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    Category Biology/Biotechnology

    Human Retinas grown in a Dish explain how Color Vision develops

    October 14, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Temporally regulated TH signaling specifies cone subtypes. (A) Embryonic stem cell–derived human retinal organoids [wild type (WT)] generate S and L/M cones. Blue, S-opsin; green, L/M-opsin. (B) Organoids that lack thyroid hormone receptor β (Thrβ KO) generate all S cones. (C) Early activation of TH signaling (WT + T3) specifies nearly all L/M cones. (D) TH-degrading enzymes (such as DIO3) expressed early in development lower TH and promote S fate, whereas TH-activating regulators (such as DIO2) expressed later promote L/M fate.

    Temporally regulated TH signaling specifies cone subtypes.
    (A) Embryonic stem cell–derived human retinal organoids [wild type (WT)] generate S and L/M cones. Blue, S-opsin; green, L/M-opsin. (B) Organoids that lack thyroid hormone receptor β (Thrβ KO) generate all S cones. (C) Early activation of TH signaling (WT + T3) specifies nearly all L/M cones. (D) TH-degrading enzymes (such as DIO3) expressed early in development lower TH and promote S fate, whereas TH-activating regulators (such as DIO2) expressed later promote L/M fate.

    Biologists at Johns Hopkins University grew human retinas from scratch to determine how cells that allow people to see in color are made...

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    Engineers develop process to 3D print cells to produce Human Tissue such as Ligaments and Tendons

    October 13, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    This image of cells that were made fluorescent shows how they are printed in complex structures for the purpose of producing tissue such as tendons and ligaments. Credit: Robby Bowles/University of Utah College of Engineering

    This image of cells that were made fluorescent shows how they are printed in complex structures for the purpose of producing tissue such as tendons and ligaments.
    Credit: Robby Bowles/University of Utah College of Engineering

    Scientists have developed a method to 3D print cells to produce human tissue such as ligaments and tendons to greatly improve a patient’s recovery. A person with a badly damaged ligament, tendon, or ruptured disc could simply have new replacement tissue printed and ultimately implanted in the damaged area.

    “It will allow patients to receive replacement tissues without additional surgeries and without having to harvest tissue from other sites, which has its own source of problems,” says University of Utah biomedical engineering assistant professor Robby Bowles, who co-a...

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    This Bacterium gets paid in Gold

    October 12, 2018, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Biology/Biotechnology

    A single nanocluster of 22 gold atoms -- Au22 -- is only 1 nanometer in diameter, allowing it to easily slip through the bacterial cell wall. Credit: Peidong Yang, UC Berkeley

    A single nanocluster of 22 gold atoms — Au22 — is only 1 nanometer in diameter, allowing it to easily slip through the bacterial cell wall.
    Credit: Peidong Yang, UC Berkeley

    Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium’s unusual appetite for gold. Scientists have placed light-absorbing gold nanoclusters inside a bacterium, creating a biohybrid system that produces a higher yield of chemical products, such as biofuels, than previously demonstrated. The biohybrid captures sunlight and carbon dioxide to make chemicals useful not only on Earth but also in the exotic environment of space.

    Moorella thermoacetica first made its debut as the first non-photosensitive bacterium to carry out artificial photosynthesis in a study led by Peidong Yang, a professor in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry...

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    Probiotic Bacillus Eliminates Staphylococcus bacteria – Additional studies of common supplement planned.

    October 11, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Exclusion of S. aureus colonization by dietary Bacillus in a human population.

    Exclusion of S. aureus colonization by dietary Bacillus in a human population.

    A new study from National Institutes of Health scientists and their Thai colleagues shows that a “good” bacterium commonly found in probiotic digestive supplements helps eliminate Staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria that can cause serious antibiotic-resistant infections. The researchers, led by scientists at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), unexpectedly found that Bacillus bacteria prevented S. aureus bacteria from growing in the gut and nose of healthy individuals. Then, using a mouse study model, they identified exactly how that happens. Researchers from Mahidol University and Rajamangala University of Technology in Thailand collaborated on the project.

    “Probiotics fre...

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