How Do Bacteria Swim? Brown Physicists Explain
Imagine yourself swimming in a pool: It's the movement of your arms and legs, not the viscosity of the water, that mostly dictates the speed and direction that you swim. view more (2008-11-20)
Antibiotics Can Cause Pervasive, Persistent Changes to the Microbial Community in the Human Gut, MBL and Stanford Scientists Report
Using a novel technique developed by Mitchell Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) to identify different types of bacteria, scientists have completed the most precise survey to date of how microbial communities in the human gut respond to antibiotic treatment. view more (2008-11-19)
Biomedical engineers' detective work reveals antibiotic mechanism
A series of genetic clues led a team of Boston University biomedical engineers to uncover exactly how certain antibiotics kill bacteria. The findings could help rejuvenate the efficacy of older antibiotics and reveal new antibiotic targets within bacterial cells. view more (2008-11-18)
Shifts in soil bacterial populations linked to wetland restoration success
A new study led by Duke University researchers finds that restoring degraded wetlands -- especially those that had been converted into farm fields -- actually decreases their soil bacterial diversity. view more (2008-11-13)
Battling bacteria in the blood: Researchers tackle deadly infections
It's a leading cause of death, but no one knows for sure how and why it happens. It's a major source of health care costs, adding days or weeks to the hospital stays and lost work time of millions of people. But no one fully understands how best to fight it. view more (2008-11-11)
Friendly bacteria reduce hospital infections
A probiotic bacterium, Lactobacillus plantarum 299, has been used to out-compete the dangerous bacteria that cause respiratory illness in ventilated patients. view more (2008-11-06)
Persistent bacterial infection exploits killing machinery of immune cells
A new study reveals an important and newly discovered pathway used by disease-causing bacteria to evade the host immune system and survive and grow within the very cells meant to destroy them. This discovery may lead to new treatments and vaccines for tuberculosis (TB) and certain other chronic bacterial and parasitic infections. view more (2008-11-03)
Nature study demonstrates that bacterial clotting depends on clustering
Bacteria can directly cause human blood and plasma to clot-a process that was previously thought to have been lost during the course of vertebrate evolution, according to new research at the University of Chicago, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Institut Pasteur in Paris. Their findings will be published online Nov. 2 in... view more... (2008-11-03)
Predatory bacterial swarm uses rippling motion to reach prey
Like something from a horror movie, the swarm of bacteria ripples purposefully toward their prey, devours it and moves on. view more (2008-10-30)
Gene against bacterial attack unravelled
Dutch researcher Joost Wiersinga from AMC Medical Centre in Amsterdam has unravelled a genetic defence mechanism against the lethal bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei. The research is the next step towards a vaccine against this bacterium suitable for bioweapons. view more (2008-10-29)
Researchers find new chemical key that could unlock hundreds of new antibiotics
Chemistry researchers at The University of Warwick and the John Innes Centre, have found a novel signalling molecule that could be a key that will open up hundreds of new antibiotics unlocking them from the DNA of the Streptomyces family of bacteria. view more (2008-10-29)
Rhode Island Hospital study finds local retail meat safe from antibiotic-resistant organisms
Rhode Island Hospital researchers report that findings from a new study of retail meat in the Providence, RI area indicate little to no presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. view more (2008-10-29)
Biosolids Microbes Pose Manageable Risk to Workers
Class B biosolids are sewage sludges that have been treated to contain fewer than 2.0 x 106 fecal coliforms/dry gram. view more (2008-10-28)
Earlier global warming produced a whole new form of life
Researchers from McGill University, along with colleagues from the California Institute of Technology, the Curie Institute in Paris, Princeton University and other institutions, have unearthed crystalline magnetic fossils of a previously unknown species of microorganism that lived at the boundary of the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, some 55 million... view more... (2008-10-23)
Nanotechnology boosts war on superbugs
This week Nature Nanotechnology journal (October 12th) reveals how scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) at UCL are using a novel nanomechanical approach to investigate the workings of vancomycin, one of the few antibiotics that can be used to combat increasingly resistant infections such as MRSA. view more (2008-10-13)
Researchers discover how infectious bacteria can switch species
Scientists from the Universities of Bath and Exeter have developed a rapid new way of checking for toxic genes in disease-causing bacteria which infect insects and humans. view more (2008-10-09)
Groundbreaking, lifesaving TB vaccine a step closer
Researchers at Aberystwyth University, following a number of years of investment by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), have licensed ground-breaking research to a non-profit product development partnership working to develop new, more effective vaccines against Tuberculosis (TB). This development will give hope... view more... (2008-10-08)
UC San Diego Bioengineers Fill Holes in Science of Cellular Self-Organization
The chemical and biological aspects of cellular self-organization are well-studied; less well understood is how cell populations order themselves biomechanically - how their behavior and communication are affected by high density and physical proximity. view more (2008-10-07)
JDRF funded study links 'hygiene hypothesis' to diabetes prevention
A research study funded by JDRF suggests that a common intestinal bacteria may provide some protection from developing type 1 diabetes. The findings provide an important step towards understanding how and why type 1 diabetes develops in people, and may lead to potential cures. view more (2008-10-07)
Disinfectants can make bacteria resistant to treatment
Chemicals used in the environment to kill bacteria could be making them stronger, according to a paper published in the October issue of the journal Microbiology. Low levels of these chemicals, called biocides, can make the potentially lethal bacterium Staphylococcus aureus remove toxic chemicals from the cell even more efficiently, potentially... view more... (2008-10-06)
|
|
