Kenrick Vezina
Future of biofortified foods: Protests block advancement of super bananas and Golden Rice
Can biofortified crops really do any good in the world? Only if both sides of the biotech debate work together ...
DNA testing may be the only part of forensic science that’s actually scientific
Forensic science -- the wizardry on display on CSI -- is often bunk. Worse, the government has known this for ...
Cure for HIV? New gene-editing technique shows promise
A few lucky individuals have a mutation that makes them highly resistant to HIV. This mutation is also behind the ...
Can GMO crops help fight global warming?
In the fight against global warming, our planet's ability to reflect light and heat is dropping. In a warming world, ...
Has the war on synthetic biology already begun?
Scientists are worried that synthetic biology might succumb to the same vitriolic culture war that has slowed innovation of genetic ...
Next-Generation Sequencing opening doors in diagnosing perplexing disorders
A new diagnostic test using "Next-Generation Sequencing" has made headlines for saving the lives of two young people suffering from ...
Genetic mismatch implies STAP stem cells do not exist
Genetic tests have put another nail in the coffin of the once-promising STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) stem cell technique, ...
Lab-grown blood not ready for primetime just yet
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service wants to revolutionize our blood supply using lab-grown red blood cells from adult stem ...
“Outbreak” redux: Is lab research on influenza worth the risk of a pandemic?
What happens when you mix human error, deadly disease and lab animals? Hollywood would have us believe imminent disaster. Fear ...
Chicken Coop project traces genetics, history of multi-talented domestic chicken
Who cares how the chicken crossed the road; the intriguing question is now did it become such a multi-tasker. Nature's ...
Building a virtual organism from the ground up–Let’s start with worms
The OpenWorm project wants you to help you build the world's first complete virtual organism so we can better understand ...
“Aliens of the sea” show there’s more than one way to build a brain
Comb jellies are surreal creatures that are more unique than previously thought; they appear to have evolved their own brains ...
We can read your DNA … but how well can we understand it?
The Boston Globe's Carolyn Johnson has penned an important reminder that "the facts about your genes are not necessarily facts ...
Japan’s STAP stem cell controversy deepens as accusations of misconduct focus on investigating panel
Members of the RIKEN institute committee that found Haruko Obokata -- of STAP stem cell infamy -- guilty of misconduct ...
Oldest fossil sperm is huge, poses evolutionary conundrum
Scientists find sperm inside 17-million-year-old shrimp -- but it's not just any sperm. It's longer than the animals that made ...
Rumors of junk DNA’s death greatly exaggerated
A new paper in PLOS Genetics presents a compelling case for why "junk DNA" is still a useful concept, despite ...
Scientists add new letters to genetic alphabet: What does it mean?
A 15-year effort has yielded a bacterium that can use two 'alien' base pairs in its genetic code, expanding the ...
Culture wars threaten synthetic biology’s future: Debate on open source versus closed door
Synbio will soon be weathering legal and ethical challenges as its advances enter people's everyday lives. In order to mature, ...
Breeding heat-resistant livestock for a post-warming world: A worthy endeavor?
Evan Halper at the LA Times chronicles efforts to breed livestock that can endure a warming world ... but should ...
Genetically modified pig lungs or lab-grown lungs: Which is the future of our organ supply?
Biotech pioneer J. Craig Venter has aligned his company with efforts to create genetically modified lungs in pigs for human ...
Sleeping sickness treatment in focus after sequencing of tsetse fly genome
Scientists have sequenced the tsetse fly's genome, Jennifer Frazer at National Geographic reports, revealing promising targets in the fight against ...
Mother’s diet during conception may lead to epigenetic consequences and disease
A study following mothers in rural Gambia, where the rainy and dry season make for major seasonal changes in diet ...
Artists and biologists team up to push boundaries of synthetic biology
The Synthetic Aesthetics project argues that synthetic biology needs a healthy dose of novelty and imagination. To this end, the ...
Building a genomic encyclopedia of life
A genomic tree-of-life is the taxonomist's dream: a perfectly organized, annotated database of every species on earth, its genetics, and ...
Old blood, new science: 115-year-old woman’s blood suggests lifespan depends on stem cells
The blood of one of the oldest women to have lived -- and quite possibly the oldest to ever donate ...
DNA “cloaking devices” sneak past the immune system, could deliver medicine and identify disease
The mammalian immune system remained an obstacle to deploying DNA nanorobots that could carry medicines through your bloodstream and to ...
Marker-assisted plant breeding: agricultural genetics without GMOs
Marker-assisted selection is a fancy way of saying plant breeders are using genetics to "preview" their crops and streamline the ...
Cloned embryonic stem cells re-ignite ethics debate
Researchers have created cloned stem cells from men's skin cell samples in a lab, in the process creating cloned embryos ...