fungi News and Research

RSS

Rice engineers use gene editing to facilitate drug discovery based on natural fungus

Rice University scientists have won federal support for their pursuit of novel drugs to treat human disease.

10 Aug 2020

Humans promote diseases from the animal kingdom

The coronavirus pandemic, which has now infected nearly 19 million and killed more than 712,000 people, most likely originated from bats. Just like other coronavirus outbreaks in the past, a spill-over event or zoonosis caused the viruses to jump from animals to humans.

6 Aug 2020

Scientists highlight the need to develop microbiome biobanking infrastructure

A team of scientists, led by CABI’s Dr Matthew Ryan, have outlined a series of challenges and opportunities presented in a necessary review of how microbiomes – biological communities including bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, protists and viruses – can be ‘banked’ and preserved for generations to come.

6 Aug 2020

New UK supply contract for COVID-19 sample collection kits

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc, the AIM listed point-of-care business, announces that it has received an initial order worth £3 m from a partner from the private sector to supply PrimeStore MTM, a novel patented sample collection device, to be used in a COVID-19 testing programme for UK staff.

From EKF Diagnostics 5 Aug 2020

Zombie cicadas infected with mind-controlling fungus

Mind-controlling fungus that infects the brains of cicadas can make them kill each other. These mutant critters, dubbed as zombie cicadas, are forced to infect other insects.

5 Aug 2020

Researchers identify unique fungi species during COVID-19 pandemic

A major comprehensive study on Herpomycetales and Laboulbeniales, two orders of unique ectoparasitic fungi associated with insects and other arthropods (class Laboulbeniomycetes) in Belgium and the Netherlands was published in the open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal MycoKeys.

4 Aug 2020

A collaborative research project to detect biofilm causing pathogens within chronic infections

WOUND care experts at the University of Huddersfield have joined forces with industry to pool their expertise for a research project that aims to not only significantly improve quality of life for those suffering with chronic wound infections but also has the potential to save the global healthcare industry millions of pounds.

30 Jul 2020

Study finds fungal isolates with high levels of virulence in different hospitals

A group of researchers from Brazil, Denmark, Italy and Spain analyzed 884 samples of fungi of the genus Candida collected from 16 hospitals and found a significant number of clusters in more than one hospital.

29 Jul 2020

Neutralizing antibodies isolated from COVID-19 patients can quash SARS-CoV-2

Scientists across the globe are racing to study how antibodies can help suppress SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

23 Jul 2020

New fabrics prevent the transmission and spread of SARS-CoV-2

Brazilian textile companies have begun producing and marketing fabrics treated with silver and silica nanoparticles developed by the research groups at the Centre for Functional Materials (CDMF) and the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Laboratory (QTC) at the Universitat Jaume I, in collaboration with the company Nanox Tecnologia, which provide the new fabrics with antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties with 99.99% effectiveness.

20 Jul 2020

Hybrid fungus involved in lung infections discovered

Aspergillus latus, a species of fungus previously found only in soil or plants, has been found for the first time in a hospital environment by an international group of researchers.

19 Jul 2020

Developments in Separation Science

An interview with Daniel Armstrong about the evolution of separation science and its recent and future developments.

From Pittcon 13 Jul 2020

Study provides insights into molecular factories of bacterial natural products

The active agents of many drugs are natural products, so called because often only microorganisms are able to produce the complex structures.

6 Jul 2020

UCLA scientists identify new function for histones

UCLA scientists have identified a new function for histones, the spool-shaped proteins that regulate gene expression and serve as anchors for strands of DNA to wrap around.

2 Jul 2020

Researchers discover marine alga from Kiel Fjord as potential remedy against infections, skin cancer

Healing with the help of marine organisms is no utopia. Already 12 life-saving drugs, e.g. against cancer, have been developed from marine organisms and their symbiotic microbiota.

2 Jul 2020

Repurposed drug for acute lung injury in COVID-19

Now, a new study addresses the possible use of an FDA-approved monoclonal antibody, called fostamatinib, a spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor (SYK), to reduce the levels of mucin-1, a molecule associated with acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). People who have severe COVID-19 disease may develop ARDS.

2 Jul 2020

Live attenuated vaccines may prevent lung inflammation and sepsis associated with COVID-19

A paper published by Paul Fidel, Jr., PhD, Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence in Oral and Craniofacial Biology and Associate Dean for Research at LSU Health New Orleans School of Dentistry, and Mairi Noverr, PhD, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, suggests that live attenuated vaccines such as MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) may prevent the severe lung inflammation and sepsis associated with COVID-19 infection.

26 Jun 2020

Dysregulated inflammation in severe COVID-19

The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has so far caused 9.58 million cases and more than 488,000 deaths within just six months. The spectrum of disease is broad, from completely asymptomatic cases to critical illness ending in death. Now, a new paper by researchers from Yale University and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 identifies an imbalance in immunological response that is linked to poor outcomes and early biomarkers that may help predict the course of the disease.

25 Jun 2020

Hungarian physician to receive the Körber Prize for European Science 2020

The Körber Prize for European Science 2020, which is endowed with one million euros, is being awarded to the Hungarian physician Botond Roska.

23 Jun 2020

UAH researchers assess treatment efficacy of naturally occurring compounds against COVID-19

The Baudry Lab at The University of Alabama in Huntsville has identified 125 naturally occurring compounds that have a computational potential for efficacy against the COVID-19 virus from the first batch of 50,000 rapidly assessed by a supercomputer.

22 Jun 2020