synthetic biology

galantamine

Scientists Taught Yeast to Make an Alzheimer's Drug

Sep 14, 2026

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6 min read

Scientists Taught Yeast to Make an Alzheimer's Drug

Researchers raised galantamine output 173 fold by rebuilding a daffodil enzyme pathway in yeast. The result solves a hard reaction, but it is not yet fermentation from sugar and it is nowhere near commercial scale.

Wyss Institute

Living Bacteria Sealed in the Body to Make Drugs on Demand

Aug 18, 2026

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5 min read

Living Bacteria Sealed in the Body to Make Drugs on Demand

Scientists built an implant that seals living, engineered bacteria inside a tough gel, where they watch for infection and brew the cure on the spot, without ever escaping into the body. Here is what the breakthrough really is, and what still stands between it and people.

Frontier Signal

+10

Robots Small Enough to Swim Your Bloodstream

Jul 29, 2026

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4 min read

Robots Small Enough to Swim Your Bloodstream

Forget humanoids. The most radical robots of 2026 are specks that travel through your body under magnetic control, some of them partly alive, carrying a drug straight to its target.

Frontier Signal

Mirror Life: The Science We May Choose Not to Build

Jul 28, 2026

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4 min read

Mirror Life: The Science We May Choose Not to Build

All life on Earth is one-handed. A few labs are learning to build the mirror image, and the scientists closest to the work are asking the world to stop before a mirror cell can copy itself.

enzymatic DNA synthesis

A Chip That Writes DNA With Electricity and Water

Jul 14, 2026

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5 min read

A Chip That Writes DNA With Electricity and Water

A Harvard-led team turned a silicon chip into a DNA printer: 64 sequences written in parallel using electric currents and enzymes in water, replacing the solvent-heavy chemistry biology has relied on since the 1980s. The printing press moment for synthetic biology.

AI for science

+18

Can AI Actually Do Science? A Brutal New Test Keeps Score

Jul 2, 2026

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8 min read

Can AI Actually Do Science? A Brutal New Test Keeps Score

Plus: robots learning to feel, a contested claim to have built life from scratch, China's fusion-magnet milestone, a tiny engine aimed at Mars, and quantum error-fixing as a free download.