Bacteria are found living nearly everywhere on our planet, from the inside of human intestines to the soil to deep underwater. When scientists study bacteria in the lab, they most often examine individual bacterial cells as they grow rapidly in...
Related topics: Medical Research
Several different kinds of bacteria can cause lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause pneumonia, typically infects infants or young children and persists for life, while Burkholderia cepacia complex...
Related topics: Cystic Fibrosis, Pneumonia
FRIDAY, Aug. 7, 2020 -- Antibiotic-resistant bacteria affected the treatment of meningitis at a major children's hospital in Washington, D.C.
This single case at Children's National Hospital raises concerns about drug resistance in the common...
Related topics: Meningitis, Antibiotics
In the first billion years, there was no oxygen on Earth. Life developed in an anoxic environment. Early bacteria probably obtained their energy by breaking down various substances by means of fermentation. However, there also seems to have been a...
Related topics: Enzymes
THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2020 -- The makeup of bacteria that colonize a man's penis can help predict the risk of a serious and hard-to-treat vaginal infection in his female partner, new research suggests.
Bacterial vaginosis, also known as BV, can lead...
Related topics: Medical Research
Engineers have designed a device that replicates the lining of the colon. With the device, they can grow human colon cells along with oxygen-intolerant bacteria that normally live in the human digestive tract and have been implicated in Crohn's...
Related topics: Microbiome, Crohn's Disease
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have shown that different strains of the same bacterial pathogen can be distinguished by a machine learning analysis of their growth dynamics alone, which can then also accurately predict other traits such as...
Related topics: Medical Research
Bacteria are always with us: These tiny organisms are found within and on our body as is the case with all animals and plants. As part of a healthy microbiome they ensure our wellbeing. But if the microbial community gets dysbalanced, infections can...
Related topics: Medical Research, Genetics, Microbiome
Bacteria are survival artists: When they get nutrition, they multiply rapidly, albeit they can also survive periods of hunger. But, when they grow too quickly, their ability to survive is hampered, as studies by a research team at the Technical...
Related topics: Medical Research
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a synthetic peptide that can make multidrug-resistant bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again when used together with traditional antibiotics, offering hope for...
Related topics: Antibiotics, Medical Research
Biochemists report that a damage-containment system in stressed bacteria can become overrun and blocked, but that this leads to cells responding by turning on different pathways to make sure that normal growth continues.
Because the microbiota is so complex, containing hundreds of different bacterial species, it is not known how the presence of microbes in the intestine shaped the antibodies that are present even before we are challenged by an infection. Researchers...
Related topics: Medical Research
In the face of a persistent global pandemic, disinfectants are more important than ever. These products sometimes rely on quaternary ammonium compounds, or "quats," to kill bacteria and viruses on surfaces. However, some scientists have started to...
Related topics: Virus, Virology
Biomedical engineers have shown that different strains of the same bacterial pathogen can be distinguished by a machine learning analysis of their growth dynamics alone, which can then also accurately predict other traits such as resistance to...
Related topics: Antibiotics
Chlamydia are bacteria that cause venereal diseases. In humans, they can only survive if they enter the cells. This is the only place where they find the necessary metabolites for their reproduction. And this happens in a relatively simple way: The...
Related topics: Medical Research, Chlamydia
If chlamydiae want to multiply in a human cell, the first thing they need is a lot of glutamine. Researchers have clarified how the pathogenic bacteria obtain this substance.
Related topics: Chlamydia, Medical Research
Researchers found that the bacterium C. perfringens modulates the structure of its biofilm at different temperatures by regulating the expression of the novel extracellular protein BsaA. They showed the number of BsaA-producing cells decreases when...
Related topics: Medical Research, Proteins
Already marketed as a medical food, the formulation which replaces gut bacteria that are deficient in type 2 diabetes appears to lower postprandial blood glucose levels and A1c. Medscape Medical News
Related topics: Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes, Blood Sugar (glucose)
Researchers have revealed the multiple, intertwined cell death systems that prevent the spread of the 'intracellular' bacterium Salmonella, an important cause of typhoid fever which kills more than 100,000 people annually.
Related topics: Medical Research, Salmonella, Typhoid Fever
FRIDAY, July 31, 2020 -- Bacterial and fungal infections are uncommon in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but coinfection is associated with high mortality and antibiotic use is widespread, according to a study published in the July issue of...
Related topics: Antibiotics, Medical Research