Bacteria
Gene sleuths stop superbug that killed six
August 27, 2012 3:36 am | by Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsOver six frightening months, a deadly germ untreatable by most antibiotics spread in the nation's leading research hospital. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health locked down patients, cleaned with bleach, even ripped out plumbing—and still the germ persisted. It took gene detectives teasing apart the bacteria's DNA to solve the germ's wily spread, a CSI-like saga with lessons for hospitals everywhere as they struggle to contain the growing threat of superbugs.
Teaching a microbe to make fuel
August 21, 2012 3:23 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA humble soil bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha has a natural tendency, whenever it is stressed, to stop growing and put all its energy into making complex carbon compounds. Now scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have taught this microbe a new trick: They've tinkered with its genes to persuade it to make fuel—specifically, a kind of alcohol called isobutanol that can be directly substituted for, or blended with, gasoline.
New bacteria-resistant materials discovered
August 13, 2012 3:53 am | News | CommentsUsing state-of-the-art technology, scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a new class of polymers that are resistant to bacterial attachment. These new materials could lead to a significant reduction in hospital infections and medical device failures.
High-tech silver dressings ward off infection in wounds
August 1, 2012 11:51 am | News | CommentsPioneered by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and applied onto the business end of artificial skin, nanofilms that release antibacterial silver over time have recently shown they can eradicate bacteria in full-thickness skin wounds in mice.
Deadly E. coli strain decoded
July 26, 2012 10:57 am | News | CommentsThe secret to the deadly 2011 E. coli outbreak in Germany has been decoded, thanks to research conducted at Michigan State University. The deadliest E. coli outbreak ever was traced to a particularly virulent strain that researchers had never seen in an outbreak before. By focusing on the bacteria's biofilm, the researchers have devised a way to potentially tame the killer bacteria.
Newfound gene may help bacteria survive in extreme environments
July 26, 2012 4:22 am | News | CommentsIn the days following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, methane-eating bacteria bloomed in the Gulf of Mexico, feasting on the methane that gushed, along with oil, from the damaged well. The sudden influx of microbes was a scientific curiosity: Prior to the oil spill, scientists had observed relatively few signs of methane-eating microbes in the area. Now researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a bacterial gene that may explain this sudden influx of methane-eating bacteria.
Researchers produce first complete computer model of an organism
July 20, 2012 3:37 am | News | CommentsIn a breakthrough effort for computational biology, the world's first complete computer model of an organism has been completed, Stanford University researchers report. A team led by Stanford bioengineering Professor Markus Covert used data from more than 900 scientific papers to account for every molecular interaction that takes place in the life cycle of Mycoplasma genitalium , the world's smallest free-living bacterium.
Hopping bacterial enzyme gives insight into epigenetic gene expression
July 18, 2012 5:00 am | News | CommentsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara researchers' discovery of a variation of an enzyme's ability to "hop" as it moves along DNA, modifying the genetic material of a bacteria—and its physical capability and behavior—holds much promise for biomedical and other scientific applications.
Super-resolution microscopy shows detail of biofilm structure
July 12, 2012 10:35 am | News | CommentsA clever new imaging technique discovered at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals a possible plan of attack for many bacterial diseases that form biofilms that make them resistant to antibiotics. By devising a new fluorescent labeling strategy and employing super-resolution light microscopy, the researchers were able to examine the structure of bacterial biofilms that make these infections so tenacious.
Ions, not particles, make silver toxic to bacteria
July 11, 2012 8:26 am | News | CommentsRice University researchers have recently settled a long-standing controversy over the mechanism by which silver nanoparticles, the most widely used nanomaterial in the world, kill bacteria. Scientists have long suspected silver nanoparticles themselves may be toxic to bacteria, but not so. Ionization is the key.
Giving ancient life another chance to evolve
July 11, 2012 5:34 am | News | CommentsIt's a project 500 million years in the making. Only this time, instead of playing on a movie screen in Jurassic Park, it's happening in a laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Using a process called paleo-experimental evolution, researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old-gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli bacteria.
New studies nix report of arsenic-loving bacteria
July 9, 2012 8:42 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsIt was a provocative finding: strange bacteria in a California lake that thrived on something completely unexpected—arsenic. What it suggested is that life, a very different kind of life, could possibly exist on some other planet. On Sunday, that same journal, Science , released two papers that rip apart the original research.
Microscopy method visualizes E. coli innards in 3D
June 29, 2012 12:31 pm | by Steve McGaughey | News | CommentsCombining an algorithm with a recently-developed add-on technique for commercial microscopes, University of Illinois researchers have created a fast, non-invasive 3D method for studying cells without the use of fluorescence or contrast agents. They recently used the advance to reveal helical sub-cellular structure inside E. coli .
Designing microbes that make energy-dense biofuels without sugar
June 29, 2012 5:11 am | News | CommentsWith metabolically engineered microorganisms hungry for levulinic acid rather than sugar, a University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineer aims to create more sustainable, cost-effective processes for converting biomass into high-energy-density hydrocarbon fuels.
Eating garbage: Bacteria for bioremediation
June 26, 2012 6:36 am | News | CommentsCity officials in Medellín, Colombia, recently faced the difficult task of relocating an entire neighborhood off of a contaminated landfill they were using to grow food and collect water. Unable to pay for removal, officials may have found another way: Researchers at the University of Illinois have put together an experiment to see if biological agents could be used to neutralize the hydrocarbon contaminants at the site.
Selenium controls staph on implant material
June 21, 2012 5:15 am | News | CommentsA coating of selenium nanoparticles significantly reduces the growth of Staphylococcus aureus on polycarbonate, a material common in implanted devices such as catheters and endotracheal tubes, engineers at Brown University report in a new study.
Oxygen 'sensor' may shut down DNA transcription
June 19, 2012 5:01 am | News | CommentsA key component found in an ancient anaerobic microorganism may serve as a sensor to detect potentially fatal oxygen, a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues have found. This helps researchers learn more about the function of these components, called iron-sulfur clusters, which occur in different parts of cells in all living creatures.
First “map” of the bacterial make-up of humans published
June 13, 2012 10:18 am | News | CommentsThe landmark publication this week of a “map” of the bacterial make-up of healthy humans required the work of 200 scientists, who made sense of more than 5,000 samples of human and bacterial DNA and 3.5 terabases of genomic data. The map should help us define and track the microbiome.
Extreme microbes found on South American volcanoes
June 10, 2012 12:11 pm | News | CommentsLife gets little encouragement on the incredibly dry volcanic slopes of the Atacama region, where sparse snow is quickly sublimated and nitrogen is so scant it is below detection limits. Yet, researchers recently found life here, including bacteria, fungi, and archaea, which seem to have a different way of converting energy than their cousins elsewhere in the world.
Researchers learn how populations collapse
June 5, 2012 5:47 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsIn the early 1990s, overfishing led to the collapse of one of the most bountiful cod fisheries in the world, off the coast of Newfoundland. Twenty years later, the cod population still has not recovered. To explain this kind of collapse, ecologists have long theorized that populations suffering a decline in environmental conditions appear stable until they reach a tipping point where the population plummets. Recovery from such collapses is nearly impossible. Now a study has offered the first experimental validation of this theory.
Nowhere to hide
May 30, 2012 4:09 am | News | CommentsDoctors can now get a peek behind the eardrum to better diagnose and treat chronic ear infections, thanks to a new medical imaging device invented by University of Illinois researchers. The device could usher in a new suite of noninvasive, 3D diagnostic imaging tools for primary-care physicians.
50-year cholera mystery solved
May 29, 2012 9:05 am | News | CommentsFor 50 years scientists have been unsure how the bacteria that gives humans cholera manages to resist one of our basic innate immune responses. That mystery has now been solved, thanks to research from biologists at The University of Texas at Austin. The answers may help clear the way for a new class of antibiotics that don't directly shut down pathogenic bacteria, but instead disable their defenses so that our own immune systems can do the killing.
“Killer” silk fibers eliminate anthrax and other microbes in minutes
May 24, 2012 4:48 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory have invented a simple, inexpensive dip-and-dry treatment can convert ordinary silk into a fabric that kills disease-causing bacteria—even the armor-coated spores of microbes like anthrax—in minutes.
Scientists decipher bacterial injection needles at atomic resolution
May 21, 2012 8:05 am | News | CommentsHundreds of tiny hollow needles stick out of the membrane of a bacteria that causes cholera. These are treacherous tools that makes bacterial pathogens so dangerous. Researchers in the U.S. and Germany have now seen this structure in 3D detail at atomic resolution. The images may help drug researchers.
Internal atomic structure reveals key to pollution-fighting bacteria
May 16, 2012 11:54 am | News | CommentsSome remarkable types of bacteria have proven themselves capable of "consuming" toxic pollutants, organically diminishing environmental impact in a process called bioremediation. Enzymes within these bacteria can effectively alter the molecular structure of dangerous chemicals, but the underlying mechanisms and keys to future advances often remain unknown. Now, scientists Brookhaven National Laboratory have revealed a possible explanation for the superior function of one pollution-degrading enzyme.
