News
Read the latest biotechnology news stories from New Zealand.
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Science underpins new skincare range
18/06/2013
The anti-ageing skincare brand MitoQ was launched in late 2012. The active ingredient in MitoQ is a derivative of CoQ and is based on research carried out by UK and New Zealand scientists.
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The smoking gene: bad news for teens
11/06/2013
Your genes play an influencing role in whether you become a heavy smoker in adulthood – but only if you start smoking in the first place as a teenager – according to a team of researchers.
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‘Royal disease’ mystery solved
04/06/2013
Researchers have solved the mystery of how haemophilia B Leyden, a rare blood-clotting disorder that only affects about 80 families worldwide, is caused.
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HIV cure?
28/05/2013
A baby in the United States born with HIV is reported to have been cured with a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs administered immediately after birth (at 30 hours) and treatment continuing for 18 months.
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Cannibal blood cells ease gout
21/05/2013
Researchers from the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research have found that cannibalistic white blood cells, neutrophils, could be key to easing the symptoms of gout.
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Honey wound healing chemically complex
14/05/2013
New research into the infection-fighting properties of New Zealand’s Mānuka honey has shown that, though the compound methylglyoxal (MGO) plays a role in inhibiting bacteria, it is not the full story.
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Green coke to be used in steel making
07/05/2013
New Zealand Steel Ltd and Blenheim-based clean-carbon-tech company CarbonScape have recently signed a green coke supply agreement, with the first trial shipment scheduled for 2014.
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Bloodmeal bioplastic business secures investor
30/04/2013
Hamilton-based Aduro Biopolymers, a spin-out company formed by WaikatoLink, is currently developing a novel bioplastic made from waste bloodmeal. The idea has captured the attention of and investment from the Wallace Corporation.
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Gene therapy restores hearing in mice
23/04/2013
A group of researchers from the United States have successfully restored the hearing and improved balance in mice with a congenital form of deafness modelled on the human equivalent.
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Rice with beta-carotene
16/04/2013
Fourteen years ago, scientists developed a genetically engineered version of rice that promotes the production of vitamin A to counter blindness and other diseases in children in developing countries.
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Epigenes linked to rheumatoid arthritis
09/04/2013
Epigenetic changes in DNA conspire to cause rheumatoid arthritis, and these changes can be genetically predetermined, according to researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Johns Hopkins Medical University in the US.
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Gene therapy targets rare brain disease
02/04/2013
A feasible treatment option using gene therapy has been found for sufferers of a rare brain condition called Canavan disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that begins at birth and affects children.
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Ancient cheese
27/03/2013
Researchers have detected dairy fats on fragments of pottery that are over 7000 years old. The pottery was used to strain milk to make cheese.
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DNA data storage
20/03/2013
Researchers have demonstrated how information – including Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech and all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets – can be stored on and retrieved from a strand of synthetic DNA.
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Ear power
12/03/2013
In a world first, scientists from the United States have found a way to harvest the electricity naturally generated by the battery-like electrochemical gradient that exists in the inner ear of mammals to power a small wireless transmitter.
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Milk powder: foiling the fakers
05/03/2013
Scientists have developed a way of identifying a milk powder’s country of origin to combat imitation dairy products being passed off as New Zealand-made.
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Vaccinating against leukaemia?
26/02/2013
Boosting the activity of a rare type of immune cell could be an effective way to vaccinate patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) against their own cancer.
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New vaccine therapy for brain cancer
19/02/2013
Researchers have developed a new method to tackle glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of highly aggressive brain tumour with an “extremely poor prognosis”.
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Modified bacteria target inflammatory bowel disease
14/02/2013
ViThera Pharmaceuticals, a startup biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, recently announced the publication of results demonstrating a novel treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
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US honeybees becoming antibiotic resistant
05/02/2013
Recent research by scientists from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University has shown that bacteria in the guts of honeybees are highly resistant to the antibiotic tetracycline.
