Category Biology/Biotechnology

Breakthrough reveals new ways to combat drug-resistant bacteria and fight cancer. After 20 years of dedicated research, scientists have cracked the chemical code of an incredibly complex ‘anti-tumour antibiotic’ known to be highly effective against cancer cells as well as drug-resistant bacteria, and have reproduced it synthetically in the lab for the first time.

This major breakthrough and world-first could hail a new era in the design and production of new antibiotics and anticancer agents.

The ‘super substance’ – kedarcidin – was discovered in its natural form by a pharmaceutical c...

A biologist invented an inexpensive and environmentally friendly method for making artificial nacre using an innovative component: bacteria. The artificial nacre is made of biologically produced materials and has the toughness of natural nacre, while also being stiff and, surprisingly, bendable. The method used to create the novel material could lead to new applications in medicine, engineering – and even constructing buildings on the moon.

The impressive mechanical properties of...

A ‘superbug’ clone of E. coli has evolved to prevent itself from becoming so dominant that it could potentially wipe out the bacteria from existence, scientists led by the University of Birmingham have discovered.

The researchers investigated how and why a clone of E. coli called ST131 – dubbed a ‘superbug’ because it is resistant to multiple drugs – has become the major cause of drug resistant E. coli infections, but not so dominant that it has wiped out other clones that do not have multi-drug resistance.

Escherichia coli (E...

Scientists describe a method of rendering the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 ‘immunosilent,’ potentially allowing the editing and repair of genes to be accomplished reliably and stealthily...