MicrobeWorld

El Podcast del Microbio" Nº 142 is dedicated to the recent measles outbreak in a child school from Sevilla due to the the ... Read More

With the news of a trial badger cull in England as an attempt to reduce the levels of Mycobacterium bovis or bovine TB in cattle, this post reviews why it is so important to reduce the level of the organism in the cattle and badger populations. Read More

The CDC has just released a general question and answers document on 2009 H1N1 influenza A vaccine safety.

"We expect the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine to have a similar safety profile as seasonal flu vaccines, which have a very good safety track record. Over the years, hundreds of millions of ... Read More

El podcast del Microbio Nº273 summarize the paper by Wei et al ( Cell Host & Microbe, 2012) about the possible link betwween dia... Read More

Our bodies are made up by cells containing our own DNA. Plus 10 times as many with foreign DNA. The bacteria found on our skin, and inside our organs (intestine, vagina, mouth, nose, etc.) are referred to as our “microbiome”, outnumber our own cells by 10 to 1, and make up a vital organ with ind... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Read More

Yesterday many US newspapers carried front-page stories on the severity of influenza so far this season. The New York Times story began with “It is not your imagination — more people you know are sick this winter, even people who have had flu shots.” Is this really a bad flu season? Read More

This is a really interesting paper specifically on Red clover necrotic mosaic virus replication and implicitly on positive sense RNA virus replication. There is a very satisfying model proposed that is very "blow your hair back"-like. Read More

Maryn McKenna, a contributing writer for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, discusses MRSA in this promotional video for her new book "Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA."

 ... Read More

Dr. Christine Hoang, Assistant Director of The American Veterinary Medical Association’s Scientific Activities Division responds to a five minute Q & A about E.coli from a consumer/food safety perspective.

{mp3remote}http://www.avmamedia.org/manage/mediaimg/s214-e.%20coli%20(huang).mp3{/mp3re... Read More

Due to blogger problems, I reloaded this entry. El podcast del Microbio Nº208 is about the experiments done by Deguchi on M... Read More

El podcast del Microbio Nº 162 is dedicated to the article by Heijtz et al. on the role of gut microbiota in brain developm... Read More

A guest post on Small Things Considered by S. Marvin Friedman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biological Sciences, Hunter College of CUNY, New York City, reviews the various mechanisms thermophiles and hyperthermophiles may use to proliferate at extreme temperatures. Friedman wonders whether ... Read More

In early 2012 influenza virus researchers around the world decided to stop working on highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. This decision came after work from the Fouchier and Kawaoka laboratories revealed the isolation of influenza H5N1 strains that can be passed among ferrets by aeroso... Read More

The spring semester has begun at Columbia University, which means that it is time to teach my virology course. The fourth annual installment of my virology course, Biology W3310, has begun. This course, which I taught for the first time in 2009, is intended for advanced undergraduates and conven... Read More

Poliovirus recently made the cover of Time magazine. Prompted by a reader question, I searched the Time archive to find out if there have been other virology-themed covers. I found fifteen in all, depicting poliovirus (3), herpesvirus (1), HIV/AIDS (4), influenza (5), and SARS coronavirus (2) (I... Read More

El podcast del Microbio Nº 300 and 301 is dedicated to Joseph Lister, the British surgeon pioneer of antiseptic surgery, o... Read More

Fun science activity for kids!

Have you ever wondered how scientists extract DNA from an organism? All living organisms have DNA, which is short for deoxyribonucleic acid; it is basically the blueprint for everything that happens inside an organism’s cells. Overall, DNA tells an organism how ... Read More

Earlier this month the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) published the DNA sequence of the genome of HeLa cells, the cell line that is widely used for research in virology, cell biology, and many other areas. This cell line was produced from a tumor taken from Henrietta Lacks in 1951.... Read More

Does a bacterium’s cell wall, shape, way of moving, and environment really matter?

Yes! The more we know about bacteria, the more we are able to figure out how to make microbes work for us or stop dangerous ones from causing serious harm. And, for those of us who like to ponder more philosop... Read More