From engineering bacteria that degrade plastics to microbes that produce antibiotics, fuel and vegan milk, synthetic biology is revolutionizing the world as we know it. Soon, this discipline will enable applications that would have sounded like sci-fi a decade ago, in sectors as diverse as energy sourcing, health or agriculture. However, behind these applications, there [...]
1. This bacterium will self-destruct in 30 seconds! 💣 Scientists have developed a new mechanism that instructs engineered #bacteria to die after carrying out their task 🦠If there is one thing that all living beings share, it is that we all want to stay alive. That is why programming an [...]
1. Punk is not dead — it just turned eco-friendly! Scientists have developed a new leather fabric with no plastics or animals involved, only #fungi! 🕶️🍄 Until now, we´ve had two ways to make a leather jacket: One involves using animal tissue, which consumes energy, produces waste and involves animal suffering [...]
From their first uses in the fermentation of alcoholic drinks almost 10000 years ago, to their current role in yielding a wide range of compounds such as drugs, soaps and food, microbes are changing the industry for good   These tiny organisms, along with the efforts of synbio scientists and years of research, are quickly becoming [...]
1. #DNA à la carte! 🧬🍽️ That’s the goal of these scientists from @DNAScript and their ambitious project to create a DNA-printer! When scientists need specific DNA for their research, they usually have to order it from a company specialised in DNA manufacture. This happens because tailored DNA is expensive and [...]
Large numbers of species on the brink of extinction, rising global temperatures, air, water and soil pollution - these and other events are causing an unprecedented environmental crisis that the world is facing nowadays. At first sight, the forecast is unfavourable, and scientific studies point to human activities as the main cause for this shady [...]
1. Microbial mummy awakens! 🦠💀 Researchers recovered organism samples from the seafloor, deposited up to 100 million years ago - and found they are alive! 🌊 If there is something that surprises scientists about microbes it’s their survival skills. There are some species that are able to grow under extreme conditions, [...]
When it comes to using microorganisms in the biotech industry, we can say there are two main kinds of scientists: those who work with Escherichia coli in their labs, and those who prefer Bacillus subtilis. These two bacteria species can be considered as counterparts: they belong to opposed groups in the Gram classification, a test [...]
1. The ultimate #DNA “USB”? This new approach can boost DNA Data Storage! 🧬 In the same way that computers save information in binary code, cells store theirs in a 4 letter code - G,A,T and C, which are the abbreviations of four molecules: guanine, adenine, thymine and cytosine. These four [...]
In the last decades, synthetic biology has provided scientists with a wide range of experimental tools to engineer organisms for many different purposes. That’s what we have been doing in fields like drug production, energy sourcing, waste treatment… It was a matter of time for this technology to be used in the food industry! The [...]
