Microbiology

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Long-Term Analysis Provides a Novel Look at Harmful Algal Blooms

A long-term analysis shows that a major Oregon reservoir abruptly swapped one type of toxic algae for another midway through the 12-year study period, absent any obvious cause.

12 Nov 2025

Global Constraint Principle Offers Fresh Insight into Life’s Growth Limits

A research team including a scientist of Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, has identified a novel principle in biology that mathematically explains why the growth of organisms slows as nutrients become more abundant-a phenomenon known as "the law of diminishing returns."

12 Nov 2025

Pitt-Led Team Creates Fully Synthetic Bacteriophages, Speeding Up Discovery

A team led by University of Pittsburgh's Graham Hatfull has developed a method to construct bacteriophages with entirely synthetic genetic material, allowing researchers to add and subtract genes at will. The findings open the field to new pathways for understanding how these bacteria-killing viruses work, and for potential therapy of bacterial infections.

11 Nov 2025

Scientists Build a Genetic Map to Predict Bacterial Resistance Mechanisms

The bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a haunting presence in many hospitals in the United States, where more than one in 100 patients are treated for A. baumannii infections.

10 Nov 2025

Breakthrough Genomic Technique Expands View of Ocean Microbial Life

A new method vastly improves on the existing approach for single-cell genetic sequencing, enabling scientists to read the genomes of individual cells and viral particles in the environment more quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

6 Nov 2025

Your Washing Machine Isn’t As Clean As You Think

Washing machines may harbor microbes linked to hygiene risks. Study reveals user-specific microbial profiles and the impact of machine design on contamination.

5 Nov 2025

Study Reveals How Certain E. coli Strains can Spread as Rapidly as Viruses

Experts can now predict the transmission rate of a bacterial E. coli infection in the same way as they can for viral pandemics, which can help battling treatment-resistant infections in the future.

5 Nov 2025

Expansion Microscopy Reveals Hidden Architecture of Oceanic Plankton

Plankton are the invisible engines of life on Earth, producing much of the planet's oxygen and forming the foundation of the oceanic food chain.

3 Nov 2025

Researchers Use Bacterium’s Own Defenses to Amplify Antibiotic Power

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found a way to use a bacterium's own drug resistance mechanisms against itself, presenting a potentially safer and more effective way to treat certain antibiotic-resistant infections.

3 Nov 2025

How Gut Bacteria Influence Mammalian Cell Physiology

The microbiome-the trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live quietly in our body-plays a crucial role in shaping human health by providing a variety of micronutrients necessary for vital functions.

30 Oct 2025

Researchers Uncover How Pseudomonas Bacteria Sense and Build Biofilms

The bacterium known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an unwelcome visitor in the human body. Serious infections can result when a bunch of these bugs settle together on a surface to form a biofilm - a community of microbes like the slime on spoiled food, but in this case residing inside a person.

29 Oct 2025

Light-Based Sensor Continuously Detects Vaccine Quality

A group of researchers from Purdue University and Merck & Co. Inc., referred to as Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. in regions outside the U.S. and Canada, has recently unveiled a novel analytical tool that may assist pharmaceutical companies in enhancing vaccine production through expedited monitoring and analysis.

29 Oct 2025

Flower-scented Fungus That Kills Mosquitoes Naturally

In the war against mosquito-borne illnesses that claim the lives of hundreds of thousands annually, researchers have sought an unexpected partner: a fungus that emits a floral scent.

27 Oct 2025

Study Shows Flatulence Gas Hydrogen is Crucial for Gut Health

Farts are causing a stink in the research world, but in a positive way.

24 Oct 2025

Breakthrough Cryo-EM Study Maps Herpes Replication Protein in New Detail

An international research team has successfully identified the initial high-resolution structures of the herpes simplex virus origin-binding protein (OBP), which is an essential element in viral DNA replication that has remained structurally uncharacterized for the past forty years.

24 Oct 2025

New Method Brings Precision to Monitoring Beneficial Bacteria After FMT

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and their collaborators have developed a new technology to track beneficial bacteria after fecal microbiota transplants (FMT).

23 Oct 2025

Salton Sea Dust Causes Immediate Changes to Lung Microbes and Immune Response

Not only does dust from the drying Salton Sea in California smell awful. Researchers at UC Riverside discovered that inhaling the dust might rapidly alter the microscopic environment within the lungs.

23 Oct 2025

Serotonin-Producing Gut Microbes May Hold the Key to Treating IBS

Research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, clarifies the complex interaction between gut bacteria and IBS.

21 Oct 2025

Study Uncovers Hundreds of New Viruses Living Inside the Gut Bacteria

Hundreds of new viruses living inside bacteria within our gut have been discovered in an international study led by Professor Jeremy J. Barr from Monash University's School of Biological Sciences and Associate Professor Sam Forster from Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

16 Oct 2025