Microbiology

An international research team has developed a new method to analyze the global genome, or the metagenome of the intestinal microbiota. The intestinal microbiota is all the bacteria found in the…

Probiotics are a popular fad but there is little evidence they are anything more than a well-marketed placebo. Like homeopathy, at least that means the only harm will be in your wallet. Yet when…

Chlorinated chemicals perform a host of societally useful functions, but they're not perfect. Once their use life has ended, they can become environmental contaminants and even resistant to…

Signals from the immune system that help repel common parasites  like tapeworms, roundworms and other helminths can inadvertently cause a dormant viral infection to become active again, which…

 By revealing the mechanisms that allow the bacteria to rapidly clog up medical devices, a group of researchershas moved a step closer to preventing infections of the common hospital…

Antibodies and their derivatives can protect plants and humans against viruses but members of this class of drugs are usually highly specific against components of a particular virus, and mutations…

Smartphones are everywhere, and they may tell something about you that you didn't realize could be told. When we touch things we give it our 'germs' and that knowledge could tell …

Many pathogenic bacteria use special secretion systems to deliver toxic proteins into host cells and now researchers have determined the structure of a crucial part of one of these systems – which…

People who get a blacklegged tick bite may be getting more pathogens than they expected.  A new study found that ticks are almost twice as likely as previously believed to be infected with two…

Populating the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of mice with Bacteroides species producing a specific enzyme helped protect the good commensal bacteria from the harmful effects of antibiotics, according…