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Mouthguards harbor large numbers of bacteria - can lead to disease

Fractured teeth, neck injuries and abrasions in the mouth, also known as sports-related dental injuries, are ever present among athletes.

10 Dec 2007

Scientists examine eons-old water for microorganisms

Researchers from the University of Delaware and the University of California at Riverside have thawed ice estimated to be at least a million years old from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica.

27 Nov 2007

The immune system can stop the growth of a cancerous tumor without actually killing it

A multinational team of researchers has shown for the first time that the immune system can stop the growth of a cancerous tumor without actually killing it.

19 Nov 2007

Human health, agriculture and the environment to benefit from bioengineering project at the University of Kent

Martin Warren, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Kent’s Department of Biosciences, has been awarded over £750,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council for a study into biochemical pathways that could ultimately lead to improved health benefits for humans, as well as the development of important new technologies and products for agriculture and bioremediation (the use of plants or microorganisms to clean up pollution or contaminated material).

19 Nov 2007

Micro Petri dish allows unprecedented miniaturisation of the growth of micro-organisms

Scientists of Top Institute Food & Nutrition, Wageningen University and Research Centre, NIZO food research and the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology in the Netherlands have developed a new technology that allows unprecedented miniaturisation of the growth of micro-organisms.

13 Nov 2007

The PIN codes of the immune system can be hacked

There are several reasons why the world is still plagued by diseases we cannot treat or vaccinate against, one of them being the vast complexity of the human immune system.

2 Nov 2007

Femtosecond lasers to destroy blood-borne diseases like AIDS

Physicists in Arizona State University have designed a revolutionary laser technique which can destroy viruses and bacteria such as AIDS without damaging human cells and may also help reduce the spread of hospital infections such as MRSA.

2 Nov 2007

Massive reanalysis of genome data solves case of the lethal genes

It is better to be looked over than overlooked, Mae West supposedly said. These are words of wisdom for genome data-miners of today.

19 Oct 2007

Homocysteine appears to be play a part in retinal damage and vision loss

Homocysteine, an amino acid believed to contribute to heart attack, stroke and dementia, likely also is a player in retinal damage and vision loss, researchers say.

16 Oct 2007

HPV is related to bladder cancer

The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is considered the cause of one of the most important sexually transmitted diseases nowadays, and affects both men and women.

26 Sep 2007

Social cheating in bacterial communication

Baseball had its steroids and Black Sox. Politics lived through Watergate. Wall Street has been riddled with insider trading scandals. And before we cast the first stone, who among us has never tried to get through an intersection on a yellow light?

25 Sep 2007

Drug resistance gene has spread from East Coast to Midwest

A resistance gene that allows bacteria to beat an important class of antibiotics has started to appear in microorganisms taken from Midwestern patients, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

20 Sep 2007

Researchers genetically engineering microorganisms, such as E. coli, into tiny, cellular factories

Microorganisms may soon be efficiently and inexpensively producing novel pharmaceutical compounds, such as flavonoids, that fight aging, cancer or obesity, as well as high-value chemicals, as the result of research being conducted by University at Buffalo researchers.

18 Sep 2007

Biodiversity of protozoa may be much higher than previously realised

In contrast to previous findings, it seems that the global distribution of macro- and microorganisms might be similar. A study in the online open access journal, BMC Evolutionary Biology, shows that some protozoa are globally dispersed, while others are geographically restricted - by looking at a new fast-evolving DNA marker.

13 Sep 2007

Novel enzyme may offer huge range of potential therapeutic agents

By guiding an enzyme down a new evolutionary pathway, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created a new form of an enzyme capable of producing a range of potential new therapeutic agents with anticancer and antibiotic properties.

10 Sep 2007

Networking in living cells may hold key to fighting diseases

Scientists in Manchester are working to change the social habits of living cells an innovation that could bring about cleaner and greener fuel and help fight diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

From The University of Manchester 24 Aug 2007

Natural antimicrobial agents for food safety

Two items high on the list of public concerns are the need for greater food safety and a growing demand for natural or organic food products.

22 Aug 2007

New diagnostic tool to detect infection-causing bacteria

Infection-causing bacteria can't hide from researchers at Northern Arizona University, who recently helped develop the first diagnostic tool to detect them.

3 Aug 2007

Vaccines for tuberculosis

The microorganism that causes tuberculosis, M. Tuberculosis, infects more than a one third of the world's population.

2 Aug 2007

Gut bacteria boost immune response to tumors

One potent, immune-based treatment for cancer is total body irradiation (TBI). This approach first depletes the body of the population of immune cells known as lymphocytes and then involves the adoptive transfer of tumor-specific T cells to the patient.

27 Jul 2007