Latest Nature Biotechnology Stories
The nation's Renewable Fuels Standard calls for annual production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022. One of the biggest hurdles to achieving this goal lies in optimizing the multistep process involved in breaking down plant biomass and then converting it into fermentable sugars that can be refined into fuel for our transportation needs. To overcome this challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy supports several projects focused on identifying enzymes from fungi and microbes such as...
Breakthrough to allow scientists to assemble genomes for thousands of bacteria species that previously couldn't be studied Researchers have developed a new method to sequence and analyze the dark matter of life—the genomes of thousands of bacteria species previously beyond scientists' reach, from microorganisms that produce antibiotics and biofuels to microbes living in the human body. Scientists from UC San Diego, the J. Craig Venter Institute and Illumina Inc., published their...
For decades, scientists have studied a laboratory mouse model that develops signs of the paralyzing disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as they age. In a new study appearing in Nature Biotechnology, investigators at Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a new model of ALS, one that mimics sporadic ALS, which represents about 90 percent of all cases.ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is characterized by the death of motor neurons, which are muscle-controlling nerve...
Comprehensive set of mutated mouse microRNAs will drive researchA new resource to define the roles of microRNAs is announced today in Nature Biotechnology. The resource, called mirKO, gives researchers access to tools to investigate the biological role and significance for human health of these enigmatic genes.mirKO is a "library" of mutant mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells in which individual, or clustered groups of microRNA genes, have been deleted. Using these tools researchers can...
A Purdue University scientist is urging federal officials to decide whether genetically engineered salmon would be allowed for U.S. consumption and arguing that not doing so may set back scientific efforts to increase food production.William Muir, a professor of animal sciences, said that based on data made available by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, AquAdvantage (AA) salmon poses little real risk to the environment or human health. AA salmon were given a gene from Chinook salmon that...
The study on single-nucleotide resolution structural variations (SVs) of an Asian and African genome was published online in Nature Biotechnology. This study was performed by BGI (previously known as the Beijing Genomics Institute), the largest genomics organization in the world, and demonstrates that whole genome de novo assembly could serve as a new solution for developing a more comprehensive SV map of individuals.With the rapid development of genomics, more and more experts focus upon the...
Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have demonstrated in mice that the performance of a novel biomarker-development pipeline using targeted mass spectrometry is robust enough to support the use of an analogous approach in humans. The findings, by principal investigator Amanda Paulovich, M.D., Ph.D., an associate member of the Hutchinson Center's Clinical Research Division, are published in Nature Biotechnology.Paulovich and colleagues demonstrated that a staged, targeted...
Pity the lowly astrocyte, the most common cell in the human nervous system.Long considered to be little more than putty in the brain and spinal cord, the star-shaped astrocyte has found new respect among neuroscientists who have begun to recognize its many functions in the brain, not to mention its role in a range of disorders of the central nervous system.Now, writing in the May 22 issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, a group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher...
VIB/UGent researchers have unveiled a mechanism that can be used to develop crop varieties resistant to mild droughts. For years, improving drought tolerance has been a major aim of academic and industrial research, thereby focusing on effects of extreme drought stress. However, translating this research to the field has proven to be problematic. In a set of papers in Nature Biotechnology and the Plant Cell, the team of Dirk Inzé at the VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, UGent now...
Technique offers detailed view of how RNA levels changeRNA plays a critical role in directing the creation of proteins, but there is more to the life of an RNA molecule than simply carrying DNA's message. One can imagine that an RNA molecule is born, matures, and eventually, meets its demise. Researchers at the Broad have developed an approach that offers many windows into the lifecycle of these essential molecules and will enable other scientists to investigate what happens when something in...
