Taking a major step to grow previously uncultivable bacteria in the lab, scientists at Northeastern University have come closer to developing a new generation of highly effective antibiotics.
The researchers examined bacterial communities enveloping particles of sand and identified chemicals ... Read More
It frequently happens in science that what you throw away turns out to be most valuable. It happened to Deepak Nagrath, but not for long.
The Rice assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering was looking for ways to grow cells in a scaffold, and he discarded the sticky substan... Read More
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center (MBIC) are advancing the state-of-the-art in live cell fluorescent imaging by developing a new class of fluorescent probes that span the spectrum -- from violet to the near-infrared. The... Read More
For many years it's been known that the fever, achiness and other symptoms you feel during the flu are triggered by a viral molecule that travels through the body acting like a toxin.
But what scientists haven't understood is how this molecule -- known as double-stranded RNA -- is recognized ... Read More
A recent article published by The Scientist called Power Couples gave advice and examples for scientist couples who have successfully balanced their life at home and in the lab. It was interesting from the perspective of how two very busy and career motivated people work together to have it al... Read More
In an ideal world, every PI would be a nurturing and challenging mentor who carefully guides your project and is invested in developing your skills as a scientist. In the real world, however, that kind of leadership can be hard to find.
In any case, one of the most important and useful mental... Read More
The US Food and Drug Administration does not want Rotarix, the rotavirus vaccine, to be used because it contains porcine circovirus 1 DNA. If complete copies of the circovirus genome were present, would they constitute a potential threat to recipients? Put another way, is circovirus DNA infectio... Read More
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered that the organelles responsible for carbon fixation within cyanobacteria organize themselves in predictable patterns—a finding that could help researchers engineer more efficient designer bacteria. Read More
Scientists at Northeastern University have taken a major step towards being able to grow previously uncultivable bacteria in the lab, the potential key to developing a new generation of highly effective antibiotics.
Examining bacterial communities enveloping particles of sand, the Northeaster... Read More
Two people with compromised immune systems who became ill with 2009 H1N1 influenza developed drug-resistant strains of virus after less than two weeks on therapy, report doctors from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Doc... Read More
Global pandemics, like swine flu, are often caused by viruses that have jumped from animals to people. Scientists in Cameroon are working with local bush meat hunters to monitor this viral transmission. They hope that their work will help us predict and prevent outbreaks like swine flu in the fu... Read More
How do you persuade philanthropists to pay $1 million for every pathogenic human virus you discover? Anjali Nayar talks to 'virus hunter' Nathan Wolfe in Cameroon to find out.
Every day, more than 100 patients line up for treatment outside the bare cement walls of a rural health clinic in the... Read More
Recent clinical tests demonstrate that antimicrobial copper is effective in significantly reducing the bacterial load in intensive care unit (ICU) patient rooms and on many individual objects in those rooms. Results from a U.S. Department of Defense-funded clinical trial assessing the ability of... Read More
"The absence of a sugary viral shield could explain why immune responses to the 1918 influenza virus also work against the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic strain.
Researchers have found that the two viruses, although separated in time by nearly a century, are structurally similar in a region t... Read More
A common virus spread through oral sex may be triggering a steep rise in types of throat cancer, researchers have warned.
Human Pappillomavirus - known as HPV - is the main cause of cervical cancer, although most infections clear with little or no symptoms.
But after cases of oropharyngeal... Read More
Science writer Rebbecca Skloot recently appeared on the Colbert Nation to discuss her new book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. When Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer in 1951, doctors took her cells and immortalized them in test tubes. Since then these cells have led to signi... Read More
Plant genome research is already revolutionizing the field of biology. Currently, scientists are unlocking the secrets of some of the most important plants in our lives, including corn, cotton and potatoes. Secrets of Plant Genomes: Revealed! takes viewers on a lively, upbeat journey that explor... Read More
Once considered a hospital anomaly, community-acquired infections with drug-resistant strains of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus now turn up regularly among children hospitalized in the intensive-care unit, according to research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
The Johns Hopkins ... Read More
I am always interested in how science or health communicators often use popular culture as a hook for drawing people into interesting research. Every morning I scan the "blogosphere," news sites and other sources for interesting stories or items to share on MicrobeWorld. Today I came across the ... Read More