MicrobeWorld

Intestinal permeability and the translocation of bacteria, viruses and antigens through the mucosal epithelium seems to play a role in many illnesses from celiac disease over diabetes to HIV and immune activation. Do we take into account that intestinal permeability could play a very important r... Read More

This episode: Discovery of a bacterium infected by two distinct organisms at the same time!

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A student profile of food microbiologist Sylvie at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Read More

This episode: Alga adapts to hot, toxic environments by copying prokaryote genes!

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Read More

Harvard University is home to some of the world’s finest virologists. But apparently they do not communicate with the writers at Harvard Magazine, where a botched story on the avian H5N1 influenza virus has just been published. Read More

Poliovirus has made the cover of Time magazine. The Time cover image for the 14 January 2013 issue is a model of poliovirus bound to a soluble form of its cellular receptor, CD155. I was part of the team that solved the structure of this complex in 2000, together with the laboratories of Jim Hog... Read More

Andre Blackman (aka @mindofandre on Twitter and author of the Pulse + Signal blog) recently shared a presentation on Slide Share that reviews the CDC and the public health community's innovative use of soc... Read More

El podcast del microbio Nº 227 summarize the recent controversy about the role of sirtuins in cell lifespan. El podcast del m... 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

Deans of public health schools in the United States have sent a letter to President Obama, in which they criticize the use of a vaccination campaign by the Central Intelligence Agency in Pakistan to hunt for Osama bin Laden. I wonder if he will reply. Read More

Dr, Francis Su is a mathematician at Harvey Mudd College in Southern California. Last week, he was honored with the prestigious Haimo Teaching Award of the Mathematics Association of America at the Join Math Meetings in San Diego. His acceptance speech is inspiring to any educator and any stud... Read More

This episode: A virus has borrowed a bacterium's defenses to infect better!

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