Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
Genetically-engineered vaccine shows promise in elusive quest to control herpes
A genetically edited form of a herpes simplex virus (HSV) has outperformed a leading vaccine candidate in a new preclinical ...
Endometriosis relief: Breakthrough treatment for severe cases on the horizon using epigenetics
[Scientists from Michigan State University] pharmacologically inhibited P300, a protein implicated in the dysregulation of endometrial epithelial cells, which normally ...
Precision medicines addressing unique diseases are poised to become more accessible
Today, companies are developing new models to lower the costs of manufacturing and bring [precision medicine] drugs to more patients ...
Seasonal cold infections might generate protective antibodies against COVID-19
[S]easonal coronavirus infections occur frequently and typically result in a mild, common cold-like illness. The presence of these coronavirus infections ...
CRISPR gene editing to correct harmful mutations could in rare cases wreak havoc on our chromosomes, study claims
[L]arge-scale damage was found in a study that analyzed human embryos that had been edited with CRISPR-Cas9. The study, from ...
Brain aging and dementia remain a mystery. This epigenetic model may help unravel it
People age at different rates, with some individuals developing both characteristics and diseases related to aging earlier in life than ...
Will antibody therapies work on patients with severe COVID? Setbacks in new Lilly, Regeneron drugs raise serious doubts
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly have [reported clinical study setbacks, which] raised questions about the effectiveness of antibody therapies in ...
Gene therapy may be able to restore vision
In a normal eye, opsins are expressed by the rod and cone photoreceptors in the retina. When activated by light, ...
Picking up where GMOs left off: CRISPR leads the way to ‘greener’ food production in the 21st century
Genome editing may be one of the solutions to address climate change. A September 2020 report by the Information Technology ...
Resurgence of gene therapy has dramatically altered the the biomedicine revolution
Some technologies that have emerged and altered the landscape in recent years include immunotherapy, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, and chimeric antigen ...
‘Gigantic leaps forward’ What’s happened in the 21 years since a teenager died undergoing gene therapy, stalling emergence of this biomedical breakthrough?
In 1999, [teenager] Jesse [Gelsinger] received a dose of the ornithine transcarbamylase gene, engineered into a recombinant adenovirus, at the ...
Vitamin D shown to reduce severe symptoms of COVID
[A new study suggests] that improving vitamin D status in the general population, and in particular in patients hospitalized with ...
Trump’s treatments primer: Regeneron antibodies and Gilead’s Remdesivir
[After Trump’s COVID diagnosis,] his treatment began with a leading drug candidate, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ two-antibody combination or “cocktail,” REGN-COV2. Within ...
Designing a more effective flu vaccine
A growing body of evidence suggests that a history of exposure to influenza virus might be undermining the effectiveness of ...
Best defense against Alzheimer’s: Deep, restorative sleep
[A] study, recently published by investigators at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, suggests that defense against Alzheimer’s disease is ...
Vaccine advances for gastric, pancreatic, esophageal and colon cancer
Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University who are developing a cancer vaccine to prevent recurrences of gastric, pancreatic, esophageal, and colon ...
Death by COVID: 5 immune response markers that predict whether an infected person is likely to survive
[Researchers] have identified five immune response markers that, collectively, were able to distinguish between those COVID-19 patients who convalesced from ...
Even mild cases of COVID can provide immunity
To date, there is limited evidence of reinfection in humans with previously documented COVID-19… Most studies of immune protection against ...
Why flu vaccines don’t work for very long
A new study from a team from Emory Vaccine Center provides insights into why the flu vaccine’s immunity is shorter ...
Future pandemics: Where dangerous pathogens lie in wait
According to an international research team of Chinese, European, and U.S. scientists, the SARS-CoV-2 lineage responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Marijuana use during pregnancy increases infant’s chances of getting autism by 50%
[C]hildren of mothers who reported using cannabis during pregnancy had a 50% increased risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ...
Can acupuncture treat COVID-19?
[Researcher Qiufu] Ma and his team set out to investigate whether and how electric stimulation using acupuncture, which only involves ...
Climate change and urbanization blamed for sharp increase in human-biting disease-carrying mosquitoes
[Aedes aegypti] is responsible for spreading Zika, dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya in various regions around the world. Although A. aegypti currently ...
Just 7 years old, CRISPR gene editing is making food more nutritious and battling COVID
Just seven years ago, the Broad Institute’s Feng Zhang, PhD, and Harvard geneticist George Church, PhD, separately demonstrated that in ...
Omega 3s in high doses shown effective in slowing Alzheimer’s in small study
[T]o date the majority of studies evaluating omega-3s for averting or curtailing cognitive decline in human participants have failed to ...
A pill to replace exercise? It may not be as farfetched as it sounds
Exercise is one of the best-studied and most powerful ways of protecting the brain from age-related cognitive decline. Exercise has ...
Can science reverse physical aging? It can—in mice
Even though the average life-expectancy for humans continues to rise, living longer is often associated with age-related health issues. Now, ...
Infographic: Decreasing metabolism inefficiency could tackle obesity at the source
Obesity affects millions worldwide and drives health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers. Now researchers from the ...
