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.

Cranberry consumption may prevent chronic infections

Consuming cranberry products has been anecdotally associated with prevention of urinary tract infections (UTIs) for over 100 years. But is this popular belief a myth, or scientific fact?

16 Jul 2013

Genome sequencing promises to identify rare mutations that give rise to autism

An international consortium, consisting of Autism Speaks, Duke University School of Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children of Toronto, BGI and other institutes, has investigated the genetic variants in 32 families with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

12 Jul 2013

Study provides clear understanding of breast milk content and its effect on infants' health

Scientists are making strides toward unraveling the surprisingly complex chemistry underpinning that axiom of infant feeding "breast is best," according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News.

12 Jul 2013

Codex Alimentarius Commission approves new standards to protect consumers' health

The UN food standards body Codex Alimentarius has agreed on new standards to protect the health of consumers worldwide. These include standards on fruit, vegetables, fish and fishery products and animal feed.

9 Jul 2013

Research unravels a novel means of communication that allows bacteria to resist antibiotic treatment

New research from Western University unravels a novel means of communication that allows bacteria such as Burkholderia cenocepacia (B. cenocepacia) to resist antibiotic treatment. B. cenocepacia is an environmental bacterium that causes devastating infections in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) or with compromised immune systems.

4 Jul 2013

Scientists find new links in gene networks that control movement

The idea that worms can be seen as waveforms allowed scientists at Rice University to find new links in gene networks that control movement.

2 Jul 2013

Researchers discover role of TonB bacterial protein that causes various diseases

A Kansas State University-led study has discovered the role of a protein in bacteria that cause a wide variety of diseases, including typhoid fever, plague, meningitis and dysentery. The results may lead to new and improved antibiotics for humans and animals.

2 Jul 2013

Synthetic biology technology could lead to new antibiotics, modified protein-generators

Synthetic biology researchers at Northwestern University, working with partners at Harvard Medical School, have for the first time synthesized ribosomes -- cell structures responsible for generating all proteins and enzymes in our bodies -- from scratch in a test tube.

30 Jun 2013

Research: Clean water and cattle grazing can coexist on national forest lands

Cattle grazing and clean water can coexist on national forest lands, according to research by the University of California, Davis.

30 Jun 2013

Berkeley Lab scientists create atomic-scale structure of ribosome

This may look like a tangle of squiggly lines, but you're actually looking at a molecular machine called a ribosome. Its job is to translate DNA sequences into proteins, the workhorse compounds that sustain you and all living things.

29 Jun 2013

Researchers identify factors influencing E. coli contamination of spinach prior to harvest

A team of researchers from Texas and Colorado has identified a variety of factors that influence the likelihood of E. coli contamination of spinach on farms prior to harvest. Their research is published in the July 2013 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

21 Jun 2013

Scientists find way to attack dangerous bacteria that cause eye infections

Much as predators attack their prey in the animal world, there are bacteria that consume and kill other bacteria. Scientists are reporting new progress in putting the predator microbes to work - to attack dangerous bacteria that cause eye infections that lead to blindness and have grown resistant to antibiotics.

21 Jun 2013

Treating bacteria with silver compounds boosts efficacy of old antibiotics

Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Medicine.

20 Jun 2013

Penn researchers develop variant of mu opioid painkiller receptor to overcome side effects

Opioids, such as morphine, are still the most effective class of painkillers, but they come with unwanted side effects and can also be addictive and deadly at high doses. Designing new pain-killing drugs of this type involves testing them on their corresponding receptors, but access to meaningful quantities of these receptors that can work in experimental conditions has always been a limiting factor.

15 Jun 2013

Study: Shiga toxin-producing E. coli survive longer in recreational water, can prove dangerous to humans

A toxin dangerous to humans may help E. coli fend off aquatic predators, enabling strains of E. coli that produce the toxin to survive longer in lake water than benign counterparts, a new study finds.

14 Jun 2013

Scientists genetically engineer E. coli bacteria addicted to caffeine

The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series describes bacteria that are "addicted" to caffeine in a way that promises practical uses ranging from decontamination of wastewater to bioproduction of medications for asthma.

14 Jun 2013

Microbiologist uses new Geographic Information System to track deadly outbreaks of drug-resistant TB

TORONTO, ON - Professor Frances Jamieson at the University of Toronto's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP), and Medical Microbiologist, Public Health Ontario, is leading the way in tracking potentially deadly outbreaks of tuberculosis (TB) with a powerful new Geographic Information System (GIS) application, known as Ontario Universal Typing - Tuberculosis (OUT-TB) Web.

13 Jun 2013

New technique for developing complex protein drugs from bacteria

A cheaper, more efficient technique for developing complex protein drugs from bacteria has been developed at the University of Sheffield.

6 Jun 2013

New plug-in optical sensor can help diagnose Kaposi's sarcoma

As antiretroviral drugs that treat HIV have become more commonplace, the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma, a type of cancer linked to AIDS, has decreased in the United States.

5 Jun 2013

Duke Medicine, UCSF investigators to oversee research program on antibacterial resistance

Investigators at Duke Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco have been selected to oversee a nationwide research program on antibacterial resistance, which includes a focus on the growing unmet challenges associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli.

4 Jun 2013