Tag: BioTech

A smart app is targeting overfishing while illuminated nets could help reduce bycatch. Now a Hamburg-based startup is hoping to provide fresh fish outside the ocean using cells from salmon or rainbow trout from a controlled aquaculture. The cells are cultivated in steel tanks with nutrients, vitamins and minerals from plants such as beans and sugarcane, but also yeast,...

Sustainable chocolate uses cocoa hulls rather than sugar, and some alternatives make do without cocoa altogether. Vanillin, meanwhile, is often made synthetically from oil-based materials. Vanilla pods are expensive and their natural habitat threatened by climate change, yet the popular scent is in high demand for many sweets and fragrances. Now, a California-based startup is using biotechnology to produce...

If our hearing gets worse, the hair cells in our ears could be reprogrammed. As we get older, our vision likewise deteriorates, since damaged cells do not regenerate (except in fish and amphibians). Which explains why work is underway to develop a biohybrid retina. The London-based startup of a science team is going one step further, however, and aiming...

Paper tags prevent theft, while algae protects against fire. And now, British students are turning to natural materials such as charcoal to provide safeguards against wildfires. Their patent-pending, pinecone-like sensor can be placed on the forest floor. If the surrounding temperature exceeds 80℃, wax in the ‘cone’ starts to melt. Its heat is converted into energy by a small...

Dragonflies offer a blueprint for treating sprains. Healthy cartilage, meanwhile, is important for knee and hip joints - but once damaged it can’t heal of its own accord. Enter a US research team and its new biopaste made from a special bioactive peptide and modified hyaluronic acid. When injected into damaged cartilage, the paste morphs into a structured growth...

Cataloguing insects makes sense, as they can be important for the surrounding environment. Not always, however. Which is why a startup from Glasgow is looking to target harmful parasites using biotechnology rather than chemicals. The project, which began life at Glasgow University, relies on lab recreations of natural proteins found within unwanted insects in order to use them as...

A soap mix is helping to combat skin cancer. Sunscreen is useful there, too, but mostly not eco-friendly. Enter two Boston-based researchers who have pooled their knowledge of underwater molluscs to launch a new startup. Their experiments showed that colour pigments in squid or octopus could protect against the sun when combined with zinc oxide. After recreating the pigments...

Naturally-occurring colour pigments in purple maize have anti-inflammatory properties. Clothes, meanwhile, are rarely manufactured using natural colours. But all that could be about to change thanks to the work of two textile engineers and their New York-based startup. The team is using biotechnology to create colourful yarn without using dye. First, in a fermentation process, special bacteria produce natural...