tungstoenzyme plays a key role in C. bescii’s primary metabolism, and its ability to convert plant biomass to simple fermentable sugars which could lead to commercially viable conversion of cellulosic (woody) biomass to fuels and chemical feedstocks, which could substantially reduce greenhouse emissions.

Cellulosic biomass’ advantage as a feedstock for fuel and chemical production is that it need not compete with food production for land. Its big challenge is that cellulose is highly resistant to enzymatic degradation...

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Panel of 5 serum microRNAs could lead to accurate, early diagnosis of NSCLC in ethnically diverse patients

Early-stage Non-small-cell Lung Cancer is asymptomatic and difficult to detect since no blood test for NSCLC is currently available. In a new study, researchers identified a panel of five serum microRNAs as the potential biomarker for NSCLC diagnosis.

MiRNAs are a family of small, single-stranded non-coding RNAs that are critical regulators of numerous diseases, and their expression patterns have the potential to diagnose various types of cancer. This is the first multiethnic, multicentric, single-blind global analysis of miRNA expression patterns of NSCLC patients in four independent cohorts from five centers in both China and America...

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The higher intelligence score, the better physical performance, the study reveals. We would all like to stay independent, as we get older. In order to succeed, we need to be in good physical shape. This includes being able to cope with everyday physical activities such as getting dressed and carrying our own shopping. Scientists employ a number of tests, e.g. handgrip strength, balance and chair-rise, when measuring physical performance.

Researchers at the Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen have studied the association between male intelligence in early adulthood and their subsequent physical performance, aged 48-56. The study comprised 2,848 Danish males born in 1953 and in 1959-61.

“Our study clearly shows that the higher intelli...

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