Searching the sea, and bacterial battles, for new antibiotics

Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin—the world's first natural antibiotic—is famously told as a story of serendipity: a petri dish growing bacteria was contaminated by mold, which secreted a substance to keep bacteria ...

Enzyme from briny deep resurrected in the lab

Mysterious microbes that thrive in hot and super-salty brine lakes at the bottom of the Red Sea could yield a treasure trove of new enzymes for industrial applications—if only scientists had access to their biological bounty.

Spider peptides battle superbugs and cancer

As antibiotic resistance rises and fears over superbugs grow, scientists are looking for new treatment options. One area of focus is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which could someday be an alternative to currently prescribed ...

The nitty-gritty behind how onions make you cry

Adding onions to a recipe can make a meal taste rich and savory, but cutting up the onion can be brutal.  Onions release a compound called lachrymatory factor (LF), which makes the eyes sting and water. Scientists know that ...

Custom-built molecule shows promise as anti-cancer therapy

Scientists at the University of Bath funded by Cancer Research UK have custom-built a molecule which stops breast cancer cells from multiplying in laboratory trials, and hope it will eventually lead to a treatment for the ...

Manipulating gene expression precisely using light

A Hokkaido University researcher has successfully developed a method to accurately manipulate gene expression by light illumination and demonstrated its usability by creating double-headed zebrafish.

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