Bacteriophage News and Research

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Bacteriophages are small, virus-like organisms that infect bacteria. They are comprised of a protein capsule around an RNA or DNA genome.

Bacteria and Viruses Evolve New Strategies in Accelerated Arms Race

As conceived by Charles Darwin in the 1800s, evolution is a slow, gradual process during which species adaptations are inherited incrementally over generations.

10 Nov 2023

New Bacteriophage Found in Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench, the deepest location on Earth, descends over 11,000 meters to the Pacific Ocean’s seafloor at its shallowest point. Even in the utterly desolate darkness, life exists.

22 Sep 2023

New Strain of Marine Bacteria with Distinct Characteristics

Researchers discovered a new type of marine bacteria with distinct traits on the ocean floor.

30 Aug 2023

New System to Quickly Detect Airborne Viruses Using High-Speed Train Technology

Researchers from University of British Columbia and Michigan State University have invented a system that can quickly and inexpensively detect airborne viruses using the same technology that enables high-speed trains.

24 Aug 2023

Exceptional Number of Unknown Viruses Found in the Infants' Feces

Viruses are usually associated with illness. But our bodies are full of both bacteria and viruses that constantly proliferate and interact with each other in our gastrointestinal tract.

12 Apr 2023

Using viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant "superbugs"

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that the increase in cases of the drug-resistant bacterial infection Shigella could be a predictor of what's to come for other bacteria.

22 Mar 2023

Bacteriophages might hold the key to fighting antibiotic resistance

As conventional antibiotics continue to lose effectiveness against evolving pathogens, scientists are keen to employ the bacteria-killing techniques perfected by bacteriophages, the viruses that infect bacteria.

14 Mar 2023

Using data from Sanger sequencing to quantify of genetic variants in bacterial cultures

Genetic variations, such as mutations, recombinations, or transpositions occur naturally in cultured microorganisms and are often considered nonneutral mutations.

7 Mar 2023

Native genome model of a “live” virus replicated

An Aston University scientist has developed the world’s first computer reconstruction of a virus, complete with its native genome.

24 Jan 2023

Biological alternatives could be a promising strategy for the future of biodiversity

This week, the United Nations is meeting in Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference. The conference brings together leaders from around the world to discuss how to prevent loss of biodiversity and how to restore habitats that are already hurting.

15 Dec 2022

Sprayable new super-disinfectant can protect food from bacterial contamination

Researchers at McMaster University have created a powerful new weapon against bacterial contamination and infection.

6 Dec 2022

Researchers determine a novel antiviral technique to combat bacteria

Bacteria use a wide range of defense strategies to combat viral infection, and some of these systems have resulted in game-changing technologies like CRISPR-based gene editing.

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 15 Aug 2022

Researchers develop and demonstrate new procedure for controlling directed evolution

A new procedure for controlling directed evolution in bacteria is developed and demonstrated by scientists at North Carolina State University.

16 Feb 2022

Combining bacteriophages with antibiotics to treat antibiotic-resistant infections

Mycobacterium abscessus, a relative of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and leprosy, is responsible for particularly severe damage to human lungs and can be resistant to many standard antibiotics, making infections extremely challenging to treat.

17 Sep 2021

Pre-trained viruses are more effective in countering antibiotic resistance

The risk of antibiotic resistance increases as bacteria continue to evade even the most powerful contemporary medicinal treatments. Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms threaten to take more than 10 million lives by 2050, as present-day treatments prove ineffective.

9 Jun 2021

Researchers identify the biosynthesis mechanism of new DNA nucleobases

DNA is made up of nucleobases, which are depicted by the letters G, A, T, and C. They are the foundation of the genetic code.

From Institut Pasteur 13 May 2021

Bacteriophage can play important role in microbial control

Crop plants and animals can be infected by bacterial pathogens that reduce yield, cause food wastage, and carry human pathogens that spread disease on consumption.

5 Jan 2021

New DNA-cutting tool could advance gene editing for novel treatments

Gene editing for the development of new treatments, and for studying disease as well as normal function in humans and other organisms, may advance more quickly with a new tool for cutting larger pieces of DNA out of a cell's genome, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists.

21 Oct 2020

Researchers show efficacy of phage cocktail therapy on wound infections

Australian researchers have shown how viruses can be used to save lives, developing the potential use of bacteriophages in bandages to treat life-threatening golden staph infections which may not respond to traditional antibiotics.

31 Jul 2020

Study shows how DNA mimic protein helps phages to attack their victims

A research team from the Severinov Laboratory at Skoltech, together with their collaborators from Israel and Switzerland, has analyzed a bacterial BREX defense mechanism that was poorly studied to date.

29 Apr 2020