MicrobeWorld

While many bacteria exist as aggressive pathogens, causing diseases ranging from tuberculosis and cholera, to plague, diphtheria and toxic shock syndrome, others play a less malevolent role and some are critical for human health.

In a new study, Cheryl Nickerson and her group at ASU’s Bio... Read More

Researchers at the Institute for Agrobiotechnology (a mixed research centre set up by the Public University of Navarre, the CSIC-National Scientific Research Council, and the Government of Navarre) are designing, by means of laser application, nanostructured reliefs on surfaces so that they acq... Read More

To conduct experiments, researchers can change a variable in an organism and watch the results unfold. But life is messy, and it's difficult to understand the underlying processes that explain the data. Digitizing the process could help, and now we're starting small: researchers have successfull... Read More

Did you know that your body is home to 10 times more microbes than human cells? Learn about the human microbiome and its fascinating practical applications. Speakers include Dr. Lita Proctor, Human Microbiome Project at NIH, Dr. Liliana Losada, J Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD, Dr. Jac... Read More

Marine bacteria of the Roseobacter clade are found to be spread widely throughout the oceans of this planet from the tropics to as far as Antarctica. They live freely in the water, in sediments and as symbiotic partners of algae. Special photosynthetic pigments are responsible for their pink col... Read More

Belgian scientists of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, Belgium made a breakthrough in bridging high tech molecular biology research on microbial pathogens and the needs of the poorest of the poor. After sequencing the complete genome of Leishmania donovani (a parasite causing... Read More

Cell-cell junctions are important for communication, transport, signalling, waste evacuation and water homeostasis. An EU-funded project has investigated how biophysical forces can influence the fulfilment of this vast range of functions.

Communication and signalling between cells in almost a... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Read More

Pat writes:

Hi Vincent,

I'm a regular TWIM listener and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology (I enjoyed your visit ... Read More

UC Santa Barbara researchers' discovery of a variation of an enzyme's ability to "hop" as it moves along DNA, modifying the genetic material of a bacteria — and its physical capability and behavior — holds much promise for biomedical and other scientific applications. Their results are published... Read More

There's a lot more going on in your gut than just digestion, absorption and excretion. Trillions of microorganisms inhabit your intestines. In fact, there are 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells in your whole body. And these little beneficial bugs are busy! Scientists are beginning to... Read More

Using stop-action imaging with high-resolution microscopes, UC Berkeley scientists were able to describe in detail for the first time the "castles" of bacteria that grow in humans and are often the cause of chronic, even fatal infections.

In a paper published in the journal Science on Friday,... Read More

Changes in an overactive immune system can contribute to autism-like behaviors in mice, new research shows.

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) pioneered the study of the link between irregularities in the immune system and neurodevelopmental disorders such as auti... Read More

El podcast del Microbio Nº 300 and 301 is dedicated to Joseph Lister, the British surgeon pioneer of antiseptic surgery, o... Read More

Save the date for the Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology conference on “The Gut Microbiome: The Immune Effector/Regulator Network,” taking place February 10–15, 2013 at Sagebrush Inn and Conference Center in Taos, New Mexico, USA. Organized by Lloyd H. Kasper of Dartmouth Medical ... Read More

Allowing mosquitos to feed on engineered strains of the symbiotic bacteria that naturally live in their midguts may provide the answer to preventing the malarial parasite Plasmodium from completing the relevant stages of its life cycle in the airborne host and being transmitted to humans, resear... Read More

Gram-negative rods, possibly E. coli. (approx. 1000 X). Taken from the Wistreich Collection. Read More

Fido the dog and Ginger the cat need not worry about being replaced by a new baby — in fact, they could be helping parents raise healthier children.

A new study finds that children who lived with dogs or cats during their first year of life got sick less frequently than kids from pet-free zon... Read More

Melbourne researchers are now simulating in 3D, the motion of the complete human rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, on Australia’s fastest supercomputer, paving the way for new drug development.

Rhinovirus infection is linked to about 70 per cent of all asthma exacerbatio... Read More

Computer simulations of how the body's tiniest building blocks behave are helping scientists to unlock the role of molecules in human diseases.

In a series of recent studies, researchers from Monash University's School of Biomedical Sciences have shown how important the movements and interac... Read More