Tag: BioTech

A frame for endotracheal tubes helps protect patients. Equally important: quickly staunching blood when wounds bleed profusely. Now, a Taiwanese startup is showing how this can be done with biocompatible agents like amino acids. The latter build proteins in the body and assist with the production of enzymes. Using a newly-developed biotechnological method, the team combined amino acid molecules...

The farming industry could greatly reduce its pesticide use. But using natural solutions such as messengers released by female insects is better still. The Nobel prize-winning founder of a California-based startup has developed a process to produce these messengers, or pheromones, from raw materials and bio-catalysts. When sprayed on plants, these mask the pheromones naturally produced by female insects,...

Modern plasters leave no trace when treating chronic wounds. Unlike medication used to alleviate severe pain, which often contains addictive opioids. Which is why a biotechnology startup in France is focusing on developing painkillers without the addictive potential. The blueprint for future non-opioid drugs: the body’s own TAFA4 protein, which is secreted in response to touch, and normalises the...

A foam-based pressure bandage helps treat serious wounds. When bones break badly, medical practitioners often use metal plates or 3D-printed implants. Now, a research team in South Korea has developed an easy-to-use glue stick instead. The stick is made from biodegradable plastic, which melts at low temperatures, a phosphate mineral occurring naturally in bones and antibiotics. Using a modified...

Renewable energy can be stored as heat in sand. Silica, meanwhile, is making energy savings possible in the cold chain network. Certainly for the transportation of vaccinations, enzymes and even DNA. Knowing that biologically active molecules in medical substances are thermally unstable and prone to decomposition when temperatures fluctuate, a UK-based startup has developed a new solution: to encase...

In future, milli-spinners could help treat blood clots. Now, a Canadian research team has turned its attention to kidney stones. The research team’s soft robot, made from gelatine, contains magnetic particles and the enzyme urease. Once the 1mm thin, 12mm long robot strip has entered the urinary tract via a catheter, it can be moved into place in the...

Coffee grounds can be made into spectacle frames. Coffee itself, meanwhile, is having a hard time due to climate change. Which is why a Belgian startup has developed a coffee alternative made from chickpeas. These are first fermented in an organic and patented process. The secret lies in the use of multiple microbial strains under different conditions, and in...

Implants can be nourished by the body’s store of glucose. Sea cucumbers, meanwhile, contain unique structures not found in other terrestrial organisms. Among them, as a Mississippi-based research team recently discovered, is a special sugar compound which could help beat cancer. Healthy body cells communicate with one another through tiny ‘antennae’, identifying pathogens and preparing themselves accordingly. Cancer cells...