Don't miss out on the latest business and technology news for chemical engineers, featuring select items in relation to Food, Pharmaceuticals & Bioengineering!
LyondellBasell, Braskem walk away from acquisition
LyondellBasell has ended negotiations with Odebrecht to potentially acquire its interest in Braskem, though no specific reasons with given. CEO Bob Patel says LyondellBasell will accelerate its share buyback program and remain open to mergers and acquisitions.
Biotech salmon heading to US markets by end of 2020
AquaBounty Technologies announced that it could begin selling biotech salmon in the US by the end of 2020. The biotech salmon, which is designed to grow about two times as fast as the conventional salmon, is expected to come from two new farms yet to be approved.
NIH seeks to develop replacement HIV therapy for ART
A study in the journal JAMA described how researchers are trying to create a treatment to potentially replace antiretroviral therapy. "Because we've been so successful [with ART], there is a substantial proportion of people who are doing well who feel they want to take it to the next step. They don't want to have to take an antiretroviral drug every day, for a number of reasons," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Targeting "stalk" of influenza protein might be root of universal vaccine
Influenza vaccines target the mushroom-like cap of the hemagglutinin protein covering the virus, which mutates rapidly, and a new study published in Nature Medicine suggests that vaccines targeting the protein's stalk instead confer more protection in people and could lead to a universal vaccine. Epidemiologist Aubree Gordon led studies in Nicaragua in 2013 and 2015 in collaboration with a local health center to measure human antibodies to the hemagglutinin stalk, and found a relationship between high antibody levels and low infection risk.
Scientists make flu-resistant biotech chicken
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh used gene editing on chicken cells to make them resistant to avian influenza. The scientists cut the ANP32A molecule on chicken cells to stop the influenza virus from multiplying.
Proposed USDA rule would simplify the development of biotech crops
The USDA is considering allowing regulation exemptions for modified plants under a new proposed rule intended to make the development process for improved crops cheaper and easier. A comment period of 60 days for the rule starts tomorrow.
BIO supports extension of 3 biofuel-related tax credits
The House Ways and Means Committee should extend and retroactively apply three expired biofuel tax credits, according to a letter written by Reps. Abby Finkenauer, D-Iowa, and Josh Harder, D-Calif., and signed by 17 other House members. The credits will "bring certainty to the US businesses working to develop advanced and cellulosic biofuels," which is important because those fuels "will play a significant role in reducing transportation's harmful greenhouse gas emissions while providing new revenue streams for agricultural producers and rural communities across America," says BIO acting executive vice president Stephanie Batchelor.
- Log in to post comments