WHAT'S NEW
MicrobeWorld Video 16 - Canary in a Coal Mine
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Coral reefs are dying a death of a thousand cuts and their disappearance threatens not only the incredibly diverse ecosystem that depends on them, but also human health and welfare.
In this episode of MicrobeWorld Video marine scientists Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Ph.D., chair of marine studies at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and Kiho Kim, Ph.D., director of the environmental studies program at American University, explain the important relationship between microbes and corals, and how this delicate symbiosis that sustains life on and around reefs is facing numerous threats from human interactions to global climate change. In addition, Tundi Agardy, Ph.D., founder and executive director of Sound Seas, discusses the need for public policy and community-based conservation efforts that may help stave off the degradation of these vital ocean ecosystems.
According to a 2004 report issued by the World Wildlife Fund, 24% of the world's reefs are under imminent risk of collapse through human pressures; and a further 26% are under a longer term threat of collapse. If nothing is done to protect these resources, many scientists estimate that reefs around the West Indies in the Caribbean will be gone by 2020, while the Great Barrier Reef may only last for another three decades.
Please visit the following sites for more information about coral reefs:
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Meet the Scientist: Raul Cano, Ph.D.
Several years ago, MicrobeWorld did a profile of Raul Cano, Ph.D. who stunned the world when his lab announced they revived 30-million-year-old bacteria from spores taken from the gut of an ancient bee entombed in amber. We caught back up with Dr. Cano to talk about his recent work with sequencing the genome of Lactobacillus acidophilus, a popular ingredient in yogurt - think probiotics. Cano also talks about his love for undergraduate teaching, his favorite microbes, and his fondness for music. (Read more...)
MicrobeWorld Video 15 - Modern Transportation & Infectious Disease
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From your local bus route to international air travel, infectious diseases can spread across the globe in a matter of hours. In this video podcast episode filmed at the Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C., Stephen Eubank from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute of Virginia Tech and Daniel Lucey from Georgetown University discuss the role of transportation in the spread of disease and examine the effectiveness of various measures to curb transmission.
Stephen Eubank, Ph.D., is a project director at the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute of Virginia Tech. His research focuses on modeling and simulating the spread of disease and regional transportation, and the analysis of complex systems.
Daniel Lucey, M.D., M.P.H., is an adjunct professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University, where he is co-director of the master of science program in biohazardous threat agents and emerging infectious diseases. In recent years, his teaching focus has been on SARS, avian flu, and the threat of pandemic human influenza.
Online Resources
- Koshland Science Museum
- Transportation Research Board of the National Academies
- Pandemic Flu and Travel
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Meet the Scientist: Kathleen Postle, Ph.D.
There is a new print interview posted in the Meet the Scientists section on MicrobeWorld with Kathleen Postle, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Eberly College of Science at Pennsylvania State University. Postle's work centers around TonB, a signal-transducing protein that shuttles between the inner and outer membranes of E. coli. Once the protein and its movement within the cell are better understood, she thinks the TonB system could serve as a target for a novel antibiotic. (Read more...)
MicrobeWorld Video 14 - HIV/AIDS Education in America
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In this episode of MicrobeWorld Video we ask some leading scientists, education specialists, and public health officials about the state of HIV/AIDS education in America and ideas they have to support the teaching of microbial evolution using the latest HIV/AIDS research - all while instilling innovative prevention strategies.
Filmed at a forum for educators on February, 11, 2008 at the Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C. and at San Diego State University, this episode features the following experts:
- Roland Wolkowicz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, San Diego State University, whose research focus is on the use of random peptide libraries and other chemical genetics approaches for the study of viral pathogenesis and the search of antiviral factors in HIV1 and HCV.
- Shannon Lee Hader, M.D., MPH, Director of the HIV/AIDS Administration for Washington, D.C., an epidemiologist and public health physician who has worked with HIV-infected children and adults in Brazil, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe.
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Anila Asghar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education at Johns Hopkins University, whose research focuses on curriculum development and evolution.
Educational resources mentioned within the video can be found online at:
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The Uncharted Microbial World
"Uncharted Microbial World: Microbes and Their Activities in the Environment" is a new report based on an American Academy of Microbiology colloquium that convened February 9-11, 2007, in Seattle, Washington.
The purpose of the event was to deliberate the way forward in the study of microbes and their activities in the environment. Researchers in microbiology, marine science, pathobiology, evolutionary biology, medicine, engineering, and other fields discussed ways to build on and extend recent successes in microbiology. The participants made specific recommendations for targeting future research, improving methodologies and techniques, and enhancing training and collaboration in the field.
Microbes are the foundation for all of life. From the air we breathe to the soil we rely on for farming to the water we drink, everything humans need to survive is intimately coupled with the activities of microbes. Major advances have been made in the understanding of disease and the use of microorganisms in the industrial production of drugs, food products and wastewater treatment. However, our understanding of many complicated microbial environments (the gut and teeth), soil fertility, and biogeochemical cycles of the elements is lagging behind due to their enormous complexity. Inadequate technology and limited resources have stymied many lines of investigation. Today, most environmental microorganisms have yet to be isolated and identified, let alone rigorously studied. (Download the .pdf)
Meet the Scientist: Jay Keasling, Ph.D.
There is a new interview in the Meet the Scientists section on MicrobeWorld with Jay Keasling, the Hubbard Howe, Jr. Professor of Biochemical Engineering in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Keasling’s research focuses on synthetic biology, systems biology, and environmental biotechnology, and his lab is involved in creating a microbial system for producing HIV drugs, prostratin and DPP, which are currently found only in rare plants.
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