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Aged cheeses pack a punch of nutty, sharp flavor. Before they re fully mature, aged cheeses are either waxed or placed in brine for weeks to create a natural rind. However, the high salt content in brined cheeses deters some consumers. Now, researchers reporting in
ACS Food Science & Technology present a shortened brining time for Parmigiano Reggiano that results in a less salty product, while still potentially maintaining the cheese s distinctive texture and flavor compounds.
Parmigiano Reggiano is a lactose-free, crumbly and hard cheese. Manufactured in select provinces in Italy, its protected designation of origin status requires that certain production processes, such as a minimum 12-month ripening period, be performed. Ripening or maturing imparts the cheese s recognizable taste as milk solids are converted to flavor compounds. But before that, cheese wheels are placed in a saturated brine solution for weeks. The added salt plays a key role in the ripening process
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IMAGE: The 4D material changes shape in response to water. The grey side of the material in the image absorbs water faster than the blue side, causing it to bend into. view more
Credit: Yu Bin Lee
New hydrogel-based materials that can change shape in response to physiological stimuli, such as water, could be the next generation of materials used to bioengineer tissues and organs, according to a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago.
In a new paper published in the journal
Advanced Functional Materials, the research team led by Eben Alsberg, the Richard and Loan Hill Professor of Biomedical Engineering that developed the substances show that the unique materials can curl into tubes in response to water, making the materials good candidates for bioengineering blood vessels or other tubular structures.
Credit: Alonso Nichols
David Kaplan, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering, a Distinguished Professor, and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his contributions to silk-based materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Election to the National Academies is one of the foremost professional recognitions available to engineers, scientists, and medical experts. On behalf of my past and current students and colleagues here at Tufts, it is an honor to be recognized by the National Academy of Engineering, said Kaplan.
Kaplan s lab is leading efforts in applying tissue engineering to cellular agriculture (i.e. cell grown meat), the development of 3D brain-like environments in the lab to study neurological diseases and treatments, and the regeneration of tissues, organs and limbs. He is also pioneering methods to manufacture biocompatible medical devices from silk.
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IMAGE: Liu and his lab engineered botulinum toxin to target new proteins, a critical advance that could lead to new treatments for a range of maladies, including nerve and brain damage,. view more
Credit: Casey Atkins Photography, courtesy of Broad Institute
When people hear botulinum toxin, they often think one of two things: a cosmetic that makes frown lines disappear or a deadly poison.
But the miracle poison, as it s also known, has been approved by the F.D.A. to treat a suite of maladies like chronic migraines, uncontrolled blinking, and certain muscle spasms. And now, a team of researchers from Harvard University and the Broad Institute have, for the first time, proved they could rapidly evolve the toxin in the laboratory to target a variety of different proteins, creating a suite of bespoke, super-selective proteins called proteases with the potential to aid in neuroregeneration, regulate growth hormones, calm rampant inflammation, or dampen the life-
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IMAGE: Electron microscopy image of DNA origami rotor arms, which are the faint orange L s attached to the purple tracking particles. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Julene Madariaga Marcos.
ROCKVILLE, MD - The remarkable genetic scissors called CRISPR/Cas9, the discovery that won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sometimes cut in places that they are not designed to target. Though CRISPR has completely changed the pace of basic research by allowing scientists to quickly edit genetic sequences, it works so fast that it is hard for scientists to see what sometimes goes wrong and figure out how to improve it. Julene Madariaga Marcos, a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow, and colleagues in the lab of Professor Ralf Seidel at Leipzig University in Germany, found a way to analyze the ultra-fast movements of CRISPR enzymes, which will help researchers understand how they recognize their target sequences in hopes of improving the specificity. Madariaga Marcos will