Biotechnology
14 articles in this category
Horses versus computers. A duel over snake antivenom
For 130 years, snake antivenom has been produced in horses' veins. Nobel laureate David Baker's team has designed a protein that does it better — no refrigeration, no horse, and 100% survival of mice after a lethal dose of venom.
Sugar in a mask. How one spray gave wheat what GMO could not
Trehalose-6-phosphate, a plant's own growth signal, cannot cross the cell membrane. A masked precursor sprayed onto leaves releases it in sunlight — lifting wheat yields by 10 percent with no extra fertiliser.
A fish built from salt and gelatin. The fillet that never swam
In winter we scatter salt on the pavement so the ice melts. In a lab in Qingdao, salt does the opposite — it makes ice grow in a carefully planned way. The result is an edible scaffold on which five million cells become two and a half billion — and a fish fillet that never swam.
A few atoms decide whether a drug reaches the lungs or the liver. The linker paradox in nanomedicine
Two nearly identical nanoparticles land in the same organs. One delivers mRNA to the lungs, the other sinks into the liver. Dan Peer's team at Tel Aviv University discovered that what decides this is a few atoms in the lipid linker, the part of the molecule everyone had overlooked.
Base editing was winning the race. Then it met a gene it can't fix
Base editing led the race to fix genes — until it hit the ATP1A3 gene it can't repair. Prime editing took the baton and in July 2025 extended the lives of mice with a rare neurological disease fourfold.
42 times better in 24 hours. Anatomy of an enzyme design machine
The ML-driven cell-free expression platform shortens enzyme engineering from months to 24 hours. Michael Jewett's (Northwestern/Stanford) team achieved a 42-fold improvement in catalytic activity using simple ridge regression instead of deep neural networks. Nature Communications 2025.
AI versus superbugs. 40 peptides, 25 hits
Yeji Wang's team from Shandong University used a diffusion model to generate 40 new antimicrobial peptides from scratch. 25 worked. Two have been tested on mice. AI has just solved the most expensive step in antibiotic discovery.
Custom enzyme. From the Nobel Prize to atomic precision
David Baker won the Nobel Prize for protein design. Three months later, his team showed that they could design the enzyme atom by atom — without imitating nature. And Poland still does not have a bridge between the computational laboratory and the wet laboratory.
A cable that grows. Why the future of neuroimplants is not made of metal
Biohybrid and living neural interfaces - from biomimetic polymers to axons replacing cables. Review of Flavi Vitale's research in Nature Communications and the Polish neurotechnology ecosystem.
Three layers, 99 percent. A prosthesis that feels like a human hand
A team from Johns Hopkins created a prosthetic hand with a three-layer touch sensor. 99.69% object classification accuracy. 40,000 Polish patients are waiting for access to this technology. Science Advances 2025.
A biosensor that learns from you
Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with neural networks enable biosensors that adapt to the user. Shape memory materials respond to physiological changes in real time. Polish potential: polymer chemistry institutes.
A protein designer who doesn't wait for evolution
How the MULTI-evolve algorithm combining protein language models (ESM-2) with synthetic biology shortens enzyme design from months to 2 weeks. Vincent Tran, Arc Institute, Science 2026. Polish potential: Ryvu, Molecure, NCBR.
A biosensor stuck in a laboratory
Only 1% of electrochemical biosensors leave the laboratory. The problem isn't physics - it's supply chain, economies of scale and regulation. Poland publishes 629 works in 4 years and does not have a single pilot line.
A spike instead of a syringe - BIONDD® capsule delivers biologics with 116% bioavailability
The BIONDD® capsule inserts a biodegradable spike with the drug into the stomach wall and achieves 116% bioavailability compared to the injection. Danish breakthrough on the road to oral insulin - a study in dogs, TRL 5–6.