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.

Turning Plastic Bottles into Levodopa, a Key Parkinson’s Treatment

This study demonstrates the conversion of plastic bottles into levodopa using engineered bacteria, highlighting a novel approach to sustainable drug production.

25 Mar 2026

New Base Editing Tool Reduces Unwanted DNA Bystander Mutations

The trajectory of base editing has been remarkable, progressing from the laboratory to patient care, treating debilitating or terminal illnesses, in less than a decade.

19 Mar 2026

Revive Penicillin’s Power by Exploiting Bacteria’s Hidden Weakness

When many disease-causing bacteria come into contact with penicillin, they do not necessarily die immediately, but instead enter a brief survival mode known as antibiotic tolerance.

13 Mar 2026

Computational Tool Improves Detection of Microbes in Tumor Sequencing Data

When scientists sequence tumor DNA, they typically find small amounts of genetic code from bacteria, viruses and fungi – microorganisms that, if actually present in tumor tissues, could influence how they grow, evade immunity or respond to treatment.

11 Mar 2026

New Cell-Free Method Reveals Hidden Rules of Bacterial Gene Expression

Inside every cell, thousands of molecular signals collide, overlap, and compensate, obscuring the true drivers of gene expression.

5 Mar 2026

Engineered E. coli Produces Key Plant Compound at Record Levels

Researchers engineered E. coli to produce orsellinic acid-derived meroterpenoids, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional plant extraction methods.

25 Feb 2026

Hutton Scientists Develop New Test for Fecal Contamination Which Cuts Time for Results From 24 Hours to Four

Scientists at The James Hutton Institute, Scotland’s pre-eminent interdisciplinary scientific research institute for the sustainable management of land, crop and nature resources, have developed a new test that reduces the time required to analyze water samples for indicators of fecal contamination from 24 hours to four.

24 Feb 2026

Microbial Engineering Breakthrough Improves Supply of Promising Pharmaceuticals

Bioengineered E. coli bacteria can now produce a group of compounds with anticancer, anti-HIV, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory activities.

18 Feb 2026

Human 3D Model Shows How the Gut Drives Neurodegeneration

Research on a 3D microfluidic model highlights gut-brain interactions, offering new insights into inflammatory processes linked to neurodegenerative diseases.

18 Feb 2026

Chemical Tweaks Boost Peptide Stability and Antimicrobial Power

Antibiotic treatments are losing effectiveness against a range of common bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella and Acinetobacter, according to a warning issued by the World Health Organization last October.

16 Feb 2026

Molecular Hitchhikers Boost Bacterial Resistance Without Genes

A Dartmouth study finds that molecular hitchhikers living within bacteria can make their hosts extra resistant to medical treatment by corralling them into tightly packed groups.

11 Feb 2026

The Genetic Mechanics of Bacterial Circadian Clocks

Circadian clocks play an important role in our health and well-being by synchronizing the 24-hour biological cycles with light and dark exposure. Disruptions in the rhythms of these clocks, such as jet lag and daylight saving time, might put their everyday operations out of sync.

11 Feb 2026

Tool Enables Accurate Detection of Microbes in Cancer Genomes

10 Feb 2026

Expanding the Biosynthetic Capabilities of Microbes Using Light

Researchers are continually looking for new ways to hack the cellular machinery of microbes like yeast and bacteria to make products that are useful for humans and society.

2 Feb 2026

Gut Microbial Metabolite Hippuric Acid Amplifies Immune Responses

Scientists at The Wistar Institute have identified a previously overlooked mediator in the body's response to life-threatening infections: hippuric acid, a metabolite produced when gut bacteria break down polyphenols from berries, tea, and other plant-based foods.

31 Jan 2026

Engineering Escherichia coli for Sustainable Biosynthesis of Lauryl Glucoside

By reconstructing a non-natural metabolic route in Escherichia coli, the researchers demonstrated that simple sugars can be biologically converted into lauryl glucoside through the coordinated production of its fatty alcohol precursor and a final glycosylation step.

21 Jan 2026

First Fully Synthetic Bacteriophage Engineering System for Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterium

Bacteriophages have been used therapeutically to treat infectious bacterial diseases for over a century.

21 Jan 2026

Bacteria Use One Simple Strategy to Navigate Complex Worlds

Just like every other creature, bacteria have evolved creative ways of getting around. Sometimes this is easy, like swimming in open water, but navigating more confined spaces poses different challenges.

19 Jan 2026

Two-Faced Nanoparticles Restore Antibiotic Power Against Superbugs

Over the decades, many strains of disease-causing bacteria have evolved defenses to even the most potent antibiotics, setting off a growing health crisis.

14 Jan 2026

Deep Learning–Based Codon Optimization Framework Boosts Protein Expression in E. coli

By combining Transformer-based sequence modeling with a novel conditional probability strategy, the approach overcomes long-standing trade-offs between maximizing expression metrics and maintaining translational features critical for proper protein folding.

9 Jan 2026