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New research sheds light on circadian rhythms

New research sheds light on how the rhythms of daily life are encoded in the brain. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that different groups of neurons, those charged with keeping time, become active at different times of day despite being on the same molecular clock.

3 Mar 2016

Cells with higher fat content live longer than lean cells

Cells with higher fat content outlive lean cells, says a new study from Michigan State University.

24 Feb 2016

Researchers one step closer to developing new treatment strategy to combat TB

By uncovering the 3-dimensional structure of an enzyme that is critical for the survival of the bacterium that cause tuberculosis, researchers may be one step closer to developing a new strategy to combat TB infections.

17 Feb 2016

Critical discovery holds key to explaining how 'good' gut bacteria promote health

A critical discovery about how bacteria feed on an unusual sugar molecule found in leafy green vegetables could hold the key to explaining how 'good' bacteria protect our gut and promote health.

15 Feb 2016

Scientists modify plants' defense system to confer resistance to virus

Scientists at Indiana University have modified a plant gene that normally fights bacterial infection to confer resistance to a virus.

15 Feb 2016

Five researchers named winners of 2016 Elsevier Foundation Awards

Five researchers have been named winners of the 2016 Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World, in recognition of research that has strong potential health and economic benefits.

10 Feb 2016

Oral therapeutic drug shows promise against recurrent C. difficile infection

Results from a Phase 1b/2 trial suggest that an investigational microbiome-based, oral therapeutic drug is effective for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection. In a paper published online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, a multi-institutional research team reports that treatment with the preparation, containing the spores of approximately 50 species of beneficial bacteria, successfully prevented recurrence of C. difficile infection (CDI) in patients with a history of multiple recurrent disease.

10 Feb 2016

CosmosID announces $6M in Series B funding round

CosmosID, the leading genomic big data company focused on microbiome research, outbreak investigations, and infectious disease diagnostics, using next-generation DNA sequencing, announced $6M in Series B funding.

28 Jan 2016

Building Health Check launches IAQ Screening Kit for E. coli bacteria

Following a number of recent outbreaks of E. coli, or Escherichia coli, bacteria at grocers and restaurants across the country, Building Health Check, LLC, has released an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Screening Kit for the E. coli bacteria.

26 Jan 2016

Agienic issued three key U.S. patents for novel copper-based antimicrobial materials

Agienic Inc., an Arizona-based innovator in antimicrobial technology, announced today the issuance of three key U.S. patents on their novel copper-based antimicrobial materials.

21 Jan 2016

Novel anti-inflammatory agents could control hyper-inflammatory responses to fungal infection

The most frequent fungal threat to humans, Candida albicans, is a common cause oral and genital infection. The fungal infections are often worsened by overwhelming inflammatory responses in the body and cause high mortality among risk groups. Umeå University doctoral student Ava Hosseinzadeh has discovered two novel anti-inflammatory agents, an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory molecule, which could be used to control the hyper-inflammatory responses to the fungal infection.

12 Jan 2016

Certain gut bacteria linked to type 2 diabetes, reveal Russian scientists

A group of Russian scientists, including Dr Elena Kostryukova, the Head of the Laboratory of Postgenomic Research in Biology of the Scientific Research Institute of Physical-Chemical Medicine and a researcher at MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology), and Maria Vakhitova, an MIPT postgraduate student, has discovered that the presence of certain bacteria in the gut may be linked to the development of type 2 diabetes.

21 Dec 2015

Candidiasis needs to be treated early, aggressively to help vulnerable hospitalized patients

One of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections, candidiasis is a serious, life-threatening fungal infection that needs to be treated early, aggressively and appropriately, note updated guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

17 Dec 2015

U of T researchers discover mysterious fungus that defends against neighbouring bacteria

Researchers at the University of Toronto examined fungi in the mucus of patients with cystic fibrosis and discovered how one particularly cunning fungal species has evolved to defend itself against neighbouring bacteria.

21 Nov 2015

ESCMID takes vital steps in fight against antimicrobial resistance

The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease – an organization that explores the risks and best practices in infectious disease – takes the opportunity ahead of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day on 18 November to highlight two of the society’s more recent projects in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

17 Nov 2015

First comprehensive genomic and biologic study of top skin disease-causing microbes

An international team of scientists, led by researchers from A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), Institute of Medical Biology (IMB), and Bioinformatics Institute (BII), and P&G, have completed the first comprehensive genomic and biologic study of all species of Malassezia, one of the top skin disease-causing microbes.

9 Nov 2015

Oxford professor wins Heinrich Wieland Prize for pioneering method that helps control nerve cells with light

Gero Miesenböck was the first to insert a light-controlled on/off switch into brain cells. His pioneering method allows scientists to switch nerve cells on and off selectively and observe how the behaviour of, for example, fruit flies or mice changes as a result. In this way, researchers can learn in a step-by-step process what behaviour the studied brain circuits control and what goes awry in disease. For his method, hailed as a "breakthrough of the decade," Professor Gero Miesenböck of the University of Oxford will receive the 100,000-euro Heinrich Wieland Prize of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation in Munich on November 6, 2015.

4 Nov 2015

Scientists call for coordinated effort to drive cutting edge microbiome research

A consortium of 48 scientists from 50 institutions in the United States - including Pamela Silver, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University - are calling for a Unified Microbiome Initiative that would span national cross-institutional and cross-governmental agency support.

29 Oct 2015

New analysis confirms presence of mycotoxins in coffees sold in Spain

An analysis of one hundred coffees sold in Spain has confirmed the presence of mycotoxins -toxic metabolites produced by fungi. In addition, five of the samples that were tested were found to contain ochratoxin A, the only legislated mycotoxin, in amounts that exceeded maximum permitted levels.