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Cpf1 Takes CRISPR Bigger by Going Smaller

September 29, 2015

Move over Cas9; here comes yet another CRISPR-associated player. The CRISPR pioneers in the lab of Feng Zhang at MIT continue to discover the power of CRISPR , bringing us a fancy new part for genome editing. Recently, they changed things up with a slimmer Cas9 from Staphylococcus pyogenes (spCas9) but now it seems they’ve found […]

Microlasers Hold Big Promise for Next Generation Cellular Analysis

September 11, 2015

Recent work by Seok Hyun Yun and Matjaž Humar has shown us that laser shows aren’t just for Pink Floyd fans. These crafty researchers incorporated specific structures into individual cells, turning them into self-contained “microlasers”. In its simplest form, laser (or light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) technology uses an energy source to amplify photons bouncing between reflective […]

CRISPR Hack Enhances Stem Cell Differentiation

September 11, 2015

From horses in the farmyard to yeast in beer production, human beings have a long history of putting nature’s gifts to work. This can also be said of CRISPR technology, which utilizes a Cas9 DNA endonuclease and a guide RNA to target and destroy specific DNA sites. Nature had intended a role for CRISPR in bacterial […]

Custom-Made Histone Modifications Add Some Bling to Chromatin

September 11, 2015

Sure, the new Apple products announced this week represented new breakthroughs and yes, you’ll be able to personalize these devices with countless modifications like cases, color and screens. The real action though, was unfolding (pun intended) in the world of chromatin analysis as a new method surfaced for introducing tags or native modifications into histones (or any other […]

CombiGEM Takes Combinatorial miRNA Analysis to the Next Level

September 7, 2015

Single gene-focused research can sometimes be like the Indian story of the blind men and the elephant. The blind men, having never seen an elephant before, decide to touch one and feel it for themselves, to determine its shape. However, since they all grab different parts of the elephant, each can only describe what they feel, […]

UBER: Cross-Species, Drag-and-Drop Gene Circuits

August 26, 2015

There’s a bit of a dirty little secret in synthetic biology – gene circuits that work great in one species often require a lot of changes to work in anything else. This is one reason so many synbio papers contain the same two key words: E. and coli. Now, a new approach called UBER (Universal […]

RiboT: Synthetic Ribosome Opens Door to Independent Genetic Codes

August 25, 2015

Synthetic biologists have made a lot of progress in developing “orthogonal” genetic systems. DNA and RNA have been made with synthetic base pairs, and cells have been coaxed to produce proteins with synthetic amino acids. This expands the genetic code beyond the standard letters used by life on Earth, which could potentially open up new […]

Phage Therapy: Synthetic Biology Goes Viral

August 12, 2015

Viruses have long been maligned as worthless, pseudo-alive parasites, but treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections may be about to go viral. No, we don’t mean cats taking medicine on video (although…). No, this is phage therapy. Phages are viruses that infect bacteria, and research into using them to treat bacterial infections goes back decades, especially in […]

Hacking the Microbiome: Bacteria Advance Therapeutics and Diagnostics

August 5, 2015

Commensal bacteria have long had branding issues. First there was an awareness problem – “Wait, these things are inside us?” Then there was an image problem – “Germs! Bad! Kill!” They even had a Pluto moment, when it turned out a whole bunch of them weren’t even bacteria at all. Despite these difficulties, the word […]

Expanding the Genetic Code with Synthetic Bases

July 27, 2015

Life on Earth only uses 4 DNA bases (ACGT), but in principle, there’s no good reason why we couldn’t use more. Heeding the call of “this might be possible but nature hasn’t done it yet I wonder why not?”, synthetic biologists have been tinkering with synthetic bases to see if an expanded DNA alphabet […]

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