Pathogen News and Research

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Researchers develop potential fast-acting "vaccine" for myasthenia gravis

Nearly 60,000 Americans suffer from myasthenia gravis (MG), a non-inherited autoimmune form of muscle weakness. The disease has no cure, and the primary treatments are nonspecific immunosuppressants and inhibitors of the enzyme cholinesterase.

8 Oct 2014

Scientists shed new light on how LAMR1 and Gal-3 proteins can cause meningitis, septicaemia

Previously undiscovered secrets of how human cells interact with a bacterium which causes a serious human disease have been revealed in new research by microbiologists at The University of Nottingham.

5 Oct 2014

Blackflies infected with Onchocerca volvulus parasite may spread nodding syndrome

Despite decades of research, scientists have yet to pinpoint the exact cause of nodding syndrome (NS), a disabling disease affecting African children. A new report suggests that blackflies infected with the parasite Onchocerca volvulus may be capable of passing on a secondary pathogen that is to blame for the spread of the disease. New research is presented in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

3 Oct 2014

UPM researchers find way to enhance detection of rotavirus

Researchers at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have found a way to enhance detection capacity of small concentrations of rotavirus. All this thanks to a new way to assess the biosensing response applied to an interferometric device.

3 Oct 2014

Virginia Tech professor wins Paul L. Busch Award for outstanding work in water quality research

Amy Pruden, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, is the 2014 recipient of the Paul L. Busch Award, including a $100,000 research grant.

1 Oct 2014

Luminex gets FDA approval to add three new targets to xTAG Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel

Luminex Corporation today announced it has received U.S. FDA clearance to add three new targets to its xTAG Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (GPP). The targets include Adenovirus 40/41, Entamoeba histolytica and Vibrio cholerae.

From Luminex 30 Sep 2014

Study provides support for new understanding of the immune system

A study published in the journal Science provides support for a new-and still controversial-understanding of the immune system. The research was conducted by collaborators in the U.S. and Europe, including Robert Cramer, PhD, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine and member of the Dartmouth Lung Biology Center, and Kelly Shepherdson, PhD, at the time a graduate student in Cramer's lab.

29 Sep 2014

Three institutions collaborate to develop vaccine to treat pneumonia

The long-observed association between pneumonia and heart failure now has more physical evidence, thanks to research in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

26 Sep 2014

New research identifies novel cellular factors vital for CCHFV infection

New research into the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a tick-borne virus which causes a severe hemorrhagic disease in humans similar to that caused by Ebolavirus, has identified new cellular factors essential for CCHFV infection.

22 Sep 2014

Mice, shrews are most effective at transferring Lyme disease and anaplasmosis

In the U.S., some 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually. Thousands also suffer from babesiosis and anaplasmosis, tick-borne ailments that can occur alone or as co-infections with Lyme disease.

22 Sep 2014

Sequencing the Asian liver fluke genome: an interview with Dr Neil Young

Opisthorchis viverrini is a parasitic flatworm (or liver fluke) endemic throughout Thailand, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam and Cambodia. Humans are infected with this parasite when they eat a fluke encysted in inadequately cooked/preserved freshwater fish.

21 Sep 2014

American Biotech launches new silver hydrogel wound-dressing products

American Biotech Labs, LLC, is pleased to announce the availability of three new silver hydrogel wound-dressing products.

16 Sep 2014

NSF, NIH, USDA receive more than $12 million in new EEID grants

Ebola, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), malaria, antibiotic-resistant infections: Is our interaction with the environment somehow responsible for their increased incidence?

11 Sep 2014

Scientists crack genetic code of liver fluke parasite

Singapore-An international team of scientists from Singapore, Thailand, China and Australia has cracked the genetic code of the liver fluke parasite, Opisthorchis viverrini, using a unique DNA analysis technique developed at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS).

11 Sep 2014

Fogarty receives three grants for research focused on biodiversity conservation

In addition to diseases for which there are ineffective or no cures, key pathogens are becoming increasingly drug-resistant.

10 Sep 2014

New discovery could help efforts to produce more effective vaccines

The best defense is a good offense, especially when it comes to the immune system. The troops that respond to an infection are split into two squadrons, and, until recently, it seemed that the two were independent, without much interaction.

9 Sep 2014

Chinese study of serogroup 6 S. pneumoniae finds no antibiotic-resistant clones

A survey of serogroup 6 Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from children in China has identified no antibiotic-resistant clones, leading the authors to speculate that the isolates may be under antibiotic selective pressure.

8 Sep 2014

Each day of hospitalization increases risk of multidrug-resistant by 1%

If a patient contracts an infection while in the hospital, each day of hospitalization increases by 1% the likelihood that the infection will be multidrug-resistant, according to research presented at the 54th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) an infectious disease meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

8 Sep 2014

New regulatory component in infectious bacterium helps explain ability to survive in human body

The discovery of a new regulatory component in an infectious bacterium could aid efforts to explain its ability to survive in the human body, report microbiologists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and University of Maryland, College Park, in the journal Science.

3 Sep 2014

Researchers identify different types of tuberculosis using new genetic barcode

Doctors and researchers will be able to easily identify different types of tuberculosis (TB) thanks to a new genetic barcode devised by scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

3 Sep 2014