Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have created a new, rubber-like material with a unique set of properties, which could act as a replacement for human tissue in medical procedures. The material has the potential to make a big difference to many people's lives. The research was recently published in the highly regarded scientific journal ACS Nano.

ETH researchers are using synthetic biology to reprogram bacterial viruses — commonly known as bacteriophages — to expand their natural host range. This technology paves the way for the therapeutic use of standardized, synthetic bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections, the scientists claim.

Factors such as increasing worldwide population growth and increased levels of global warming mean that the world's freshwater resources are increasingly strained and drained. Researchers at Kaust, Saudi Arabia, are trying to harness the potential of wastewater in order to address global water scarcity.

An interdisciplinary research collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge has engineered a novel synthetic plant-microbe signalling pathway that could provide the foundation for transferring nitrogen fixation to cereals. Enhancing the root microbiota has enormous potential for improving crop yields in nutrient-poor soils and reducing chemical fertiliser use.

Much better treatment options now exist for many illnesses compared to what was available ten years ago. Their effectiveness depends, however, on early detection. Laboratory diagnostics create a highly dynamic bond between scientific progress and medical applications.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 is awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for the development of cryo-electron microscopy, which both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules.

A team of researchers led by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Seas) has found that Escherichia coli (E. coli) may use mechanical cues to keep their shape. “This research may reveal some basic principles of bacteria growth,” said Felix Wong, a graduate student at Seas and co-first author of the paper.

At the Julius Kühn Institute, the Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants in Germany, a young working group is trying to specifically modify the genetic material of plants, through genome editing. In this way, they also want to investigate possible risks of this technology. LAB Worldwide visited the team for one day.

With the increasing threat of antibiotic resistance, there is a growing need for new treatment strategies against life threatening bacterial infections. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen may have identified such an alternative treatment for bacterial meningitis, a serious infection that can lead to sepsis.

Microorganisms often assemble natural products similar to industrial assembly lines. Certain enzymes, non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) play a key role in this process. Biotechnologists at Goethe University have now been able to discover how these enzymes interact with each other. This brings them one step closer to their goal of engineering the production of such peptide natural products.