Category Biology/Biotechnology

Oral delivery method could dramatically transform the way in which diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check. Credit: Harvard SEAS

Technique could replace daily injections for diabetics. For millions of people living with type 1 diabetes, a painful needle prick once or twice daily is currently the only option for delivering the insulin that their bodies cannot produce on their own. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an oral delivery method that could dramatically transform the way in which diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check.

Not only does oral delivery of insulin promise to improve the quality of life for up to 40 million people with type 1 diabetes worldwide, it could also mitigate many of t...

Various schemes for electrolytically generating H2 while consuming CO2 and transforming it to dissolved mineral bicarbonate.

Limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius will require not only reducing emissions of CO2, but also active removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This conclusion from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has prompted heightened interest in “negative emissions technologies.” A new study evaluates the potential for recently described methods that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through an “electrogeochemical” process that also generates hydrogen gas for use as fuel and creates by-products that can help counteract ocean acidification.

First author Greg Rau, a researcher in the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and visiting scie...

It’s been known for years that humans and other mammals possess an antiviral gene called RSAD2 that prevents a remarkable range of viruses from multiplying. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, part of Montefiore, have discovered the secret to the gene’s success: The enzyme it codes for generates a compound that stops viruses from replicating. The newly discovered compound, described in today’s online edition of Nature, offers a novel approach for attacking many disease-causing viruses.

“Nature has given us a template for creating a powerful and safe antiviral compound,” says study leader Steven C. Almo, Ph.D...

The fruit fly intestine shares much of the same physiology of the human intestine, just simpler and on a smaller scale. Credit: Adam Wong, PhD. Modified from Disease Models & Mechanisms. doi: 10.1242/dmm.023408.

Study teases out how ‘good bacteria’ keep us metabolically fit. The innate immune system, our first line of defense against bacterial infection, has a side job that’s equally important: fine-tuning our metabolism. The study, led by Paula Watnick, MD, PhD, of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital, reveals that innate immune pathways, best known as our first line of defense against bacterial infection, have a side job that’s equally important.

In the intestine, digestive cells use an innate immune pathway to respond to harmful bacteria...