Topic description and stories

Dr Nicola Patron in her lab

The lab making food healthier and medicine cheaper

16 Dec 2024

Dr Nicola Patron is cultivating a new kind of biotechnology, where we can read nature’s blueprints and direct its energy to more potent ends.

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New legal tool aims to increase openness, sharing and innovation in global biotechnology

11 Oct 2018

A new easy-to-use legal tool that enables exchange of biological material between research institutes and companies launches today.

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Report highlights opportunities and risks associated with synthetic biology and bioengineering

21 Nov 2017

Human genome editing, 3D-printed replacement organs and artificial photosynthesis – the field of bioengineering offers great promise for tackling the...

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Marchantia - a primitive plant form used as the 'chassis' for designing new plants

From foundry to factory: building synthetic plants

20 Jun 2014

A movement is under way that will fast-forward the design of new plant traits. It takes inspiration from engineering and the software industry, and...

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Fractal patterns spontaneously emerge during bacterial cell growth

11 Jun 2013

Scientists discover highly asymmetric and branched patterns are the result of physical forces and local instabilities; research has important...

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Root of Arabidopsis thaliana with green fluorescent protein decorating cell membrane and red fluorescent protein marking nuclei.

Lighting up plant cells to engineer biology

05 Apr 2012

Cambridge researchers have developed a new technique for measuring and mapping gene and cell activity through fluorescence in living plant tissue.

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plant image

Synthetic biology takes root

01 Sep 2008

Creating circuits from multiple components is routine in engineering. Can living systems be constructed using similar principles?

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