Bioengineering

The use and cultivation of yeast are possibly one of the oldest forms of biotechnology known to humanity. People have been leveraging its natural properties to make products such as bread and beer for generations. In the modern era, scientists have also found that yeasts can be engineered to produce drugs, using chemicals and other industrially important molecules.

Given the consistent popularity of contact sports such as rugby or American football, concussions should be a persistent concern for its players, coaches, colleagues, and fans as well.

The origin of life on Earth is believed to be a set of paradoxes. In order for life to have gotten started, there must have been a genetic building block, such as DNA or RNA, which was capable of passing along the blueprints for making proteins, the 'workhorse' molecules of life.

Artificial insemination is a well-validated technique to help individuals or couples who are having trouble conceiving on their own. However, there may now be evidence that this method could be practiced by scientists and conservationists to address the scarcity or near-extinction status in various species.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Association has estimated that about 450,000 people in the United States are living with spinal cord injury (SCI).

There are certain cascading waves in all multicellular organisms — trigger waves — that form an integral part of the biological process of cells. These waves are involved in the transmittance of information over long distances. For example, in the brain, trigger waves help in the movement of electrical signals along the axons and act as neuron action potentials. Similarly, the waves are also known to be involved in the cell cycle.

Modern medicine has still not managed to crack the problem of spinal cord injuries that result in significant paralysis or loss of functional status. There are numerous factors that influence the inability to restore movement or autonomous bodily control to these patients. A prominent example of these is the inability to cultivate new neurons that make up and power the spinal cord.

The availability and viability of live human organs for transplantation into needy recipients is a considerable healthcare problem. Reports suggest that there are over one thousand names on the waiting list for lung transplants in the United States alone. Therefore, bioengineered organs for alternative donations may become necessary. They are also steadily becoming more feasible than ever before.

Biologists have known for some time that different tissues have different shapes because of the same basic type of cells. Known as epithelial cells or epithelia, these basic ‘building blocks’ of tissues can come in slightly different shapes in order to assemble into diverse structures.

Gene editing appears to be a decently plausible part of humanity’s future. The technique may have the ability to treat many heritable or acquired illnesses, and it could also be exploited to produce the much-discussed 'designer baby.' Gene editing technology could also rival the pharmaceutical industry of today, in terms of profits and power.

The process of human aging is believed to begin, in some form or the other, around the age of 25. Some of the earliest signs include fine lines on the skin, graying, loss of hair, and wrinkles. While aging is inevitable and cannot be stopped, several products and research have claimed otherwise. But until now, nothing has really come to fruition.

Over the decades, many types of cancer-targeted treatments, drug therapies, or a combination of the two, have emerged in an attempt to address the rising number of patients, worldwide.