BioTech Review

Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown gene that causes resistance to a leading blood cancer drug, as well as several genes that accelerate lymphoma growth, using a powerful new CRISPR activation library.

CRISPR may be a powerful technology for gene editing, but the system existed in bacteria long before scientists began using it. For billions of years, CRISPR has acted as a natural immune system in bacteria and other microbes, helping defend them against invading viruses. But now, two new studies, published in Science, describe a similar RNA-guided system that originated in the viruses themselves and appears to be a precursor to CRISPR.

Danaher companies Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), a global leader in genomics, and Aldevron, a premier manufacturing partner for DNA, RNA, and protein, today announced the launch of research grade S.p. Cas9 mRNA in wild type and SpyFi™ high-fidelity formats.

A new open-access study introduces RiSpy, a data-driven fingerprinting framework that makes the identification of genome-edited (GE) rice lines more robust, scalable and broadly applicable. Researchers from Sciensano, together with CIRAD and DARWIN project partners, in collaboration with colleagues from Ghent University, have presented the new methodological framework for the reliable identification of genome-edited (GE) rice lines in the journal Briefings in Bioinformatics.

Scientists have discovered a powerful gene-targeting system in viruses. Billions of years old, VIPR seems to predate CRISPR and may be even more powerful.

Scientists have discovered a powerful gene-targeting system in viruses. Billions of years old, VIPR seems to predate CRISPR and may be even more powerful.

Scientists have discovered a powerful gene-targeting system in viruses. Billions of years old, VIPR seems to predate CRISPR and may be even more powerful.

Picking the Endpoints 11 this year was harder than it ever has been. Finding the year’s most interesting biotech startups is always a process of long hours of debate and research by ...

Spearhead Bio says its technology can save seed breeders "years of development time and millions of dollars in crop improvement." The post Exclusive: Spearhead Bio lands oversubscribed seed round for faster, more precise gene editing tech appeared first on AgFunderNews.

A new genome-editing method, prime assembly, precisely inserts long DNA sequences into targeted genomic locations, potentially enabling mutation-agnostic gene therapies for diverse genetic diseases with fewer individualized edits. The post Prime Assembly Expands Genome Editing with Precise, Large-Scale DNA Integration appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

The mammalian gut microbiome is teeming with a delicate balance of bacteria and the viruses that keep them in check, called bacteriophages, or phages.

The biologic drug interferon-alpha can benefit patients with blood cancers called myeloproliferative neoplasms by forcing mutant blood stem cells to become shorter-lived white blood cells, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. Because the broad activity of interferon-alpha can induce significant side effects, developing more focused strategies based on these mechanistic findings could meet an important need in cancer therapy.

Berkeley biotech’s stem cell rejuvenation platform, built for transplant medicine, is branching into an injectable and a skin treatment. A little over a year ago, HexemBio was a single-idea company: take a patient’s own aging blood stem cells, briefly place them back in a lab-built version of the environment where the body first made them […] The post HexemBio raises $15.5m to rejuvenate aging stem cells appeared first on Longevity.Technology.

TIGRa, half CRISPR’s size, fits in viral vectors to boost protective genes. Its compact design could enable gene

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Gene editing has long promised a revolution in cancer medicine, yet the promise has remained stubbornly out of reach for one deceptively simple reason: getting the CRISPR-Cas9 machinery into tumor cells, and only tumor cells, is extraordinarily difficult. A new comprehensive review published in Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials argues that the missing piece of […]

Peppers are among the world’s most valuable vegetable crops, prized for their culinary versatility, vibrant pigments, and nutritional content, yet they remain dangerously vulnerable to cold. Even brief exposure to chilling temperatures can disrupt membrane integrity, suppress photosynthesis, and throw cellular redox balance into disarray, slashing both yield and fruit quality. Now, a comprehensive review […]

Treating inherited diseases is one of the greatest challenges in modern medicine. In the future, targeted gene corrections at the earliest stages of embryonic development could help prevent certain inherited diseases from developing and being passed on to future generations. However, the safety of such approaches depends on how human embryos repair the DNA damage caused during gene editing and on the limitations of available technologies. These questions are addressed in a study published in the journal Nature, led by first author Štěpán Jeřábek, who is affiliated with both Columbia University and IOCB Prague. The research also involved two other IOCB Prague scientists, Iva Pichová and Michal Doležal.

Oesophageal adenocarcinoma is one of the most stubborn cancers in modern oncology. Diagnosed at a stage where the tumour has often already invaded the wall of the gullet or spread beyond it, it carries some of the bleakest long-term survival figures of any major cancer type. Even as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted drugs and, more recently, […]

Maize is the backbone of global agriculture, cultivated on more than 200 million hectares and feeding billions of people as food, animal feed, and bioenergy feedstock. Yet the crop that sustains so much of the world is increasingly under siege. Erratic rainfall, scorching heat waves, soil degradation, and emerging pests and diseases are steadily eroding […]

Researchers in Germany have unveiled a streamlined genome-editing tool that could make it considerably easier to engineer Bacillus bacteria, a group of microbes that sits at the heart of numerous industrial processes, from enzyme production to the manufacture of vitamins and detergents. The new system, described in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, removes a long-standing bottleneck […]

The human intestine performs some of the most demanding construction work in the body. Its lining turns over roughly every five days, shedding billions of cells and replacing them from a small pool of intestinal stem cells tucked into pockets called crypts. When this assembly line falters, the consequences cascade across an astonishing range of […]

Cultured meat, once a science-fiction curiosity, has matured into one of the most closely watched frontiers in food technology, and a comprehensive new review published in Discover Biotechnology offers the most balanced assessment yet of whether it can truly deliver on its promises. The review, led by Roshini Singh of Amity University Uttar Pradesh together […]

Aquaculture now supplies more than half of the seafood consumed worldwide, yet the industry still struggles with one of biology’s oldest problems: controlling when and how farmed animals reproduce. A comprehensive review published in Advanced Biotechnology argues that the answer lies in precision reproductive engineering, combining CRISPR-based genome editing with germ cell transplantation to produce […]

Cancer has long been understood as a disease of the genome, driven by mutations that rewire the instructions encoded in DNA. Over the past three decades, however, a parallel truth has crystallized: cancer is equally a disease of the epigenome, the layer of chemical marks that sits atop the genetic code and determines which genes […]

For decades, the human endometrium—the dynamic lining of the uterus that governs embryo implantation, menstruation and the earliest moments of pregnancy—has remained one of the most difficult tissues in the human body to study. Now, a comprehensive review published in Nature Biomedical Engineering maps how a quiet revolution in tissue modelling, spanning organoids, assembloids and […]

Gotu kola, the humble creeping herb known scientifically as Centella asiatica, has quietly become one of the most sought-after plants on the planet. Its leaves contain a family of triterpenoid saponins called centellosides—including asiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic acid, and madecassic acid—that drive wound healing, neuroprotection, and antioxidant defenses. The cosmetics industry alone has built a market […]

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Editing a plant’s genes is only half the battle. Before a new, improved trait can ever reach a farmer’s field, scientists must be able to grow a whole plant from just a few edited cells — a process that can be slow, unreliable and, for some plant species, impossible. A new […] The post New Gene-Editing Tool Speeds Regeneration of Hard-To-Breed Perennial Crops appeared first on Morning Ag Clips.

Researchers have taken an important step toward solving one of the biggest challenges in gene therapy for children with metabolic liver disorders: growth itself. As a child's liver grows, some gene therapies that once worked can gradually lose their effect because the treated cells are eventually outnumbered by new, untreated ones.

People with a progressive genetic eye disorder see more clearly after receiving engineered grafts that repair the damaged surfaces of their eyes, offering a glimpse at what future treatments could hold.

Editing a plant's genes is only half the battle. Before a new, improved trait can ever reach a farmer's field, scientists must be able to grow a whole plant from just a few edited cells—a process that can be slow, unreliable and, for some plant species, impossible.

Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transcription rates vary during development, and their dysregulation is linked to diseases such as cancer and ribosomopathies. Owing to their high abundance and genomic redundancy, the functional significance of rRNA levels remains ...

Abiotic stresses—drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and heavy metal toxicity—are responsible for an estimated 40 to 70 percent of yield losses in the world’s primary food crops, and a new comprehensive review argues that the tools to fight back already exist, if scientists can weave them together. Writing in the open-access journal Discover Plants, researchers Richa […]

FDA accepted a priority review for lonvo-z, a one-time CRISPR treatment for hereditary angioedema, with a decision target of March 10, 2027.

A genetically modified pig kidney kept a man with kidney failure off dialysis for nine months before he received a human donor kidney.

Traditional gene editing rewrites DNA. But a new approach, called epigenome editing, aims to treat the molecular scars we collect throughout our lives.

Traditional gene editing rewrites DNA. But a new approach, called epigenome editing, aims to treat the molecular scars we collect throughout our lives.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery have discovered the stem cells—unspecialized cells that can develop into specific cell types—that give rise to the body's tendons and ligaments, the tissues connecting muscles and bones.

A genetically modified kidney from a pig has worked in a patient with kidney failure for nine months—the longest period yet recorded—US doctors have reported.The transplant kept Tim Andrews, 66, free of dialysis for 271 days, and demonstrated for the first time that a pig kidney can be used as a temporary “bridge” until a human transplant becomes available, according to a case study report published in the Lancet.1Andrews had kidney failure caused by type 2 diabetes. He had just a 9% chance of receiving a human kidney within five years, against a more than 40% risk of dying or being removed from the waiting list for a transplant, the researchers noted.The pig kidney he received worked for nine months before it failed and was removed. After a short period of dialysis, he received another kidney from a deceased human donor.Researchers at Mass General Brigham hospital, Massachusetts—who carried out the...

A miniature human bladder with flowing urine revealed that a standard UTI antibiotic struggled where lab tests said it should work.

Cancer metastasis remains the dominant cause of cancer-related death, accounting for roughly 90 percent of mortality among cancer patients, and colorectal cancer is among the most aggressive in this respect because of its high incidence and its strong tendency to spread to the liver, lungs and peritoneum. A central obstacle to studying how tumours begin […]

Lung cancer tumors that respond well to targeted drugs often harbor a hidden population of cells that the drugs cannot touch, and new research reveals that neighboring support cells actively reprogram those survivors into a drug-resistant state. A study published in the Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research shows that mesenchymal stromal cells educated […]

Kidney organoids grown from human stem cells have transformed how researchers study kidney development and disease, but they have always shared one stubborn flaw: they lack blood vessels. Now a team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has unveiled a 3D printed microfluidic chip that coaxes lab-grown kidney organoids to develop their own primitive capillary […]

In a development that could reshape how scientists probe the molecular machinery of legumes, researchers in Poland have created the first transgene-free knockout lines of a key transporter gene in the model legume Medicago truncatula, using a two-stage CRISPR/Cas9 strategy that promises to dramatically accelerate functional genomics in one of agriculture’s most important plant families. […]

A Cleveland Clinic first-in-human clinical trial has shown that a one-time infusion of a gene-editing therapy using CRISPR-Cas9 was effective and safe in reducing LDL ("bad") cholesterol and triglycerides in people with medication-resistant lipid disorders through one year of follow-up across all doses.

A lab-grown micro bladder may explain why urinary tract infections (UTIs) return so frequently, according to a study led by researchers at UCL, the University of Oxford and the University of Leicester.

As the human brain takes shape before birth, a remarkable type of stem cell helps give it many of the features that make it distinctly human.

Gene-edited pig kidneys could offer a lifeline to patients stuck waiting for a human donor.

In January 2026, Tim Andrews, who had received a genetically edited pig kidney in January 2025, became the recipient of a human kidney. A new Mass General Brigham paper, published in The Lancet, details Andrews' experience and how xenotransplantation could bridge the gap between end-stage kidney failure and a human transplant, allowing a patient to forgo dialysis in the meantime.

Two recipients of gene-edited pig kidneys have successfully received human organs, a milestone in the wider effort to advance xenografts.

As the human brain takes shape before birth, a remarkable type of stem cell helps give it many of the features that make it distinctly human. These cells, called radial glia, make billions of decisions that determine which kinds of brain cells are created, when they appear and how the cortex—the seat of thought, memory and language—takes form.

Gene editing was supposed to be clean. The patent fight wasnt. For fourteen years, CRISPR has moved from a breakthrough scientific idea to a platform technology that promises cures, not just therapies. Investors backed the platform. Patients waited f... Source

The personal investment firms of titans like Stanley Druckenmiller are backing innovations in gene editing, drug discovery and more.

The personal investment firms of titans like Stanley Druckenmiller are backing innovations in gene editing, drug discovery and more.

The personal investment firms of titans like Stanley Druckenmiller are backing innovations in gene editing, drug discovery and more.

“These successes are surprising, worth discussing, and even celebrating a bit,” STAT Lab Dish columnist Paul Knoepfler writes of the FDA and stem cells.

Scientists study the underlying causes of a disease or test potential new drugs in animal models or cells obtained from human biopsy specimens before clinical trials. However, disease models in animals do not mimic actual human disease, and biopsy specimens are difficult to access for research purposes. Lab-grown tissues engineered from stem cells reprogrammed from human cells, called human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), are rapidly emerging as a more reliable and accessible model in medical research.

Scientists study the underlying causes of a disease or test new potential drugs in animal models or cells obtained from human biopsy specimens before clinical trials.

Laboratory experiments found that vanillin, a common vape flavoring, altered the development of human embryonic stem cells.

The deaths of two children who received CRISPR therapies in China have rattled scientists who work on similar genetic medicines in the US, adding new fuel to a yearslong debate about the danger of the ...

Ohio University Distinguished Professor Alexander Govorov of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute (NQPI) in the College of Arts and Sciences has co-authored a new study published in Science Advances with collaborators at Wuhan University in China and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Italy.

What is reproducibility in biotechnology? Basically, it means that researchers can repeat an experiment under comparable conditions and

Cultivated meat aims to produce meat from animal cells in the laboratory without needing to raise a living animal for meat production. It has been proposed as a potentially more sustainable alternative to conventional meat production. Yet recreating something as complex as a steak—rather than minced meat—remains a major scientific challenge.

For many years, the European Union has pursued a policy aimed at the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal testing (the 3Rs principle). To put the ethical principle of the 3Rs into practice, the European Commission has published a roadmap for the gradual phaseout of animal testing in the safety assessment of chemicals.

Using 3D printers to create complex structures from biocompatible materials that can include living cells has the potential to revolutionize medicine. This process—3D bioprinting—has powered breakthroughs in tissue engineering, medical implants and reconstructive surgery and may ultimately allow for the creation of transplantable human organs.

A research team from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed an innovative "one-pot" testing platform, known as TEMPO, that could transform highly sensitive nucleic acid testing from a laboratory-based procedure into a simple, single-step test that can be performed at home. With a single reaction tube, users can obtain results comparable to those of professional laboratory tests in as little as 30 minutes. The breakthrough has the potential to bridge the technological gap between existing rapid tests and laboratory-based nucleic acid diagnostics, offering a more convenient solution for future infectious disease surveillance and genetic screening.

Rice University and collaborators in Switzerland have developed a platform to grow human-derived nerve cells and Schwann cells, supporting cells that form a protective coating called myelin around nerve fibers. This platform enables the formation of functional myelin in a three-dimensional, lab-grown environment. Researchers confirmed that it worked by measuring an increase in the speed of electrical signals traveling across networks of connected nerve cells.

The ability to precisely adjust the expression of genes inside the human body—ramping up protective ones and tamping down harmful ones—holds enormous potential for treating and preventing disease. But the standard molecular tools used to tune genes, such as the CRISPR system, are too bulky to package and deliver into the body's cells.

Technologies like CRISPR are giving us new ways to create the dogs of our dreams — and a reason to reckon with our past mistakes.

Technologies like CRISPR are giving us new ways to create the dogs of our dreams — and a reason to reckon with our past mistakes.

Mayo Clinic joined the federal AEGIS project to build CRISPR treatments for children with inherited immune disorders. Here is what is real.

MUNICH — CRISPR Therapeutics’ gene editing candidate showed mixed durability results a year after patients were dosed, according to early-stage data presented Friday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. The company will ...

A CRISPR Nasal Spray Shows Early Promise Against Brain Inflammation After Traumatic Injury A gene-editing treatment delivered through the nose has reduced acute brain inflammation and improved early motor performance in mice after traumatic brain injury, according to a study published in Biomedical Microdevices. The experimental therapy uses lipid nanoparticles—tiny fat-based carriers already familiar from […]

Mayo Clinic is a clinical collaborator on an award of up to $27.7 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to help develop affordable, scalable gene-editing therapies for children with rare inherited immune disorders.

A compound found in coffee, fruit and vegetables may help protect the stem cells needed to make sperm from the damaging effects of deep freezing, according to a new study in mice. Researchers report that adding chlorogenic acid to the preservation medium used for spermatogonial stem cells improved the cells’ survival, proliferation and differentiation after […]

Saudi Arabia is pairing gene editing breakthroughs with new biomanufacturing capacity, from CRISPR oncology therapies to CDMOs like Lifera, as it builds a full biotech pipeline. The post Genomes to bioreactors: Saudi Arabia’s gene editing oncology push appeared first on Labiotech.eu. © Labiotech UG and Labiotech.eu. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Labiotech UG and Labiotech.eu with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

On the forearms of those working in the laboratory at the University of Oslo, one thing stands out: mysterious round or cross-shaped scars on the skin. Here, researchers need skin cells, and they themselves step up in the service of research. The skin cells are allowed to grow and multiply, and then the work begins to reprogram them into so-called iPS cells, induced pluripotent stem cells. These are cells that can divide indefinitely and give rise to all types of specialized cells in the body. They can, for example, become muscle, blood or nerve cells.

Researchers have developed a new way to study CLN3-Batten disease, a rare inherited condition that causes early vision loss in children followed by progressive neurological decline. Their findings offer new insight into how the disease begins and point to a promising path for treatment.

A research team from Tel Aviv University and the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (IPF), led by Ayala Lampel and Carsten Werner, has developed a peptide-glycosaminoglycan hydrogel system that creates a programmable niche for hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). The system mimics key biochemical and mechanical cues of the bone marrow microenvironment, enabling researchers to investigate how these signals influence stem cell behavior.

In its CZS Nexus program, the Carl Zeiss Foundation has awarded grants to two young scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The researchers will each receive EUR 1.5 million to establish their own interdisciplinary working groups at KIT.

Aurora Therapeutics, the first company that focused on creating bespoke gene editing treatments, has laid off several staff members and stopped its lead program. The company was using CRISPR base editing to fix mutations that ...

Harvard researchers cultured cortical organoids for the past five years, then found that old cells skip developmental steps they had already completed.

Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and Tianjin Medical University General Hospital have developed a bioinspired lipid nanoparticle (LNP) that can deliver gene-editing machinery to the liver and reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, commonly known as "bad" cholesterol. The nanoparticles reduced LDL and total cholesterol by more than 20% after two doses, while showing fewer signs of inflammation and toxicity than comparator formulations. The findings were published in the Journal of Controlled Release.

A new model developed by researchers at Kumamoto University and collaborators from Tohoku University and Kyushu University could advance research into preeclampsia and other pregnancy complications. The team has developed a robust method for producing human trophoblast stem cells (hTSCs) from late-gestation placentas, opening a new avenue for studying pregnancy complications using patient-derived cells. The work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Stem cells possess the unique ability to self-renew and transform into different types of cells. For example, rare hematopoietic stem cells found in bone marrow can become any type of blood cell. Throughout life, they can produce new blood cells to replace those lost because of infection, bleeding or chemotherapy.

Precisely editing the dominant MYB10-1B gene copy converted red strawberries into stable white fruit and demonstrated a targeted strategy for modifying polyploid crops. A strawberry’s familiar red color depends on a complicated genetic system. Cultivated strawberries carry eight sets of chromosomes, so many genes occur in several closely related copies, making it difficult to change [...]

Stem cells possess the unique ability to self-renew and transform into different types of cells. For example, rare hematopoietic stem cells found in bone marrow can become any type of blood cell.

Twenty years after scientists first demonstrated that a mature cell could be pushed backward into a stem-cell-like state, induced pluripotent stem cells are entering a new phase—one defined not only by the ability to reset cellular identity, but also by the growing capacity to control, observe, and safely deploy that transformation. An editorial published in […]

FTC challenges Amgen's Enbrel patent strategy, the long, winding path for the Moderna-Merck cancer vaccine, and more biotech news

By using chemical signals to guide cells to adopt distinct regional identities, scientists created lab-grown human organoids that mimic early brain development and could illuminate how specialized brain areas emerge. The post Lab-Grown Neocortex Models Mimic Early Brain Organization appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

A new study reports a strategy for delivering gene-editing technology directly to human haematopoietic stem cells inside the body, using targeted lipid nanoparticles rather than viral vectors. Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the work by Zhiwei Luo, A.T. Zhu and Michael J. Mitchell describes an approach designed to overcome one of the most difficult problems […]

The human brain is often described as one of the most complex structures in biology, and much of its power comes from how it's organized. Its outer layer, the cerebral cortex, is not one uniform sheet. As the brain develops, it divides into distinct areas that each take on different jobs, from movement and vision to memory, language and social understanding.

Austrian researchers grew a mouse cerebral cortex in a dish. It made the right cells, but the stem cells abandoned the schedule that a real brain follows.

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 20, 2026 — The human cerebral cortex is often portrayed as a single folded sheet of neural tissue, but its remarkable abilities depend on a much more precise arrangement. During embryonic development, the cortex is divided into areas with distinct molecular identities and developmental trajectories. Regions toward the front of the brain […]

CRISPR experiments have become remarkably precise at the level of individual DNA letters, yet proving exactly what happened inside a genome remains a difficult analytical challenge. A new study in Nature Biomedical Engineering introduces CRISPRLungo, a computational approach designed to analyse long-read sequencing data from genome-editing experiments. Developed by researchers including GH Hwang, B. Vyshedskiy […]

Millie Pradawong Using AI and CRISPR to Rethink Biofuel   Most teenagers spend their free time scrolling through social media, playing video games or hanging out with friends. Here is a 14-year-old who is creating history with science and technology. Yes, you read it right. Meet Millie Pradawong, who spends her time thinking about algae, gene […] The post Meet 14-Year-Old Millie Pradawong, Using AI and CRISPR to Rethink Biofuel   appeared first on BioTecNika.