Scientists Discover Organism That Act Like Living Electrical Wires

Scientists have discovered a new species of electricity-conducting bacteria, Candidatus Electrothrix yaqonensis, in mudflats along Oregon’s Yaquina Bay. This finding has significant implications for environmental cleanup and the development of bioelectronic technologies. The bacterium is part of the cable bacteria group, which form long, filamentous chains capable of conducting electricity through their shared outer membrane.

What makes the new bacteria especially noteworthy is its hybrid genetic makeup. It appears to bridge the gap between two known cable bacteria genera, Ca. Electrothrix and Ca. Electronema, offering potential insights into bacterial evolution. Structurally, it stands out for its pronounced surface ridges and unique nickel-based conductive fibers, which let it transport electrons over long distances. This ability allows the bacterium to participate in redox reactions that are critical for nutrient cycling and pollution breakdown.

Because these bacteria can thrive in diverse environments and conduct electricity without the need for external power, they hold promise for cleaning up contaminated sediments and inspiring new types of bioelectronic devices. The bacterium’s name honors the Indigenous Yaqona people, representing a collaboration between scientists and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

Genetically Engineered Yeast to Manufacture Complex Medicine

   

     Stanford University has introduced a new method of creating drugs based off of yeast. This drug, noscapine, a non narcotic cough suppressant, has been created by bio-engineers who inject extracts from poppy seeds into brewers yeast. Scientists have realized they can produce large amounts of this medicine as needed. They have accomplished this by stitching three separate sections of the noscapine biosynthesis pathway into a single yeast strain.The technology they have initiated can change the way all essential medicine is made in the future according to a professor at Stanford. An exciting fact about this medicine is that preclinical trials have indicated that this drug can potentially be used as a cancer drug. Also, this cancer treatment would be less toxic and harmful then the treatment that there is now. The down side to this medicine is that it is extracted from opium poppies. Our country is struggling with an opioid epidemic and this can create a lot of restrictions to manufacturing this medicine.
      I personally am unsure of how I feel about this medicine. I believe there should be a lot of restrictions on opioids, and scientists should be figuring out ways to avoid them in treatment. If it can cure cancer, then I am an advocate for this medicine. However, they have not yet  specified if it is an addictive drug. I would like to know more about the effects of this new medicine.

The article about this invention is found on: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180402192627.htm
More about noscapine: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/noscapine#section=Top

Teaching life a new trick: Bacteria make boron-carbon bonds

In article on Science Daily, researchers have developed a way to genetically engineer a enzyme in a bacteria that would create chemical compounds containing bonds between boron and carbon. This is essential because there has been no known life form that can produce the boron-carbon bonds because the bonds would be usually created by chemists in laboratories. The findings is part of a new wave of synthetic biology, which living organisms are taught to make "greener"chemical compounds needed for pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals and industrial products. Creating greener alternatives can be beneficial because they are more economical and would supposedly produce less toxic waste.

It is interesting how researchers are capable on creating more efficient and safer ways of producing chemicals from living organisms. This could be a new opening to more experiments like this, leading to synthetic made chemicals just from living organisms. With this, it could be possible that laboratory made chemicals could be abandoned or less depended on because of the toxins that are produced and for how much it costs to produce the chemicals. This could benefit many in pharmaceuticals and business.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171129131417.htm

http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2017112921320019.html

Bioengineers bright light to gene circuits

Using the same techniques as an electric engineer would use for electric circuits, bioengineers created something similar when working with genes. In the article, Jeffrey Tabor, Evan Olson and their colleagues from Rice University have engineered a new way of making and calculating gene expression signals in bacteria. The way it works is this: they use LED lights with light sensitive proteins from photosynthetic algae and put it together with bright reporter genes, with this they can take charge of the quantity and the timing of the different genes that are expressed by how bright and long the lights last. Tabor, quoted by the author, then explains how they were inspired by the electrical engineers with their tools on measuring the voltage on electrical circuits, so they thought why not use the same process for genetics? The correlation between genetic and electric circuits are how information passes through these circuits making them process and react on what is provided. In genes, these circuits can make an expression be shown or not shown by the control of DNA segments. Tabor's study consisted of 4,000 bacterial genes and even though humans have 20,000, they were still able to create genetic circuits that could produce complicated activities like counting, memory, growing tissues, and diagnosing signs of disease within the body.

Previously, Tabor and his colleagues would make gene circuits that would permit the bacteria to change their color based on approaching light. Recently, the team recognized how the light could signal when gene expressions would go up and down like in electrical circuits. Olson compares the tools they use to a generator and an oscilloscope in electrical engineering. A generator shoots a signal to the circuit that is being portrayed then the oscilloscope helps engineers see circuit output. In Tabor and Olson's study, the light up reporter genes are their oscilloscope and their invention, the "light tube array," acted as their generator. The light tube array is just an eight by eight pack of lights that fit under test tubes. It has been said by Olson that there is a seven minute delay between the gene expression going in and out of the gene circuit. But they have discovered that they can design the circuit to perform certain instructions. All in all, their research and creation has led to some of the cleanest data in biology yet.

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In my opinion, the article was only slightly interesting. Engineering in general to me is fairly intriguing but I felt this article was repetitious when describing genetic and electrical circuits. But it was really cool to learn about how bioengineering is progressing in the genetic field, especially since collecting data in genetics is very tedious. This new invention/discovery could pose extremely useful in learning human genetics and figuring out the codes of different genetic diseases or possibly understanding where they came from. In essence, this article and study brings new light to the genetics and bioengineering world and should offer more questions and answers to the genetic society.

Link to the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140310111710.htm

Link to related research on genetic circuits: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6163/1193.full

Where Cats Glow Green: Weird Feline Science in New Orleans

Meet Mr. Green Genes - a feline product of bio-engineering. He is just one of many animals that were born at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES), which has some of the most advanced genetic techniques today.  ACRES has worked hard to develop techniques involving vitro fertilization, cryopreservation, interspecies cloning, and more for their goal of preserving endangered species. Mr. Green Genes was a breakthrough in genetics after the marker put into his DNA to glow under ultraviolet light proved to be a success. It is ACRES hope that markers like this could be used to identify genetic diseases.

Making cats glow isn't the only thing ACRES has done. They have successfully implanted wildcat embryos into domestic cats to produce a cloned African Wildcat. This cat later bred with another cloned African Wildcat, becoming the first cloned animals to breed naturally and produce a successful litter. ACRES has used this method of implanting endangered wild cat embryos into domestic cats to rear multiple species of threatened species, helping to stave off extinction one cat at a time.

Cloning has a small success rate and is an expensive process, leading many to think it's just not worth it. But as more work is done in the field, it will become more and more effective and manageable. ACRES is doing research that can help save species and that is something that shouldn't have a price tag.

Article: http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/6/4841714/where-cats-glow-green-weird-feline-science-acres-in-new-orleans
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyKt7Rr5Y88
Video 2: http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/6/5072524/detours-new-orleans-cloning-wildcats

Bioengineered ears win first place at World Technology Summit

A man named Lawrence Bonassar, pictured below, and his partner Jason Spector earned the first place title at a technology summit with their ground breaking 3D printed bio ears. These artificial ears combine 3D printing with injectable gels made of living cells that look and function like the real deal.Professor Bonassar and Professor Spector have been cooperatively working on bio body parts since 2007 and with their bioengineered ears taking the spotlight, the belief is that these ears can act as replacements for those who have lost their ears due to accidents or cancer at hospitals everywhere. Child ear deformity might fall into a thing of the past with this step towards the future.

 

These bio ears are just the first step in the production of other, arguably more valuable, body parts.What replaces a cancer ridden ear today has the potential to replace a cancer ridden heart in the future. It may take time and money, but with this technology, children and adults alike won't need to wait around for someone to donate the proper organ they need to live. In the future, we might just be able to grow them the perfect replacement part that is made of live cells and functions just as well as any natural organ. Genetic deformities will be a thing of the past. That is, as long as these replacements stay within an affordable budget for the average person.

Article: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-bioengineered-ears-world-technology-summit.html

Further Reading: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-d-molds-bioengineered-ears-real.html#inlRlv

Mouth-watering Artifical Glands

  It is proven that glands that make tears and saliva can be bio engineered to take on the function of a normal gland, when they were tested on mice.  Tsuji of the Tokyo University of Science collected cells that would have turned into tear and salivary glands from mice embryos and grew them for 3 days in devices that mimicked conditions of a developing embryo. 

  The glands were then transplanted into the mice the natural glands were taken from.  Once transplanted, the tissue matured then eventually connected with the mouse's nervous system and tear and saliva ducts.  The glands and ducts produced fluids when given the correct stimuli.  It's amazing how science can do so many things nowadays and has little restrictions.  If a person has a deformed duct or gland I'm guessing that they can fix it by transplanting a new one.  Science has come a long way from what they were limited to in the past, I think they are only going to advance even more.


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266952.php
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-120729-In-lab-dish,-scientists-make-tear-and-saliva-glands

Can scientists rid malaria from the Third World by simply feeding algae genetically engineered with a vaccine?

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Apparently not yet.

But scientists say that a vast assortment of viral and bacterial diseases can be prevented by feeding algae orally as a vaccine.
The researchers fused a protein that provokes an antibody response in mice against the organism that causes malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, with a protein produced by the bacteria responsible for cholera, Vibrio cholera, that binds to intestinal epithelial cells. They then genetically engineered algae to produce this two-protein combination, freeze dried the algae and later fed the resulting green powder to mice.
The mice developed Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies to both the malarial parasite protein and to a toxin produced by the cholera bacteria. IgA antibodies are produced in the gut and mucosal linings. Very interesting and ground breaking work is at hand here!