MicrobeWorld

Infectious-disease specialists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have demonstrated that a cannibalistic process in cells plays a key role in limiting Salmonella infection.

Salmonella, the causative agent of salmonellosis, causes many of the intestinal infections and food-related illnesses rep... Read More

A new oral vaccine against sylvatic plague is showing significant promise in the laboratory as a way to protect prairie dogs and may eventually protect endangered black-footed ferrets who now get the disease by eating infected prairie dogs, according to results by a USGS researcher at the USGS N... Read More

With China moving to control an outbreak of pneumonic plague, it's worth noting that the disease doesn't occur only in places for which Americans need a passport to visit. In fact, Los Angeles has dubious bragging rights to the United States' most recent rat-borne epidemic.

Here's a review of... Read More

SciAm reports that the foot-long Tokay gecko from Indonesia with polka-dot skin and wide eyes is a mixing pot for 10 types of salmonella some which can be acquired from local livestock, poultry and rodents. The gecko is popular with pet stores, where it can sell for less than $20.

"Research ... Read More

Bacteria play a role in many industrial processes from fermentation to cleaning up environmental pollution. But floating freely in solution, the microbial cells constantly multiply, generating biomass that must be periodically removed.

Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven Na... Read More

Newsmax.com is reporting a strain of swine flu that is resistant to treatment with the drug Tamiflu has been discovered near the U.S.-Mexican border, the Pan-American Health Organization said on Monday.

"We have found resistance to Tamiflu on the border. We have observed some cases, few to be... Read More

This teleconference is sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology and will review the history and importance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with a primary focus on the emergence of community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA). The phenotypic and molecular identification of ... Read More

Aspergillus fumigatus. Typical dichotomous branching of hyphae in pulmonary lesion of a horse. PAS stain Read More

Residents of a remote farming town in western China said Tuesday people were seeking to flee in defiance a lockdown by authorities to prevent the spread of highly infectious pneumonic plague which has claimed three lives in the area.

Police have set up checkpoints around Ziketan in Qinghai pr... Read More

Certainly there is strength in numbers, but only if those numbers can effectively communicate with one another. Now, a new study finds that administration of a novel small molecule which effectively disrupts a key bacterial communication process protects an animal host from infection. The resear... Read More

Reuters health has reported that a research study funded by Lifeway Foods, a company that manufactures a probiotic product called ProBugs, which is essentially the cultured dairy beverage called Kefir, has found there is little difference between the beverage with active probiotics and without ... Read More

The Scientist magazine has just announced the 2009 The Future of Science Video award winners. Click "source" to view the complete list of winners.

Below are two examples of the several types of videos honored:

The Tree of Life by The Wellcome Trust
{scive... Read More

Like the sensitive seismographs that can pick up tremors of impending earthquakes long before they strike, a similar invention from Tel Aviv University researchers may change the face of molecular biology.

Coupling biological materials with an electrode-based device, Prof. Judith Rishpon of T... Read More

A year and a day after the death of anthrax mailing suspect Bruce Ivins, a panel met here at the National Academy of Sciences to dissect the investigative science behind the FBI case against him.

"The committee will only review and assess the scientific information," said Alice Gast of Lehigh... Read More

As a confirmed crab apple who has often been compared to the splenetic Lucy Van Pelt character from Peanuts, I am gratified to learn that should my real spleen ever decide to vent in earnest, the outburst may just help save my life.

Scientists have discovered that the spleen, long consigned t... Read More

The Obama administration is finalizing guidelines that would scale back when the federal government recommends closing schools in response to the swine flu pandemic, several people involved in the deliberations said Monday.

More targeted guidance would mark a change in the government's approa... Read More

What is it? Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria that causes bubonic plague, the Black Death that killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe in the 14th century. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted by flea bites.

How does it develop? Pneumonic plague occurs when the bacteria... Read More

Deadly parasite jumped to humans from chimpanzees, perhaps through 1 mosquito

Irvine, Calif. – Researchers have identified what they believe is the original source of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa.

UC Irvine biologist Francisco Ayala and colleagues... Read More

Biomolecular computers, made of DNA and other biological molecules, only exist today in a few specialized labs, remote from the regular computer user. Nonetheless, Tom Ran and Shai Kaplan, research students in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute's Biological Chemistry, and Co... Read More

A virus discovered last year in a rare form of skin cancer has also been found in people with the second most common form of skin cancer among Americans, according to researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.

Th... Read More