MicrobeWorld

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

David Bhella, Ph.D., MRC Centre for Virus Research, accepts the Peter Wildy Prize for Microbiology Education, awarded annually by the Society for General Microbiology for an outstanding contribution to microbiology education. Read More

This episode: Fungi are found living deep under the sea!

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Recently thousands of dead and decaying pigs were pulled from rivers in Shanghai and Jiaxing, China. Apparently farmers dumped the animals into the water after the pigs became ill, and porcine circovirus was subsequently detected in the in pig carcasses and in the water. Porcine circoviruses are... Read More

This is a movie by David Bella, Ph.D., at the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research showing the results of an analysis of Adenovirus binding to blood coagulation factor X, performed in collaboration with Professor Andrew H Baker in the University of Glasgow.

The animation was creat... Read More

This episode: Helicobacter pylori seems not to be more harmful than helpful!

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review... Read More

Jason writes:

Hi Drs. Despommier and Racaniello,

This week you wondered why the immune-activating receptor for Toxoplasma gondii, TLR11, is present in mice but not in humans. You noted that it looks like there's no selective pressure keeping it around in us an... Read More

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, which means that they must enter a cell to reproduce. As virions are too large to diffuse passively across the plasma membrane, cellular pathways for uptake of extracellular materials provide entry routes. The first step in entry is adherence of viru... Read More

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes have a devastating impact on global health and the situation is complicated due to difficulties with both existing control measures and the impact of climate change. Genetically modified mosquitoes that are refractory to disease transmission are seen as having ... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and  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

This episode: Some bacteria respond to attacks from other bacteria with their own deadly strike!

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A simple new method better assesses the risks posed by emerging zoonotic viruses (those transmissible from animals to humans), according to a study published in PLOS Medicine this week. Dr. Simon Cauchemez and colleagues from Imperial College London in the UK and the Centers for Disease Control ... Read More

For what may be the first time, researchers have discovered a virus inside a host with a non-standard nuclear genetic code — one that differs from the standard genetic code that almost all living things use to produce proteins.


“The finding is significant because it shows that these viruses... Read More

Constructed in 2009 in the highly populated South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) facility contains labs that operate at biosafety levels 2, 3 and 4. Due to its location the NEIDL has faced a raft of legal and regulator... Read More

Researchers report the detection of a strain of Seoul hantavirus (SEOV) in pet rats in England and Wales. The discovery followed an investigation of a case of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Wales. Hantavirus RNA was detected via real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactio... Read More

The norovirus (NoV) season in Denmark in late 2012 was characterised by an increase in the number of NoV infections caused mainly by the 2012 Sydney variant, but also by the 2009 New Orleans variant. Analysis of approximately 85% of the capsid gene from 10 Sydney 2012 and 9 New Orleans 2009 isol... Read More