MicrobeWorld

At an ill-fated press conference in 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler boldly predicted an effective AIDS vaccine would be available within just two years.

But a string of failed attempts - punctuated by a 2007 trial in which a Merck vaccine appeared to make peopl... Read More

A 15-year-old Inca girl who lived 500 years ago had a lung infection at the time of her death, according to a new method of analyzing protein samples.

A team of scientists that used the method of analyzing proteins from samples is the first to detect an immune response from a 500-year-old Inc... Read More

The popular spice turmeric packs more than just flavor — it shows promise in fighting devastating viruses, Mason researchers recently discovered.

Curcumin, found in turmeric, stopped the potentially deadly Rift Valley Fever virus from multiplying in infected cells, says Aarthi Narayanan, lead... Read More

After 18 months of controversy, the official verdict is in: an arsenic-tolerant bacterium found in California’s Mono Lake cannot live without phosphorus.

In 2010, a group led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a microbiologist now at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, repo... Read More

Be part of the studio audience for the American Society for Microbiology 2013 General Meeting's live internet talk show, ASM Live. Host Stanley Maloy, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology and Dean of th... Read More

Bacteria can use minerals in soil as electrical grids, which helps the microbes generate chemicals they need to survive, a new study says.

The process involves different bacterial species trading electrons—negatively charged subatomic particles.

Electrons are key to all life-forms, from mi... Read More

One of the world's oldest vaccines now has a new use. Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, is an 80-year-old vaccine designed to tread tuberculosis. Bit it has now been found effective in treating long-term type 1 diabetes, which is on the rise worldwide.

BCG has long been administered to chi... Read More

Certain bacteria in the gut may be associated with various components of the metabolic syndrome, a study in an Old Order Amish community showed.

All of the study participants belonged to one of three groups defined by the presence of separate communities containing six to 12 genera of bacteri... Read More

Dog owners and parents, take a deep breath. Get your children to take a deep breath.

And most importantly, shake some carpets, fluff your pillows and get your infants to take a deep breath – or lick the floor.

Because new research from UC San Francisco and the University of Michigan indic... Read More

Scared of bird flu? How about the viral Rift Valley fever? These diseases and many others are animal diseases that have grown the ability to infect humans. They’re known as zoonoses. You heard it, zoonoses. And humanity’s ever-growing taste for livestock products could stoke the growth of these ... Read More

A Taliban commander in Pakistan’s tribal belt has banned a vaccination campaign against child polio in protest over frequent United States drone attacks there.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur said that the U.S.-funded vaccinations for tens of thousands of children would be outlawed until drone attacks sto... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Read More

Here's your vocabulary word for the week: zoonosis. It describes an infection that is transmitted between species. For example, the disease that the husband and wife team of Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy have written about in their new book, Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolica... Read More

Soil is the most species-rich microbial ecosystem in the world. From this incredible diversity, plants specifically choose certain species, give them access to the root and so host a unique, carefully selected bacterial community from which they then benefit in a variety of ways. To achieve this... Read More

La Crosse virus has become the most common insect-borne viral disease in children, greatly surpassing the better-publicized West Nile virus. Also this week: cost management joins the medical curriculum.

La Crosse Virus Outpaces West Nile

West Nile virus infections may get all the headlines... Read More

MicrobeWorld is partnering with the Society for General Microbiology (UK) to live stream two events from their Read More

In a quest to make safer and more effective vaccines, scientists at the Biodesign InstituteÒ at Arizona State University have turned to a promising field called DNA nanotechnology to make an entirely new class of synthetic vaccines.

In a study published in the journal Nano Letters, Biodesign ... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Joseph... Read More

Fall is on the horizon, bringing with it freshly-sharpened pencils, vibrantly-colored leaves, and of course - the annual influenza season. Join us at ASM Headquarters on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, from 6 - 8 PM ET ( Read More

Scientists of the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine have breathed new life into a forgotten technique and so succeeded in detecting resistant tuberculosis in circumstances where so far this was hardly feasible. Tuberculosis bacilli that have become resistant against our major antibiotics ar... Read More