Microbiology

RSS

New algorithm can decolonize harmful gut bacteria

The human gut may not be recollected frequently, but it is home to a complex ecosystem of microbes that have a significant role to play in the way human beings function.

4 Aug 2020

Biocrusts critical for supporting the world's shrinking water supplies

A global meta-analysis led by UNSW scientists shows tiny organisms that cover desert soils - so-called biocrusts - are critically important for supporting the world's shrinking water supplies.

3 Aug 2020

Re-engineering antibodies to fight SARS-CoV-2 infection

With millions of COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, people are turning to antibody tests to find out whether they have been exposed to the coronavirus that causes the disease.

31 Jul 2020

High-resolution imaging reveals how phages can attack and kill bacterial superbugs

A research collaboration involving Monash University has made an exciting discovery that may eventually lead to targeted treatments to combat drug-resistant bacterial infections, one of the greatest threats to global health.

31 Jul 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 psychological stress leads to debilitating vessel-clogging episodes

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have demonstrated that chronic psychological stress can result in painful vessel-clogging episodes—a frequent cause of hospitalizations and the most typical complication of sickle-cell disease or SCD.

31 Jul 2020

Researchers show how gut microbiomes change the nature of cancer mutations

It is a fact that has long baffled doctors: Cancer in the small intestine is quite rare, whereas colorectal cancer, a neighboring though much smaller organ, is one of the leading causes of cancer death for men and women. What is it about the colon that seems to "attract" cancer?

30 Jul 2020

Study may lead to new therapeutic approaches against coronaviruses

The immune system secretes an endogenous protein that can strongly suppress coronaviruses, the pathogen that is responsible for causing the current pandemic.

29 Jul 2020

Supercomputer analyses point to a new pathway for COVID-19 inflammatory response

Analyses of lung fluid cells from COVID-19 patients conducted on the nation's fastest supercomputer point to gene expression patterns that may explain the runaway symptoms produced by the body's response to SARS-CoV-2.

29 Jul 2020

Research into metal-breathing bacteria could pave way for new generation of 'living sensors'

When the Shewanella oneidensis bacterium "breathes" in certain metal and sulfur compounds anaerobically, the way an aerobic organism would process oxygen, it produces materials that could be used to enhance electronics, electrochemical energy storage, and drug-delivery devices.

29 Jul 2020

Scientists discover evolutionary lineage of SARS-CoV-2 virus

By reconstructing the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, an international research team of Chinese, European and U.S. scientists has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to the virus has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans.

29 Jul 2020

Gym equipment found to contain high levels of antibiotic-resistant pathogens

According to a study 43% of Staphylococcus bacteria harboring on exercise equipment in university gyms was resistant to ampicillin.

27 Jul 2020

Study shows genetic mutations allow MRSA to develop antibiotic resistance

Researchers have discovered that genetic mutations that occur in MRSA enable it to evolve and turn out to be more resistant to antibiotics like penicillin.

27 Jul 2020

Healthy travelers are not at high risk for C. auris acquisition, study suggests

Researchers have shown that there is a low risk for healthy people to acquire Candida auris during travel.

27 Jul 2020

Experimental mRNA-based vaccine protects animals against SARS-CoV-2

An experimental messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) elicits protective immune responses in mice and non-human primates, researchers report on July 23rd in the journal Cell.

27 Jul 2020

AI can be used as a supplementary tool for identifying causal pathogens of pneumonia

A team of researchers showed that artificial intelligence (AI) could help predict the type of bacteria that caused the infection in patients with pneumonia.

27 Jul 2020

Coronavirus changes structure that prevents cells from detecting it

With an alarm code, we can enter a building without bells going off. It turns out that the SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has the same advantage entering cells. It possesses the code to waltz right in.

24 Jul 2020

Evaluating the impact of sugary and acidic drinks on tooth enamel

Using atomic force microscopy, researchers have quantitatively assessed the effect of sugary and acidic drinks on human tooth enamel at the nanoscale level.

23 Jul 2020

Humans are mutating SARS-CoV-2, but natural selection enables the virus to bounce back

Scientists investigating the evolution of the virus that causes Covid19 say that its mutation seems to be directed by human proteins that degrade it, but natural selection of the virus enables it to bounce back. The findings could help in the design of vaccines against the virus.

23 Jul 2020

Infectious bacteria can produce genetic variants among siblings, study finds

A research team from the University of Tübingen and the German Center for Infection Research is investigating how pathogens influence the immune response of their host with genetic variation.

23 Jul 2020