The Next Frontier for mRNA Could Be Healing Damaged Organs
A healthy liver is spongy and reddish-brown in color with a smooth appearance. But when the surgeons took this one out of the cooler, it was hard, marbled, and covered …
biotech
The Secret to Living Past 120 Years Old? Nanobots
I’ve had many conversations over the years about life extension, and the idea often meets resistance. People become upset when they hear of an individual whose life has been cut …
Woman Who Received Pig Kidney Transplant Has It Removed
Surgeons in New York have removed a pig kidney less than two months after transplanting it into Lisa Pisano, a 54-year-old woman with kidney failure who also needed a mechanical …
Gene-Edited Salad Greens Are Coming to US Stores This Fall
Last year, startup Pairwise started selling the first food in the US made with Crispr technology: a new type of mustard greens with an adjusted flavor. But chances are, most …
WTF Is With the Pink Pineapples at the Grocery Store?!
On a recent trip to Giant Eagle, my local grocery store in Pittsburgh, I noticed something new in the fruit section: a single pineapple packaged in a pink and forest-green …
IndieBio’s SF incubator lineup is making some wild biotech promises
IndieBio’s Bay Area incubator is about to debut its 15th cohort of biotech startups. We took special note of a few, which were making some major, bordering on ludicrous, claims …
There’s New Hope for an HIV Vaccine
Since it was first identified in 1983, HIV has infected more than 85 million people and caused some 40 million deaths worldwide. While medication known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, …
The First Person to Receive a Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died
Richard “Rick” Slayman, the first person to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig, has died almost two months after the transplant. He was 62. The historic procedure was …
These Artificial Blood Platelets Could One Day Save Lives
When donated blood is in low supply, platelets are even scarcer. These cell fragments, which are essential for blood clotting, have a short shelf life. Whereas whole blood can be …
The US Is Cracking Down on Synthetic DNA
The White House has issued new rules aimed at companies that manufacture synthetic DNA after years of warnings that a pathogen made with mail-order genetic material could accidentally or intentionally …