MicrobeWorld News

CDC now says 4,000 swine flu deaths in US

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:54:31 +0000

Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu — about four times the estimate they've been using. The new, higher figure was first reported by The New York Times. It includes deaths caused by complications related to swine flu, including pneumon...

Two parallel rabbit testicular processes

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:21:12 +0000

Two parallel rabbit testicular processes with attached Treponema pallidum. Note the ability of single treponemes to associate by the terminal ends to host cell surfaces and to bridge the two adjacent testicular cells

Animation depicting the life cycle of H1N1 influenza-A

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:54:23 +0000

Here is an amazing animation depicting the life cycle of H1N1 influenza-A. It was created by a company called XVIVO for a firm called Zirus whose mission is to "provide keys to conquer viruses." According to Zirus' site their new classes of antivirotics are being used to cure and manage viral di...

New Explanation For Nature's Hardiest Life Form

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:55:30 +0000

Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists. Spore-forming bacteria, present almost everywhere in our environment, can also cause serious infectious diseases,...

Small Things Considered Wins Big at PRNews’ 2009 Nonprofit Awards

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:11:14 +0000

Small Things Considered, a microbiology blog published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), has been honored with a non-profit public relations award from PR News for best blog. The awards were announced at a luncheon held in Washington, DC, on November 3, 2009. “I feel honored an...

China’s Tough Measures on Flu Appear to Be Effective

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:47:43 +0000

Few farmers in this southern Chinese village gave much thought to the swine flu epidemic that had begun spreading rapidly in the United States early this summer until police sealed its 100 residents off from the outside world for about a week. It turned out that a visitor from California had sho...

Mundo de los Microbios - Episodio 27

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:26:08 +0000

{joomp3_ext}http://media.libsyn.com/media/mundodelosmicrobios/MdlM27.mp3{/joomp3_ext}

Los temas que vamos a tratar esta semana son: atracción electrostática, controlar el poder de los virus, combustible de chocolate e insectos que se automedican.

Atracción electrostática

In The War Between The Sexes, The One With The Closest Fungal Relationship Wins

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:21:19 +0000

The war between the sexes has been fought on many fronts throughout time -- from humans to birds to insects, the animal kingdom is replete with species involved in their own skirmishes. A recent study by Dr. Sarah Eppley and colleagues at Portland State University published in the November issue...

Mildred Cohn, Biochemist, Is Dead at 96

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:41:27 +0000

Mildred Cohn, a biochemist who overcame religious and sex discrimination to advance the study of metabolic processes, research that contributed to the development of medical technologies like M.R.I.’s, died on Oct. 12 in Philadelphia. She was 96. The University of Pennsylvania announced her d...

Water purifiers for the poor fail to prove their worth

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:39:20 +0000

Many of the systems intended to provide clean water for families in some of the world's poorest communities may not work. That's the conclusion of Paul Hunter, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, who has assessed past studies of the effectiveness of household wat...

Scientists explain binding action of 2 key HIV antibodies; could lead to new vaccine design

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:34:17 +0000

A very close and detailed study of how the most robust antibodies work to block the HIV virus as it seeks entry into healthy cells has revealed a new direction for researchers hoping to design an effective vaccine. "Our study clearly showed that we've been overlooking a very important compone...

Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:06:52 +0000

E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church. "The questions of life'...

Travel Secrets of Ulcer Causing Bacteria Revealed

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:03:21 +0000

A team from Boston University, MIT, and Harvard discovered how the H. pylori bacteria penetrate the stomach mucus to cause ulcers in the lining. H. pylori secretes the enzyme urease, which interacts with urea in the stomach to produce ammonia--the ammonia is what neutralizes the acids in the ...

A remarkable diversity of bone-eating worms

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:56:10 +0000

The females of the recently discovered Osedax marine worms feast on submerged bones via a complex relationship with symbiotic bacteria, and they are turning out to be far more diverse and widespread than scientists expected. Californian researchers investigating the genetic history of Osedax wor...

First use of antibody and stem cell transplantation to successfully treat advanced leukemia

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:52:01 +0000

For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have reported the use of a radiolabeled antibody to deliver targeted doses of radiation, followed by a stem cell transplant, to successfully treat a group of leukemia and pre-leukemia patients for whom there previously had...

41 Nobel Prize Winners sign open letter to Congress in support of the Federal Research Public Access Act

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:51:10 +0000

"As scientists and Nobel Laureates, we write to express our strong support for S. 1373, the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). This bi-partisan legislation, sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), would enhance access to federally funded, published research a...

Streptococcus pneumoniae

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:11:10 +0000

Electron micrograph of type 4 Streptococcus pneumoniae adherent to pharyngeal epithelial cell

AIDS Divisions of 2 Large Drug Makers Form Company to Focus on the Disease

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:47:27 +0000

Two of the world’s biggest drug makers last week spun off their divisions that manufacture AIDS drugs and combined them into one company focusing on the disease. The new company, ViiV Healthcare, will initially be 85 percent controlled by GlaxoSmithKline and 15 percent controlled by Pfizer. W...

DNA Molecules In Moss Open Door To New Biotechnology

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:25:04 +0000

Plasmids, which are DNA molecules capable of independent replication in cells, have played an important role in gene technology. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now demonstrated that plasmid-based methods, which had been limited to single-cell organisms such as bacteria and ye...

One fish tank, two discoveries - archaea ammonia eater

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:40:36 +0000

It's not every day you find clues to the planet's inner workings in aquarium scum. But that's what happened a few years ago when University of Washington researchers cultured a tiny organism from the bottom of a Seattle Aquarium tank and found it can digest ammonia, a key environmental function....