E. coli News and Research

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E. coli or Escherichia coli is the name of a type of bacteria that lives in your intestines. Most types of E. coli are harmless. However, some types can make you sick and cause diarrhea. One type causes travelers' diarrhea. The worst type of E. coli causes bloody diarrhea, and can sometimes cause kidney failure and even death. These problems are most likely to occur in children and in adults with weak immune systems. You can get E. coli infections by eating foods containing the bacteria. To help avoid food poisoning and prevent infection, handle food safely. Cook meat well, wash fruits and vegetables before eating or cooking them, and avoid unpasteurized milk and juices. You can also get the infection by swallowing water in a swimming pool contaminated with human waste. Most cases of E. coli infection get better without treatment in 5 to 10 days.

FDA approves new indication for Wyeth's Tygacil (tigecycline)

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Tygacil (tigecycline), for the treatment of adult patients with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) caused by susceptible strains of indicated pathogens.

24 Mar 2009

Anti-microbial catheter to cut infection risk for dialysis patients

Medical experts at The University of Nottingham have shown that an innovative anti-microbial catheter could vastly improve treatment and the quality of life for many community-based dialysis patients.

24 Mar 2009

Scientists make a new protein from scratch

No doubt proteins are complex. Most are "large" and full of interdependent branches, pockets and bends in their final folded structure.

23 Mar 2009

Plastic protein protects bacteria from stomach acid's unfolding power

A tiny protein helps protect disease-causing bacteria from the ravaging effects of stomach acid, researchers at the University of Michigan and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have discovered.

23 Mar 2009

When intestinal bacteria go surfing

The bacterium Escherichia coli is part of the healthy human intestinal flora. However, E. coli also has pathogenic relatives that trigger diarrhea illnesses: enterohemorrhagic E.coli bacteria.

20 Mar 2009

Drugs throw spanner into the molecular works of enzymes

Drugs that work by blocking the function of a protein from the outside also disrupt the protein's internal workings, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

16 Mar 2009

Next generation antibiotic compounds that do not provoke bacterial resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of medicine's most vexing challenges.

15 Mar 2009

Cells get two chances, not just one, to fix their mistakes

Cells have two chances to fix the same mistake in their protein-making process instead of just one - a so-called proofreading step - that had previously been identified, according to new research.

12 Mar 2009

Researchers probe mechanisms of infection

A newly discovered receptor in a strain of Escherichia coli might help explain why people often get sicker when they're stressed.

10 Mar 2009

How chemicals present in cranberries prevent urinary tract infections

Chemicals present in cranberries - and not the acidity of cranberry juice, as previously thought - prevent infection-causing bacteria from attaching to the cells that line the urinary tract, as documented in a report published in Journal of Medicinal Food.

10 Mar 2009

Synthetic biology extends anti-malaria drug artemisinin's effectiveness

In addition to providing a simple and much less expensive means of making artemisinin, the most powerful anti-malaria drug in use today, synthetic biology can also help to extend the effectiveness of this drug.

8 Mar 2009

For first time scientists determine structure of a protein in the living cell

The function of a protein is determined both by its structure and by its interaction partners in the cell.

5 Mar 2009

Scientists make a strain of E. coli glow under fluorescent light

A team of Michigan Technological University researchers led by Associate Professor of Chemistry Haiying Liu has discovered how to make a strain of E. coli glow under fluorescent light.

5 Mar 2009

Scientists manipulate bacteria into generating their own vaccine

Scientists have developed a way to manipulate bacteria so they will grow mutant sugar molecules on their cell surfaces that could be used against them as the key component in potent vaccines.

23 Feb 2009

Nano-sized laboratory detects pollutants, disease and biological weapons

For centuries, animals have been our first line of defense against toxins.

18 Feb 2009

Faster detection of viruses with nanodevices

A more specific and faster detection of viruses has been identified in new research by Trinity College Dublin's Professor of Physics, Martin Hegner at Trinity College's Centre of Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and an international team of researchers.

17 Feb 2009

Interfering with quorum sensing in bacteria may prevent foodborne illness

The rise in the number of foodborne illnesses from Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli, coupled with the lack of an effective intervention method, has led to intense scientific research into prevention efforts.

16 Feb 2009

New self-sanitizing antibacterial plaster

Scientists in China are reporting development and testing of new self-sanitizing plaster with more powerful antibacterial effects than penicillin.

11 Feb 2009

Long-sought protein structure may help reveal how ‘gene switch’ works

The bacterium behind one of mankind's deadliest scourges, tuberculosis, is helping researchers at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) move closer to answering the decades-old question of what controls the switching on and off of genes that carry out all of life's functions.

10 Feb 2009

Scientists create first crystal structure of an intermediate particle in virus assembly

The structure, described February 8 in an advance online publication of the journal Nature , provides fresh insights into the elegant dance that viral proteins perform to create the infectious structure that causes all manner of misery and disease, say researchers.

8 Feb 2009