Lab Automation and Bioinformatics News and Research

Latest Lab Automation and Bioinformatics News and Research

UNC Charlotte Study: SARS-CoV-2 Variants BA.2.86 and JN.1 Show Minimal Immune Evasion

New research from UNC Charlotte's Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) has found that the two recent and prevalent strains of the virus that cause COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.2.86 and JN.1, are not significantly better than their predecessor Omicron at evading immune responses and causing infections despite having a high number of mutations compared to Omicron.

22 Jul 2024

How Tiny Freshwater Animals Utilize Bacterial DNA to Fight Fungal Infections

A group of small, freshwater animals protect themselves from infections using antibiotic recipes "stolen" from bacteria, according to new research by a team from the University of Oxford, the University of Stirling and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole.

19 Jul 2024

Expanding the Fruit Fly Tree of Life with New Genomic Data

A multitude of new genomic sequence data fills major gaps in the fruit fly tree of life, Bernard Kim from Stanford University, US, and colleagues report in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, publishing July 18th.

19 Jul 2024

ENGRAM: Capturing Cellular Histories Through Genomic Recording

Genomes can now be entrusted to store information about a variety of transient biological events inside of living cells, as they happen, like a flight recorder collecting data from an aircraft.

18 Jul 2024

New Approach to Finding Antibiotic Alternatives Using Bacterial Data

Researchers have devised an approach for identifying novel antimicrobial drugs with clinical potential using bacterial databases, offering insights into finding alternatives to existing antibiotics.

17 Jul 2024

FAM110A's Dual Role: Orchestrating Microtubule-Actin Interactions in Mitosis

An international research collaboration, led by Prof. Dr. Robert Grosse (Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies and Institute of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Freiburg), Dr. Libor Macurek (Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) and Dr. Zdenek Lansky (Institute of Biotechnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) has uncovered a new mechanism of the crosstalk between microtubules and actin cytoskeleton during cell division and revealed unique characteristics of the previously unexplored protein FAM110A.

17 Jul 2024

"AnoxyGen" Project Aims to Unlock the Untapped Biosynthetic Potential of Anaerobes

The “AnoxyGen” project will decode novel active substances of anaerobes and elucidate their role in nature. Some of these could be useful for humans, animals and the environment.

15 Jul 2024

Harnessing Enzymes for Making RNA Therapeutics

While the COVID-19 vaccines introduced many people to RNA-based medicines, RNA oligonucleotides have already been on the market for years to treat diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and amyloidosis.

15 Jul 2024

Kainate Receptors: A Potential Target for Novel Cerebellar Therapies

The Institute of Neurosciences (IN), a collaborative center of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is leading a study in Tokyo, Japan, in conjunction with Keio University, which highlights the critical role one of the glutamate receptors plays in the proper functioning of the cerebellum's synapses.

11 Jul 2024

Real-Time Snapshots of RNA Polymerase Illuminate Transcription Bubble Dynamics

Every living cell transcribes DNA into RNA. This process begins when an enzyme called RNA polymerase (RNAP) clamps onto DNA.

10 Jul 2024

New Pipeline Studies Viruses in Humans and Coral Reefs

Tens of millions of still-unknown or poorly understood viruses have the potential to cause diseases, including new pandemics, and impact the health of valuable terrestrial and marine environments.

10 Jul 2024

New Guidelines Address Ethical Concerns of Stem Cell Embryo Research in the UK

The UK’s first guidelines for research with stem cell-grown embryo models state that all studies involving these models should be overseen by a dedicated committee.

8 Jul 2024

Pasteurization Effectively Eliminates H5N1 Virus from Milk

In March 2024, dairy cows in Texas were found to be infected with highly pathogenic avian flu, or H5N1 bird flu, in the first known case of the virus spreading to cattle.

4 Jul 2024

Researchers Decode Impact of Every Possible Alteration in Critical Cancer Gene

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have mapped all possible outcomes of changes to a tumor-suppressing gene called VHL, as the first step in a massive research project to unravel the consequences of tens of thousands of genetic variations in genes linked to cancer.

4 Jul 2024

Small Molecules Offer Precise Control Over Splicing in Gene Expression

The correct functioning of cells relies heavily on the ability to finely control gene expression, a complex process by which the information contained in DNA is copied into RNA to eventually give rise to all the proteins and most of the regulatory molecules in the cell.

3 Jul 2024

Understanding the Origins of Brain Disorders Through Neural Pruning

The brain does not store everything for eternity. Trillions of neurons need to be assembled or destroyed at specific times and locations as human brains come together.

2 Jul 2024

Study Offers Insights Genetic Variants Influencing Pubertal Timing

Genes can indirectly influence the age at which girls have their first period by accelerating weight gain in childhood, a known risk factor for early puberty, a Cambridge-led study has found.

2 Jul 2024

DeepEvo: Revolutionizing Protein Engineering with Artificial Intelligence

Engineering proteins for desirable traits has been the holy grail of modern biotechnology.

1 Jul 2024

TATSI Technology Enhances Crop Genome Editing with Transposase-Assisted Integration

With the goal of reducing the time and cost it takes to bring an improved crop to the marketplace, research conducted in the laboratory of Keith Slotkin, PhD, and his colleagues in the Plant Transformation Facility at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, was recently published in the scientific journal.

1 Jul 2024

New High-Throughput Platform for Rapid Evaluation of Plant-Derived Molecules

Plants are powerhouses of molecular manufacturing. Over the eons, they have evolved to produce a plethora of small molecules -; some are beneficial and valuable to humans, others can be deadly.

28 Jun 2024