genetic engineering

Aug 09, 2017

Genetically engineered salmon has reached the dinner table, as AquaBounty Technologies, a Massachusetts company has successfully developed and commercialized a genetic variant of salmon fish, Salmo salar. The company announced that it has sold some 4.5 tonnes of its hotly debated product to customers in Canada. This...

Apr 11, 2017

Jason Sheltzer, a cancer biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, was on the hunt for genes involved in tumour growth. He and his colleagues planned to disable the MELK gene using the popular gene-editing tool CRISPR–Cas9, then look for changes that reduced the rate at which cancer cells multiply. The...

Apr 05, 2017

Lightweight sneakers, energy bars, high protein cereals, electrolyte cocktails- all of these promise the performance of a star athlete but rarely do the customers get even close to the peak level performance of those athletes. Even though billions are spent in sales, there is no satisfying example of performance thr...

Dec 29, 2016

On 11 February, researchers announced that they had finally sensed the ripples in the structure of space-time known as gravitational waves — capping a decades-long quest. A tumultuous US presidential campaign ended in a surprise victory for Republican businessman Donald Trump in November. Researchers struggled ...

Dec 07, 2016

Fabián Díaz achieved a milestone last year when he derived the first human embryonic stem-cell line from cells of Mexican origin. Biologists across Mexico now use the stem cells, which Díaz — a researcher at the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico City — created using embryos discarded by a fertility clinic...