Microorganism News and Research

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Unique ability helps prolific bacterium to afflict humans, animals and even plants

New research has found that one of the world's most prolific bacteria manages to afflict humans, animals and even plants by way of a mechanism not before seen in any infectious microorganism -- a sense of touch. This unique ability helps make the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa ubiquitous, but it also might leave these antibiotic-resistant organisms vulnerable to a new form of treatment.

23 Nov 2014

Targeting bacterial motility to combat chronic respiratory disease

Mycoplasma gallisepticum causes chronic respiratory disease in birds. The illness particularly affects domestic chicken and turkey flocks. The bacteria are especially life-threatening for the animals when they occur in combination with other infections. In order to control the spread of the disease, poultry farms in the EU must be proven free from Mycoplasma gallisepticum or face being closed.

19 Nov 2014

Preterm birth becomes world's number one killer of young children

For the first time in history, the complications of preterm birth outrank all other causes as the world's number one killer of young children.

17 Nov 2014

Research opens new potential target against enterics

In research published in Nature Chemical Biology, scientists from RIKEN in Japan have discovered a surprisingly simple mechanism through which enterics can adjust to the very different oxygen environments inside the human gut and outside.

12 Nov 2014

Study highlights connections between climate change and new outbreak of diseases

Climate change may affect human health directly or indirectly. In addition to increased threats of storms, flooding, droughts, and heat waves, other health risks are being identified. In particular, new diseases are appearing, caused by infectious agents (viruses, bacteria, parasites) heretofore unknown or that are changing, especially under the effect of changes in the climate (change of host, vector, pathogenicity, or strain).

6 Nov 2014

Innovative tool could redefine limits of synthetic biology, improve study of yeast genetics

NYU Langone yeast geneticists report they have developed a novel tool -- dubbed "the telomerator" -- that could redefine the limits of synthetic biology and advance how successfully living things can be engineered or constructed in the laboratory based on an organism's genetic, chemical base-pair structure.

4 Nov 2014

Identifying infections rapidly: an interview with Dr. David J. Ecker

Current methods for diagnosing infectious diseases are based on the 150-year-old culture method, where physicians collect a sample of a patient’s tissue, such as blood, mucus or urine, and transfer it onto media bottle to allow the pathogens to grow.

From Abbott Diagnostics 20 Oct 2014

IU Bloomington biologists to receive funding from NSF’s Dimensions of Biodiversity Program

Indiana University Bloomington biologists who specialize in the ecology and evolution of microbes have been named one of 12 teams in the nation to receive funding from the National Science Foundation's Dimensions of Biodiversity Program.

17 Oct 2014

New oral biologic medication successfully treats precancerous intestinal inflammation

An oral biologic medication has successfully treated chronic, precancerous inflammation in the intestine, according to results of an animal study authored by an MD/PhD student in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

16 Oct 2014

Milk fermented with probiotic dairy starter can improve skin of young women

There has been much interest in the potential for using probiotic bacteria for treating skin diseases and other disorders.

16 Oct 2014

Vancomycin drug still effective in treating Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections

A University of Nebraska Medical Center research team has determined that a longtime antibiotic, vancomycin, is still effective in treating Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and that physicians should continue to use the drug even though several newer antibiotics are now available in the marketplace.

10 Oct 2014

Diet may influence susceptibility to autoinflammatory bone disease in at-risk individuals

Diet-induced changes in the gut's bacterial ecosystem can alter susceptibility to an autoinflammatory bone disease by modifying the immune response, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists reported. The findings appeared September 28 as an advanced online publication of the scientific journal Nature.

3 Oct 2014

Virginia Tech professor wins Paul L. Busch Award for outstanding work in water quality research

Amy Pruden, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, is the 2014 recipient of the Paul L. Busch Award, including a $100,000 research grant.

1 Oct 2014

Consumers for Dental Choice praises EPA's dental mercury rule

Consumers for Dental Choice, the advocacy wing of the mercury-free dentistry movement, commends the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule to require dental clinics to install and maintain amalgam separators.

27 Sep 2014

Fogarty receives three grants for research focused on biodiversity conservation

In addition to diseases for which there are ineffective or no cures, key pathogens are becoming increasingly drug-resistant.

10 Sep 2014

Bacteria in fresh honey produce myriad of active antimicrobial compounds

Raw honey has been used against infections for millennia, before honey - as we now know it - was manufactured and sold in stores. So what is the key to its' antimicrobial properties? Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified a unique group of 13 lactic acid bacteria found in fresh honey, from the honey stomach of bees.

9 Sep 2014

Solid-head power toothbrushes retain less bacteria than hollow-head toothbrushes

Solid-head power toothbrushes retain less bacteria compared to hollow-head toothbrushes, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Dentistry.

29 Aug 2014

Study shows new role for protein APC in suppressing colorectal cancer

A study recently published in the journal Carcinogenesis by researchers at the University of Kansas shows a new role for the protein adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) in suppressing colorectal cancer - the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

22 Aug 2014

Study identifies best course of treatment for endophthalmitis

The most common cause of endophthalmitis, a potentially blinding condition that can occur after eye trauma, eye surgery, and eye injections, are the well-known staphylococci ("staph") and streptococci ("strep") bacterial strains, according to a study published in the August issue of Ophthalmology and based on a review of 25 years of cases at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE).

21 Aug 2014

Human gut microbiota can influence susceptibility to Campylobacter infection

The specific composition of bacterial species in a person's gut may protect against or increase susceptibility to Campylobacter, the most common cause of human bacterial intestinal inflammation, according research published this week in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

19 Aug 2014