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Category: biological – Page 208

Researchers in the US and UK examined an existing enzyme which had occurred naturally in landfill sites and was able to slowly digest man-made plastics.

But in the course of testing the enzyme’s origins, the researchers made biological changes to it that turbo-charged its ability to digest plastics, according to Britain’s University of Portsmouth.

According to The Guardian, the enzyme starts breaking down plastic in a matter of days, a process which would take centuries under normal conditions.

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Kazan, Russia, April 23–25.

23–25 April 2018 in Kazan (Russia) will be a biogerontological conference with the following main topics:

- Epigenetic mechanisms of aging

- Genomics, metabolomics, proteomics of longevity in humans and animals.

- Environment and aging

- Biomarkers of biological age

- Pharmacological interventions in aging.

- Mechanisms of regeneration.

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In 2017, synthetic biology companies raised a record amount of funding – just over $1.8 billion for fifty two companies – driven mostly by several multi-hundred million dollar deals. This was a 50% increase over the previous year, a pace of growth that indicated an intense interest in the field from outside investors. It seems that this interest has only intensified since then, as 27 companies raised $650 million in funding during the first quarter of 2018, which is double the activity of the first quarter of 2017. At this rate, the field is on track to raise over $2.4 billion with over 100 companies being funded, which would be a record for both statistics.

Synthetic Biology Companies Funding

The companies raising money in 2018 are pursuing a broadly diverse set of applications from all sections of the synthetic biology technology stack. Many companies are developing products that will eventually end up in the hands (or bodies) of everyday consumers, but others are making the tools and reagents that will empower the whole field to become more productive. It is important that all of these types of companies exist in order to build a healthy industry ecosystem.

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Elon Musk’s neurotechnology startup Neuralink filed for permits to build an in-house machine shop and a biological testing laboratory for its facility in San Francisco last year.

The documentation on the company’s 2017 permits was retrieved by Gizmodo, which was able to access Neuralink’s public records. An excerpt of a letter submitted by Neuralink executive Jared Birchall on February 2017 to the city’s planning department gives some clues about the company’s plans for the facility’s proposed machine shop and animal testing lab.

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(credit: Getty)

A revolutionary new theory contradicts a fundamental assumption in neuroscience about how the brain learns. According to researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel led by Prof. Ido Kanter, the theory promises to transform our understanding of brain dysfunction and may lead to advanced, faster, deep-learning algorithms.

A biological schema of an output neuron, comprising a neuron’s soma (body, shown as gray circle, top) with two roots of dendritic trees (light-blue arrows), splitting into many dendritic branches (light-blue lines). The signals arriving from the connecting input neurons (gray circles, bottom) travel via their axons (red lines) and their many branches until terminating with the synapses (green stars). There, the signals connect with dendrites (some synapse branches travel to other neurons), which then connect to the soma. (credit: Shira Sardi et al./Sci. Rep)

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For the first time in history, researchers have fused artificial cells with biological cells in a way that lets them work together. This opens the door for a variety of new possibilities and applications.

Fusing biological and artificial cells

The research team at Imperial College London uses a system that encapsulates biological cells within an artificial cell. Using this approach, the team can harness the ability of biological cells to produce chemicals while offering them protection from the environment.

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