Category Biology/Biotechnology

A Cornell researcher, who is a leader in developing a new type of gene editing CRISPR system, and colleagues have used the new method for the first time in human cells – a major advance in the field.

The new system, called CRISPR-Cas3, can efficiently erase long stretches of DNA from a targeted site in the human genome, a capability not easily attainable in more traditional CRISPR-Cas9 systems...

Scientists developed a new version of a gene drive that allows the spread of specific, favorable genetic variants, also known as ‘alleles,’ throughout a population...

Scientists trace path of bacterial toxins from the mouth to the brain and other tissues. Researchers are reporting new findings on how bacteria involved in gum disease can travel throughout the body, exuding toxins connected with Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis and aspiration pneumonia. They detected evidence of the bacteria in brain samples from people with Alzheimer’s and used mice to show that the bacterium can find its way from the mouth to the brain.

The bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis, is the bad actor involved in periodontitis, the most serious for...

Dangerous airborne viruses are rendered harmless on-the-fly when exposed to energetic, charged fragments of air molecules, University of Michigan researchers have shown. They hope to one day harness this capability to replace a century-old device: the surgical mask.

The U-M engineers have measured the virus-killing speed and effectiveness of nonthermal plasmas – the ionized, or charged, particles that...