Genetics & Molecular Biology

The Science And Politics Of Genetically Engineered Salmon: Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam Answers 5 Key Questions

A Massachusetts-based company earlier this month cleared the last regulatory hurdle from the Food and Drug Administration to sell genetically engineered salmon in the U.S. Animal genomics expert Alison Van Eenennaam, who served on an advisory committee to ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 27 2019 - 12:21pm

Papaya Sugarcane May Be On Its Way

The Rainbow Papaya in Hawaii is a great example of how biology solved a devastating problem that nature created and chemicals could not fix. It put GMOs, the successor to mutagenesis, on the map worldwide, and today billions of meals have been served using ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 3 2019 - 1:33pm

Genetic Engineering Removes Antibiotic Resistance From Bacteria

The conjugative transfer of anti-antibiotic resistance genetic elements could lead to development of probiotic bacteria that re-sensitize resistant bacteria to antibiotics, providing a solution to a crucial problem- how to get new antibiotics when countrie ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 12 2019 - 4:27pm

A Rubber Producing Dandelion May Mean A Solution To Deforestation Problems In Asia

When most people think of rubber, they usually just think of tires but natural rubber is an incredibly important yet under-appreciated bioresource used to make at least 50,000 different products.  Approximately 13 million tons are collected every year from ...

Article - Katrina Cornish - May 1 2019 - 3:04pm

Insects? Lab-Grown Meat? Are You Ready For Lab-Grown Insect Meat?

Pop culture is in a bit of a quandary. Though food is essential for life, culturally it is no longer a basic necessity, and that's thanks to science. We grow more food on less land than ever dreamed possible. Even Europe, with all its political limita ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 3 2019 - 10:37am

Immune System Slows Degenerative Eye Disease Retinitis Pigmentosa In Mice

A new exploratory study in mice found that the complement system, part of the innate immune system, plays a protective role to slow retinal degeneration in retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease. Retinitis pigmentosa is an incurable and unpreventab ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 17 2019 - 10:35am

GROs- Genetically Rescued Organisms- Will Save Plant Species At Risk

In today's Wall Street Journal my article Science Saves an Old Chestnut discusses the potential benefit of President Trump's executive order requiring USDA, FDA, and EPA to modernize when it comes to biotechnology approval. They have to consider ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 20 2019 - 7:53am

If Science Reduces The Biennial Effect In Coffee, Developing Nations Win

More than 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide, which means coffee beans used in all those lattes, espressos and mochas create a livelihood for millions of people worldwide. Yet coffee plant production remains decidedly low-tech, and gimmick la ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2019 - 3:18pm

So Long Antibodies, Welcome Frankenbody

Our bodies can deploy biomolecules to find, tag and destroy invading pathogens. They work by binding to specific targets, called epitopes, on the surfaces of antigens- like locks to keys. This selective tagging mechanism in natural antibodies has been valu ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2019 - 9:20am

Confluence Of Hype: In Mice, A Genetic Change Prevents A Disease That Doesn't Exist

In modern American culture, two exploratory fields in science compete to scare the public or suggest the promise of miracle cures; epidemiology and studies in mice. ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 5 2019 - 10:49am