News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Researchers at RIKEN, Japan successfully created a larger strain of zooplankton by creating mutations with a heavy ion beam, which contributes to improving the survival rate and growth of juvenile fish in aquaculture.

Some organisms evolve an internal switch that can remain hidden for generations until stress flicks it on.

Using data from RNA-folding experiments, the researchers generated the first-ever data-driven movies of how RNA folds as it is made by cellular machinery. By watching their videos of this folding occur, the researchers discovered that RNA often folds in surprising, perhaps unintuitive ways, such as tying itself into knots.

Researchers have developed a highly sensitive technique to quantitatively evaluate the extent of cytoskeleton bundling from microscopic images. Until now, analysis of cytoskeleton organization was typically made by manually checking microscopic images. The new method uses microscopic image analysis techniques to automatically measure the cytoskeleton organization. The researchers expect it to dramatically improve our understanding of various cellular phenomena related to cytoskeletal bundling.

Retinal cells derived from adult human eye stem cells survived when transplanted into the eyes of monkeys, an important early step in the validation of this approach for treating blindness, according to a study by Liu, et al recently published in Stem Cell Reports. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a layer of pigmented cells in the retina, is essential for sustaining normal vision. Blindness due to RPE dysfunction, such as macular degeneration, affects about 200 million people worldwide.

KAIST metabolic engineers presented the bio-based production of multiple short-chain primary amines that have a wide range of applications in chemical industries for the first time. The research team designed the novel biosynthetic pathways for short-chain primary amines by combining retrobiosynthesis and a precursor selection step.