Category Biology/Biotechnology

A smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones.
Credit: Abbas Furniturewalla

Engineers invent biosensor technology for wearable devices. Rutgers University-New Brunswick engineers have created a smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones that will enable a new wave of personal health and environmental monitoring devices. Their technology, which could be added to watches and other wearable devices that monitor heart rates and physical activity, is detailed in a study published online in Microsystems & Nanoengineering...

Cellular senescence in human cells. Credit: Eva Latorre

Breakthrough could be ‘basis for a new generation of anti-degeneration drugs’. Key aspects of the ageing of human cells can be reversed by new compounds developed at the University of Exeter, research shows. In a laboratory study of endothelial cells – which line the inside of blood vessels – researchers tested compounds designed to target mitochondria.

In the samples used in the study, the number of senescent cells (older cells that have deteriorated and stopped dividing) was reduced by up to 50%. The Exeter team also identified 2 splicing factors (a component of cells) that play a key role in when and how endothelial cells become senescent.

The findings raise the possibility of future treatments not only for blood vessels – which be...

Scanning electron micrograph of cultured human neuron from induced pluripotent stem cell. Credit: Mark Ellisman and Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, UC San Diego

Researchers at UCSD School of Medicine report that they have successfully created spinal cord neural stem cells (NSCs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) that differentiate into a diverse population of cells capable of dispersing throughout the spinal cord and can be maintained for long periods of time...

An illustration of how CAS-12A works with DNA. Illustration by Jenna Luecke, University of Texas at Austin

Scientists have found conclusive evidence that Cas9, the most popular enzyme currently used in CRISPR gene editing, is less effective and precise than one of the lesser-used CRISPR proteins, Cas12a. Because Cas9 is more likely to edit the wrong part of a plant’s or animal’s genome, disrupting healthy functions, the scientists make the case that switching to Cas12a would lead to safer and more effective gene editing.

“The overall goal is to find the best enzyme that nature gave us and then make it better still, rather than taking the first one that was discovered through historical accident,” said Ilya Finkelstein, an assistant professor of molecular biosciences and a co-author of the ...