Synthetic DNA as Mass Data Storage of the Future

Opportunity for resource-efficient, space-saving long-term archiving of data

07-May-2025 - Traditional storage solutions are reaching their limits in light of the steadily increasing volume of data generated worldwide. In the BIOSYNTH project, three Fraunhofer institutes are developing a microchip platform for future mass data storage using synthetic DNA. In this interview, Dr. Uwe ...

Engineering Smart Delivery for Gene Editors

Restoring Vision: New hope for genetic diseases and cancer therapies

11-Apr-2025 - A research team from Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich has developed an advanced delivery system that transports gene-editing tools based on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system into living cells with significantly greater efficiency than before. Their technology, ENVLPE, ...

RNA Origami: Artificial Cytoskeletons to Build Synthetic Cells

Synthetic biologists create nanotubes folded from the natural RNA biomolecule

19-Mar-2025 - With the long-term goal of creating living cells from non-living components, scientists in the field of synthetic biology work with RNA origami. This tool uses the multifunctionality of the natural RNA biomolecule to fold new building blocks, making protein synthesis superfluous. In pursuit of ...

Synthetic Carbon Assimilation Surpasses Nature

New-to-Nature Pathway Outperforms Natural Pathway in Living Bacteria

07-Mar-2025 - For the first time, an international collaboration has demonstrated that synthetic carbon assimilation can operate more efficiently in a living system than its natural counterpart. Researchers in Tobias Erb’s lab at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology engineered a synthetic ...

Enduro Genetics raises €12 million to unlock the future of scalable bioproduction

Patented cell reprogramming technology "addicts" cells to high production and integrates seamlessly into any microbial bioproduction host

11-Feb-2025 - Enduro Genetics – the synthetic biology startup transforming biomanufacturing by “addicting” cells to high production – has raised €12 million in Series A funding from Supernova Invest, NOON Ventures and Sandwater. The funding will be used to expand Enduro’s platform and scale ...

New tool for synthetic biology: A milestone in the application of DNA nanotechnology

DNA nanorobots that can alter artificial cells

15-Jan-2025 - Scientists at the University of Stuttgart have succeeded in controlling the structure and function of biological membranes with the help of "DNA origami". The system they developed may facilitate the transportation of large therapeutic loads into cells. This opens up a new way for the targeted ...

BASF partners with Acies Bio to drive sustainable production of Personal and Home Care ingredients

Partnership on biotechnology supports the further development of fermentation technology

07-Nov-2024 - BASF and Acies Bio, one of Europe’s leading biotechnology companies, have entered into a transformative partnership to further develop a platform for fermentation technology from methanol for the production of fatty alcohols. Fatty alcohols are essential building blocks for several ingredients in ...

Living plastics: a new solution for plastic degradation through synthetic biology

Study provides a novel method for fabricating green plastics

02-Sep-2024 - Dr. DAI Zhuojun's research group at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), published a study titled "Degradable Living Plastics Programmed by Engineered Spores" in Nature Chemical Biology. The study leverages the natural resilience of spores, ...

Synthetic biology reveals the secrets of life without oxygen

ERC Advanced Grant for natural product researcher Christian Hertweck

15-Jul-2024 - The “AnoxyGen” project will decode novel active substances of anaerobes and elucidate their role in nature. Some of these could be useful for humans, animals and the environment. Christian Hertweck has been awarded one of the ERC Advanced Grants by the European Research Council (ERC). In the ...

Research Team Develops Important Building Block for Artificial Cells

27-Mar-2024 - During cell division, a ring forms around the cell equator, which contracts to divide the cell into two daughter cells. Together with researchers from Heidelberg, Dresden, Tübingen and Harvard, Professor Jan Kierfeld and Lukas Weise from the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University have ...