Microbiology

How Bacteria Break Through The Blood-Brain Barrier

The bacteria that sneak past the brain's defenses to cause deadly bacterial meningitis are clever adversaries- they convince their host that they are harmless yet then have freedom to cause disease by taking advantage of a molecular warning signal an ...

Article - News Staff - May 16 2015 - 11:00am

Your Microbiome Has A Unique 'Fingerprint'

A new study shows that the microbial communities we carry in and on our bodies, the human microbiome, contain the potential to uniquely identify individuals, much like fingerprints. Researchers and demonstrated that personal microbiomes contain enough dis ...

Article - News Staff - May 11 2015 - 9:07pm

Antibiotic Resistance: Phages Can Transfer It In Chicken Meat

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise and they pose a global threat to public health. Common antibiotics are often ineffective in treating infectious diseases because pathogens acquire resistance genes. These antimicrobial resistance genes are obt ...

Article - News Staff - May 23 2015 - 11:30am

This Eye-Opening Parasite Can Get In Through Your Contact Lens

A recent eye infection suffered by 18-year-old Nottingham University student Jess Greaney is the kind of story that fills us with horror. Greaney had keratitis, an inflammation of the cornea, caused by Acanthamoeba castellanii, a parasite that was living ...

Article - The Conversation - May 22 2015 - 11:30am

Ancient Microbe-Sediment Systems Of The Barberton Greenstone Belt

The modern sedimentary environment contains a diversity of microbes that interact very closely with the sediments, sometimes to such an extent that they form "biosediments." But can such a phenomenon be fossilized? How far back in time can " ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2015 - 8:30am

Bacteria May Cause Type 2 Diabetes

Bacteria and viruses have an obvious role in causing infectious diseases, but microbes have also been identified as the surprising cause of other illnesses, including cervical cancer (Human papilloma virus) and stomach ulcers (H. pylori bacteria). A new s ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2015 - 8:30am

How Flu Viruses Use Transportation Networks In The US

To predict how a seasonal influenza epidemic will spread across the United States, one should focus more on the mobility of people than on their geographic proximity, a new study suggests. Their results mark the first time genetic patterns for the spread ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2015 - 11:01am

The Biology Of Iron

When you think of iron, you probably think of anvils and suits made by Tony Stark- iron is ore that comes from a mine.  Now imagine that half of the iron in that object owes its existence to bacteria living two and a half billion years ago.  Clark Johnson ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2015 - 6:53am

Earth's 24 Hour Daily Rotation Period Found Encoded In Cyanobacterial Cells

A collaborative group of Japanese researchers has demonstrated that the Earth's daily rotation period (24 hours) is encoded in the KaiC protein at the atomic level, a small, 10 nm-diameter biomolecule expressed in cyanobacterial cells. The results of ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2015 - 5:19am

Pollution Helps Trees Fight Infection

Trees that can tolerate soil pollution are also better at defending themselves against pests and pathogens. While studying the presence of genetic information (RNA) from fungi and bacteria in the trees, the researchers found evidence of a very large amoun ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2015 - 8:00am