MicrobeWorld

There’s a lot of talk these days about the role of gut bacteria in disease and health. The latest report in that area: a study in Nature that finds differences between the bacteria growing in the guts of people who have diabetes and those who don't.

The Chinese and European authors of the stu... Read More

The human gut may help control the bacterial populations that live within it via secretions that kill some bacteria while supporting others, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Biology.

The gut is an enormously complex environment inhabited not only by human cells but a... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, ... Read More

That's the winning formula of one of the world's smallest predators, the soil bacteria Myxococcus xanthus, and a new study by scientists at Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School shows how M. xanthus uses the formula to spread, engu... Read More

The doctors tried one antibiotic after another, racing to stop the infection as it tore through the man's body, but nothing worked.

Just days after the middle-age patient arrived at the University of Virginia Medical Center, the stubborn bacteria in his blood had fought off even what doctors ... Read More

Listeria monocytogenes has a particular tropism for the central nervous system. To gain knowledge about the immune response elicited by L. monocytogenes in the brain, we used a rat ex-vivo organotypic nervous system culture as a model for Listeria infection. Brain sections were maintained severa... Read More

A bacterium that some scientists thought could use arsenic in place of phosphorus in its DNA actually goes to extreme lengths to grab any traces of phosphorus it can find.

The finding clears up a lingering question sparked by a controversial study, published in Science in 2010, which claimed ... Read More

This episode: Scientists match up bacteria to produce extra fuel from plant waste!

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BIRD FLU (H5N1) has receded from international headlines for the moment, as few human cases of the deadly virus have been reported this year. But when Dutch researchers recently created an even more deadly strain of the virus in a laboratory for research purposes, they stirred grave concerns abo... Read More

Earlier this week, health officials reported that there are now 1,590 cases of West Nile virus confirmed in humans across the United States, and 66 deaths -- the most (through late August) since the mosquito-borne disease was first identified in 1999, Reuters reported.

This year's unseasonabl... Read More

Researchers at The Ohio State University have discovered a new class of treatment against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as well as evidence of a growing need to quickly genotype individual strains of the organism most commonly referred to as the "superbug."

The two separa... Read More

We recorded This Week in Virology #202 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska on 5 October 2012, as part of the 12th Annual Symposium in Virology. Terence Dermody, Shou-Wei Ding, Grant McFadden and I spoke about our research, and then we recorded TWiV with University of Nebraska viro... Read More

ONE of the crucial transitions of modern health care was from herbal to chemical medicine. Doctors had known for millennia that willow bark and poppy sap relieve pain. But it was not until the late 19th century, when Felix Hoffman synthesised versions of their active ingredients, namely acetylsa... Read More

An experimental vaccine shows promise for protecting people against a nasty stomach virus known for causing outbreaks of diarrhea and vomiting on cruise ships, in nursing homes, and in other close quarters.

The research is very early and much more testing is needed. But the injectable norovir... Read More

A simple blood test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Mad Cow disease is a step closer, following a breakthrough by medical researchers at the University of Melbourne.

Using newly available genetic sequencing scientists discovered cells infected with prions (the infectious agent responsible f... Read More

Since first discovered in 2007 in New York, white-nose syndrome has spread to 16 states, including Virginia and Maryland, and four Canadian provinces. The disease is estimated to have killed over five million hibernating bats. An outbreak of infectious disease among bats on the order of white-no... Read More

Last week, CBC's Marketplace uncovered antibiotic-resistant bacteria on bathroom sinks, remote controls and bed throws. Warriner's tests found C. difficile, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other such bugs in every one of the 54 hotels tested.

This week, the consumer wat... Read More

Smart viruses find ways around host defenses. In the case of the influenza viruses A and B, rapid genetic changes and resistance to available therapies make it hard to combat flu epidemics in humans. Mortality rates for influenza B viruses are higher than those reported for seasonal influenza A ... Read More

For nearly 260 years—since Carl Linnaeus developed his system of naming plants and animals—researchers classified species based on visual attributes like color, shape and size. In the past few decades, researchers found that sequencing DNA can more accurately identify species. A group of single-... Read More

In a study that's already being greeted with notes of caution, Danish researchers report that children whose mothers had the flu or ran a fever lasting more than a week during pregnancy had an increased risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.

U.S. health officials stress that the new ... Read More