MicrobeWorld

A new study suggests that some contact lens solutions do not properly disinfect against Acanthamoeba, a free-living organism in the environment that can cause a painful vision-threatening infection. The researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, and t... Read More

Scientists, Researchers, Grad Students, and Engineers are invited to come to the University of Bremen, Sept. 23-25, to help develop the future (post-2013) scientific ocean drilling program--the extension of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). The meeting is being implemented as a large... Read More

Two newly developed "single-shot" H5N1 influenza vaccines protected ferrets against lethal infection with the H5N1 influenza virus and may allow for mass vaccination in humans in the event of a pandemic outbreak. The researchers from Australia report their findings in the August 2009 issue of th... Read More

Several media outlets from Time Magazine to local Alaska papers have confirmed that the 15 mile long organic blob floating in the Chukchi Sea, the waters between Alaska and Siberia, is indeed an algal bloom. But how com... Read More

A recent guest post on the Small Things Considered blog by ... Read More

Bact to school time is on the horizon and I am sure many teachers, educators and professors are looking for supplemental course material or new ideas.

A quick search on the web resulted in this comprehensive Microbiology curriculum for K-12 that was presented at the 1997 Annual Meeting of th... Read More

Researchers studying the role of mutation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the development of biofilms claim the process is similar to "mutation selection that occurs during neoplastic progression and tumor development, and may help to explain why structural and genetic heterogeneity are characteris... Read More

A new paper in PLoS recommends two vaccination strategies to better prevent whooping cough.

"In the absence of adolescent or adult vaccination, pertussis incidence among adults is predicted to more than double in 20 years. Implementing an adult program in addition to childhood and adolescent... Read More

New from the CDC:

It is critical to assure that medical offices and other outpatient facilities (e.g., outpatient/ambulatory clinics, outpatient surgery centers, urgent care centers, physical therapy/rehabilitation offices or clinics) that provide routine, episodic, and/or chronic healthcare ... Read More

Guest blogger for Small Things Considered Peter Setlow, Professor of Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT, has an eye-opening post about a recent paper, Read More

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Consider tomorrow’s teleconference (An Update on New Vaccine Recommendations) being held by the American Society for Microbiology and those scheduled over this summer to keep you current about developments in your field and to remain competitive in your industry. The personal knowledge and skil... Read More

A new post on the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists website reviews the U.S. Army's revised regulations for its biomedical labs. The updated requirements intends to clarify vague language in civilian biological agents guidelines. In addition, "the new regulations establish stricter controls on t... Read More

On behalf of the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting Program Committee and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), we invite you to participate in the 8th ASM Biodefense Research Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD February 21-24, 2010.

Since October 2001, ASM has focus... Read More

A recent paper published in PLoS One describes a systems biology approach that models how Staphylococcus aureus develops methicillin resistance.

The obtained results by our integrated approach show that the model describes correctly the whole phenomenon of the methicillin resistance and is ab... Read More

Group B Streptococcus (GBS), a bacterial pathogen that causes sepsis and meningitis in newborn infants, is able to shut down immune cell function in order to promote its own survival, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Skaggs School of ... Read More

A new survey published by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the American Association for the Advancement of Science checks the pulse of how scientists and the public view the field of science. For example:

17% of the public thinks that U.S. scientific achievements rate a... Read More

"Self-assembling and self-organizing systems are the Holy Grails of nanotechnology, but nature has been producing such systems for millions of years. A team of scientists has taken a unique look at how thousands of bacterial membrane proteins are able to assemble into clusters that direct cell m... Read More

New research from PLoS on novel hantavirus genomes in moles challenges the current thinking that rodents are the originating hosts for the disease.

From the abstract:

The discovery of genetically distinct hantaviruses in shrews (Order Soricomorpha, Family Soricidae) from widely separated ... Read More

New research on the prevalence of "sin nombre" hantavirus in deer mice authored by Laurie J. Dizney and Luis A. Ruedas from Portland State University and published in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal suggests a diversity of animal species helps defend against the emergence of patho... Read More