MicrobeWorld

Scientists from Florida have found that zinc not only supports healthy immune function, but increases activation of the T cells responsible for destroying viruses and bacteria.

Scientists administered either a zinc supplement or a placebo to healthy volunteers to assess the effects of zinc on... Read More

In this week's New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in Singapore, The Netherlands and France report that they have developed a novel immunization method that will induce fast and effective protection in humans against the life-threatening malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which inf... 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

On June 29,2009, the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM) was established in the Swedish city of Gotenborg. The objective of the academy is to provide a voice for European microbiology and to foster its quality and dissemination within Europe. Its goals include the expansion of scientific know... Read More

A researcher at The University of Western Ontario has received over $603,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to investigate how and why a group of bacterial toxins leads to the development of toxic shock syndrome and other serious diseases. John McCormick is an associate p... Read More

Biologist George Church of Harvard University has developed a way to speed up genetic engineering with a technology his group calls "multiplex automated genetic engineering," or MAGE.

“Automated sequencing really advanced the way we can read genetic information. We hope automated genome engin... Read More

Alexander the Great is said to have used silver coins to purify water. The huge collection of impressionist art at the Barnes Foundation near Philadelphia was amassed with a fortune built on selling an antiseptic silver compound called Argyrol in the early 20th century.

But silver was largely... Read More

The health department has introduced two new vaccines which could prevent 2.5 million child deaths a year.

The vaccines were introduced in Pretoria on Thursday. The two vaccines, rotavirus and pentavalent, will reduce the number of child mortalities by 2.5 million per year," said Dr Ntombenhl... Read More

Reusable shopping bags are great for the environment, but we do have a word of caution.
If you're using those bags when you shop, that's great. Just make sure you wash them from time to time.

Researchers recently did an experiment in Idaho. For two weeks, they did their shopping with four re... Read More

Blaming it on the economy, local health experts from the Chicago area say the number of neglected swimming pools is on the rise, creating a haven for mosquitoes that can transmit West Nile virus.

"The number of desolate pools in Lake County has doubled in just a few years, said George Balis o... Read More

Can hogs catch swine flu from humans? An isolated case of the pandemic H1N1 influenza has been confirmed in a Quebec hog herd. Pathologist Dr. Alain Laperle with Quebec's provincial agriculture, food and fisheries ministry (MAPAQ) claims that while the vector by which the disease came to the fa... Read More

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A new study in PLoS suggests that positive tests for Henipaviruses in African Straw-colored fruit bats in Ghana may indicate that one of the most pathogenic virus genera known in humans that is usually found in Australia and Asia may also be endemic in Africa.

PloS Abstract:

Henipaviruses... Read More

Mitochondrial diseases disrupt the power generating machinery within cells and increase a person's susceptibility to bacterial infection, particularly in the lungs or respiratory tract. A new study published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, shows that infection with the pneumonia causing bacteria... Read More

A government panel has recommended that certain groups be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, including pregnant women, health care workers, and children six months and older. Read More

A new urine test developed with funding from the Wellcome Trust will allow doctors to diagnose chlamydia infection in men within the hour, improving the ability to successfully treat the infection on the spot and prevent re-transmission.

{flvremote}http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/c... Read More

Swine flu vaccine makers may rely on a U.S. emergency declaration to use experimental additives made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG to boost a limited supply of shots that will be available to fight the pandemic.

The ingredients, known as adjuvants, may be added for the first time to... Read More

In their most recent experiments with Geobacter, the sediment-loving microbe whose hairlike filaments help it to produce electric current from mud and wastewater, Derek Lovley and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst supervised the evolution of a new strain that dramatically inc... Read More

The masterpieces that spring from the talents of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and other artists often begin with the creation of a gradient of colors on a palette. In a similar manner, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have created an innovative device called the “microflu... Read More

Many of the new techniques based on nanotechnology that have been developed for faster and more sensitive detection of pathogens fail in day-to-day clinical use because they require complex sample preparation or measurement equipment, or simply cannot keep up with the large sample throughput in ... Read More