E. coli News and Research

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E. coli or Escherichia coli is the name of a type of bacteria that lives in your intestines. Most types of E. coli are harmless. However, some types can make you sick and cause diarrhea. One type causes travelers' diarrhea. The worst type of E. coli causes bloody diarrhea, and can sometimes cause kidney failure and even death. These problems are most likely to occur in children and in adults with weak immune systems. You can get E. coli infections by eating foods containing the bacteria. To help avoid food poisoning and prevent infection, handle food safely. Cook meat well, wash fruits and vegetables before eating or cooking them, and avoid unpasteurized milk and juices. You can also get the infection by swallowing water in a swimming pool contaminated with human waste. Most cases of E. coli infection get better without treatment in 5 to 10 days.

New methods for detection of fecal pollution in Norwegian watercourses

The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Bioforsk, has tested and implemented a set of methods for the detection of fecal pollution in Norwegian watercourses.

9 Jun 2014

Novel technology to block human infections receives I-Corps grant

A novel technology developed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) to block human infections by taking a lesson from fish has landed a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program.

5 Jun 2014

Findings have important implications for improving war wound healing

War wounds that heal successfully frequently contain different microbial species from those that heal poorly, according to a paper published ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

30 May 2014

Half-life extension technology: an interview with Dermot Pearson, Novozymes Biopharma

A drug's half-life indicates how long a substance will remain active in the body. It is essentially the period of time that it takes for the concentration of the amount of the drug to be reduced by half, and therefore, determines how frequently a drug needs to be administered to maintain its therapeutic effect.

27 May 2014

Researchers identify small molecule that prevents bacteria from forming into infectious biofilms

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a small molecule that prevents bacteria from forming into biofilms, a frequent cause of infections.

23 May 2014

Disease-causing bacteria can linger in airplane cabins for days, says study

Disease-causing bacteria can linger on surfaces commonly found in airplane cabins for days, even up to a week, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

21 May 2014

Biótica researchers develop automated laboratory system that rapidly detects E. coli bacterium

A Castellón-based biotechnology R&D project by Biótica has been successfully certified by the Centre for Technological and Industrial Development (CDTI, in Spanish), of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

20 May 2014

S. pneumoniae interacts with other nasopharyngeal bacteria

Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria are able to detect and respond to other bacterial species in the same host niche, researchers report in Open Biology.

12 May 2014

TSRI scientists create bacteria with expanded DNA code

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have engineered a bacterium whose genetic material includes an added pair of DNA “letters,” or bases, not found in nature. The cells of this unique bacterium can replicate the unnatural DNA bases more or less normally, for as long as the molecular building blocks are supplied.

8 May 2014

FDA-cleared BD MAX Enteric Bacterial Panel now available to detect bacterial pathogens

BD Diagnostics, a segment of leading global medical technology company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), announced today the availability of the FDA-cleared BD MAX Enteric Bacterial Panel for use on the BD MAX System.

From BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) 7 May 2014

New project aims to find better weapons against life-threating multi-resistant bacteria

A Norwegian-Danish project aims to find better weapons against life-threating multi-resistant bacteria.

7 May 2014

Scientists identify benign bacterium that blocks Salmonella from colonizing raw tomatoes

Scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have identified a benign bacterium that shows promise in blocking Salmonella from colonizing raw tomatoes.

6 May 2014

FDA approves Alexion’s Soliris drug for treatment of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Company's supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) providing regular approval for Soliris® (eculizumab) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) to inhibit complement-mediated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA).

6 May 2014

BRCA gene loss may accelerate cancer-promoting chromosome rearrangements

Inherited mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 tumor suppressor genes are by far the most frequent contributors to hereditary cancer risk in the human population, often causing breast or ovarian cancer in young women of child-bearing age.

29 Apr 2014

Genetically modified E. coli has ability to produce D-ribose

D-ribose is a commercially important sugar used as a sweetener, a nutritional supplement, and as a starting compound for synthesizing riboflavin and several antiviral drugs.

26 Apr 2014

Nearly 179 million cases of acute diarrhea occur each year in the U.S.

In the United States, approximately 179 million cases of acute diarrhea occur each year, and most of those cases are entirely preventable, a researcher from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston concluded in a New England Journal of Medicine review article.

23 Apr 2014

Manure from dairy cows contains newly identified antibiotic resistance genes

Manure from dairy cows, which is commonly used as a farm soil fertilizer, contains a surprising number of newly identified antibiotic resistance genes from the cows' gut bacteria. The findings, reported in mBio- the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, hints that cow manure is a potential source of new types of antibiotic resistance genes that transfer to bacteria in the soils where food is grown.

22 Apr 2014

Cubist submits ceftolozane/tazobactam NDA for treatment of cUTI and cIAI

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval of its investigational antibiotic ceftolozane/tazobactam for the treatment of Complicated Urinary Tract Infections (cUTI) and Complicated Intra-Abdominal Infections (cIAI).

21 Apr 2014

Study suggests that improving newborns' bacterial environment could fend off infections

Mothers give a newborn baby a gift of germs-germs that help to kick-start the infant's immune system. But antibiotics, used to fend off infection, may paradoxically interrupt a newborn's own immune responses, leaving already-vulnerable premature babies more susceptible to dangerous pathogens.