'Monster tumors' could offer new glimpse at human development

Finding just the right model to study human development—from the early embryonic stage onward—has been a challenge for scientists over the last decade. Now, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have ...

Making heads or tails out of phospholipid synthesis

Most scientists agree that life on Earth began about 4 billion years ago, but they don't agree where—on land or in water. They know that about 2 billion years ago, single-celled organisms evolved into complex plants and ...

To make mini-organs grow faster, give them a squeeze

The closer people are physically to one another, the higher the chance for exchange, of things like ideas, information, and even infection. Now researchers at MIT and Boston Children's Hospital have found that, even in the ...

Evolution: No social distancing at the beginning of life

Bacteria are a dominant form of life that inhabit every environment on Earth. This includes human bodies, where they outnumber our cells and genes and regulate many body systems. Bacteria are regularly viewed as simple, single-celled ...

Intestinal regeneration: Lessons from organoid research

The last decade has seen a boom in the field of organoids, miniature organs grown from stem cells in vitro. These systems recapitulate the cell type composition and numerous functions of parent organs—such as brain, kidney, ...

CRISPR: a tool to rewrite the code of life

CRISPR-Cas9, the gene-editing technique whose twin founders were honoured with the Chemistry Nobel on Wednesday, is a tool that can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extreme precision.

Novel technology for the selection of single photosynthetic cells

You might need a microscope to witness the next agricultural revolution. New research, published in the journal Science Advances, demonstrates how microfluidic technologies can be used to identify, isolate and propagate specific ...

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