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Study shows effect of oral fungal yeast in inhibiting thrush

Scientists at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center have discovered how the beneficial fungal yeast, Pichia, holds at bay a harmful fungal yeast, Candida.

14 Mar 2014

Parasites in human are most likely to interact via food source

Over 1,400 species of parasites - viruses, bacteria, fungi, intestinal worms and protozoa - are able to infect humans. In most cases, the right medicine against a parasite cures the patient.

12 Mar 2014

UTSA College of Sciences faculty members honored at 2014 Annual Meeting of AAAS

UTSA College of Sciences faculty members Andrew Tsin, Garry Cole and Donald Kurtz were honored recently at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.

11 Mar 2014

Scientists use novel metagenomic approaches to characterize microbial communities that reside in human gut

The gut microbiota contains a vast number of microorganisms from all three domains of life, including bacteria, archaea and fungi, as well as viruses. These interact in a complex way to contribute towards both health and the development of disease - interactions that are only now being elucidated thanks to the application of advanced DNA sequencing technology in this field.

10 Mar 2014

New drug is effective against superbug MRSA

"I routinely call hospitals and request their yearly antibiotic susceptibility testing data," said Washington University in St. Louis' Timothy Wencewicz. "The log might say, for example, that they've treated hundreds of patients for Acinetobacter baumanni, a bacterium brought into U.S. hospitals by soldiers wounded in the Iraq war, with 30 different antibiotics.

6 Mar 2014

Scientists discover viruses containing genes for antibiotic resistance in fossilized human feces

A team of French investigators has discovered viruses containing genes for antibiotic resistance in a fossilized fecal sample from 14th century Belgium, long before antibiotics were used in medicine.

28 Feb 2014

Taste receptors act as first line sentinels against infection in upper airway

The body uses mucus as a protective barrier to defend against pathogens, toxins, and allergens in the upper respiratory tract that can lead to such conditions as chronic sinusitis.

19 Feb 2014

Scientists explore underlying driving forces, constraints that influence evolution of multicellularity

In the beginning there were single cells. Today, many millions of years later, most plants, animals, fungi, and algae are composed of multiple cells that work collaboratively as a single being.

26 Jan 2014

Researchers identify important steps to understand mechanisms underlying pathogenic effect of prions

"When they are healthy, they look like tiny spheres; when they are malignant, they appear as cubes" stated Giuseppe Legname, principal investigator of the Prion Biology Laboratory at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) in Trieste, when describing prion proteins.

25 Jan 2014

CECAD professor receives Prof Pushpa Talwar Memorial Oration for exceptional excellence in medical mycology

Prof Cornely heads the Clinical Trials Center and the Translational Research Platform at the CECAD Excellence Cluster at the University of Cologne. In addition to his research activities, as a senior physician at the Clinic I of Internal Medicine of the Cologne University Hospital he is responsible for clinical therapies for mycological infections.

20 Jan 2014

Landes Bioscience releases special issue on sepsis

A special issue on sepsis has been released by the publisher Landes Bioscience (Austin, TX USA). The articles contained in this special issue of the journal Virulence have been authored by world-class investigators and provide new insights into both the pathogen-related factors and the host defense mechanisms that lead to septic shock and contribute to its resolution or fatal outcome.

7 Jan 2014

Crowdsourcing fungal metabolites with antitumor activity: an interview with Dr. Robert H. Cichewicz, University of Oklahoma

Fungi have played a large role in the development of many important drugs that are in wide use today. The most well-known of these are the penicillins.

7 Jan 2014

CotH protein mediates fungal invasion of host cells during mucormycosis

Opportunistic infection of individuals on immunosuppressive therapy are a major problem for patient outcome, despite current prophylactic strategies.

27 Dec 2013

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School's David Perlin explains how fungal infections can become deadly

Ask someone what the term 'fungus' brings to mind, and chances are it will be an image of something that smells or looks disgusting. Ask David Perlin, executive director of the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and the response will be far more somber - because he knows how deadly fungi can be.

24 Dec 2013

Research finding could lead to development of vaccine and therapies for mucormycosis

Mucormycosis is a deadly infection that strikes people with weakened immune systems when certain types of fungi, called Mucorales, invade the patients' cells. A novel protein on the surface of the Mucorales cells, called CotH, makes this invasion possible.

22 Dec 2013

Scientists explore ways to tackle bacterium that causes diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain

Scientists want to make a chink in the armor of a bacterium that has little name recognition yet is the number-one bacterial cause of the diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain Americans experience annually.

20 Dec 2013

Study supports mounting evidence that inflammation may be the cause of chronic rhinosinusitis

Saint Louis University researchers have analyzed the microbiomes of people with chronic rhinosinusitis and healthy volunteers and found evidence that some chronic sinus issues may be the result of inflammation triggered by an immune response to otherwise harmless microorganisms in the sinus membranes.

20 Dec 2013

Laser measurements show pollen has major influence on air quality

Leipzig, Germany. Pollen reflects more sunlight than previously known, and makes up to one third of the total amount of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Aerosol particles influence optical depth which provides a measure of the opacity of the atmosphere.

19 Dec 2013

WHO hands over management of world's largest public collection of TB strains to ITM in Antwerp

The World Health Organisation handed over the management of the world's largest public collection of tuberculosis strains to the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. These TB-strains play a key role in supporting scientific research into infectious diseases, particularly towards a better understanding of the TB bacterium's drug resistance.

13 Dec 2013

Valuable new approach to cancer treatment

Since the discovery of penicillin, fungi have been a nearly inexhaustible source for the discovery of new drugs. “Crowdsourcing”, the cooperation of a large number of interested nonscientists, has helped to find a new fungus from which American researchers have now isolated and characterized an unusual metabolite with interesting antitumor activity.

11 Dec 2013