Archive for the ‘Microbiology’ Category
New strains of the influenza virus constantly appear. As a result, the World Health Organization mobilizes experts from around the world, in order to find time strains all possible and include the objectives of the seasonal flu vaccine, which is reformulated each year.
If you get the flu vaccine and then infected with the virus, your body quickly starts an immune response that prevents disease.
However, the pressure of the immune system against viruses, promoted by the vaccine, can cause mute, adopting a slightly different form the previous one and it can sometimes be more infectious. A new study conducted at MIT reveals the mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Read the rest of this entry »
It has been discovered that certain bacteria are able to live in environmental conditions comparable to the subsurface of Mars. These microbes have been found in a lava tube on Earth. Tolerate temperatures near freezing and low oxygen levels, growing even in the absence of organic nutrients.
Under these conditions, your metabolism is driven by the oxidation of iron from the olivine, a mineral common in volcanic rocks of the tube. These microbes, such as the study’s authors argue, would be able to live in the subsurface of Mars and that of some other stars.
In a controlled environment at room temperature and normal oxygen levels, the team of Amy Smith and Martin Fisk (Oregon State University) and Radu Popa (Portland State University) demonstrated that microbes can consume organic matter (sugar in this case). Read the rest of this entry »
An international team of scientists announced a breakthrough in the fight against malaria, paving the way for the development of new drugs for treating this dangerous disease, capable of killing.
According to the World Health Organization, malaria currently infects over 225 million people worldwide and is responsible for about 800,000 deaths per year. Most deaths occur in children living in Africa, where a child dies from malaria every 45 seconds, and where the disease accounts for about 20 percent of all child deaths. Read the rest of this entry »
Hundred trillion microbes live in each one of us. Thousand trillion live in the oceans. Noting further the air, plants, soil and animals, the number of organisms becomes almost unimaginable.
An initiative called Earth Microbiome Project, directed by Jack Gilbert at the Argonne National Laboratory, U.S., and includes scientists from around the world are facing the daunting task of cataloging the DNA of the species all these microbes.
Microbes play an important role in human health, but what we know about them is just a bit of the tip of the iceberg. They are also responsible for 99 percent of the cycles of nutrients and gases in the world. These cycles are of vital importance to the planet and, by extension, for our food, industry and economy. Read the rest of this entry »
The collective behavior of bacteria, including making critical decisions, allow them to thrive and spread efficiently even in difficult environments. Now researchers have developed a digital model that best explains how bacteria move in “swarms”. And this model can be applied to technologies developed by the human being, such as computers, robotics, and artificial intelligence in general.
Researcher Adi Shklarsh with the collaboration of Eshel Ben-Jacob, both from the University of Tel Aviv, Gil Ariel of the Bar Ilan University and Elad Schneidman of the Weizmann Institute of Science, the three institutions in Israel, Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most comprehensive to date on the ancient history of insect-borne diseases has confirmed that malaria (or malaria) and existed long before the emergence of humans, and that the disease evolved through birds and monkeys. The conclusion is based on the results of analysis of specimens of insects preserved in amber.
The study, carried out by the team of the zoologist George Poinar (Oregon State University), one of the leading world experts in the study of fossils in amber, reconstructs some key aspects of the evolution of several human diseases, including malaria, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. Read the rest of this entry »
A team of investigators of the flu has verified that the stumps of the influenza emigrate among different regions of the world, evolving along the way. This contradicts the common belief that the strains of influenza in the tropics are the source of seasonal epidemics worldwide.
Previous studies have shown that, in general, flu viruses in the tropics tend to be more diverse and circulate all year round rather than seasonally as happens with the strains of influenza virus in temperate regions, which have more moderate climates. According to the accepted theory so far, the new strains of seasonal influenza virus derived from the tropical areas of the world. Read the rest of this entry »
A research team led by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has determined how the Ler protein, found in pathogenic bacteria, interacts with specific sequences of DNA by activating numerous genes responsible for virulence of bacteria used to infect human cells.
Ler is present in strains of Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) as which caused lethal infection in Germany the month of May. The work has been published in scientific journal PLoS Pathogens.
Researchers have revealed the three dimensional structure of a key region of the protein in complex with DNA. Knowing the structures that control the function of genes associated with virulence and / or resistance to antibiotics is essential to understand the molecular mechanisms that control bacterial pathogenicity and open the door to alternative treatments to conventional antibiotics. Read the rest of this entry »
Salmonellosis is one of the most common types of food poisoning induced by Salmonella bacteria, commonly known as salmonella. Each year, no less than 100 million people are infected worldwide.
This is the main cause of gastroenteritis and typhoid fever. Until recently, it was thought that the only human being was infected by eating contaminated products of animal origin (meat, eggs, milk etc.). However, there has been a significant increase in the last ten years of people infected with salmonella that had ingested raw vegetables.
Subsequent investigations indicated that contaminated fruits and vegetables should also be considered as vehicles of salmonella in humans. Now a team of researchers from INRA, CNRS, both in France Read the rest of this entry »
Wastewater is an ecosystem for discovering the virus that so far not been identified. This is one of the main conclusions of a study published in the journal MBIO involving experts of the Laboratory of Water and Food Viral Pollution of the UB and the Washington University.
The work, pioneered the application of metagenomics to viruses of wastewater, reveals that the viral universe is much more extensive than previously thought. At present only known virus 3000 and it is believed that most of those in nature have not been characterized. Read the rest of this entry »