Category Biology/Biotechnology

NASA’s BioNutrients series of experiments is testing ways to use microorganisms to make nutrients that will be needed for human health during future long-duration deep space exploration missions.

Some vital nutrients lack the shelf-life needed to span multi-year human missions, such as a mission to Mars, and may need to be produced in space to support astronaut health. To meet this need, the BioNutrients project uses a biomanufacturing approach similar to making familiar fermented foods, such as yogurt...

Research findings focus on people with a sleep disorder, but could have broader implications. For people with a certain sleep disorder, a simple blood test could help predict the development of dementia years before symptoms appear, a new study indicates.

Idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) causes people to physically act out their dreams while sleeping.

The disorder is also associated with a very high risk of Parkinson’s disease and a related condition called Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

This is a form of dementia that often causes memory and cognitive loss, as well as vivid visual hallucinations and movement difficulties similar to Parkinson’s.

McGill University researchers have discovered that a blood test, originally developed to detect Alzheimer’s disease, co...

A simple, energy-efficient 3D-printing process takes its cues from trees to manufacture polymers quickly and inexpensively. Charging forward at top speed, a garden snail slimes up 1 millimeter of pavement per second. By this logic, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers’ new 3D printing process speeds past existing methods — at a snail’s pace.

Researchers in Beckman’s Autonomous Materials Systems Group created “growth printing,” which mimics tree trunks’ outward expansion to print polymer parts quickly and efficiently without the molds and expensive equipment typically associated with 3D printing. Their work appears in the journal Advanced Materials.

“Humans are incredibly talented at making things...