Microbiology in the News

The ASM's Weekly Newsdigest.

Issue #492 (July 10, 2009)

 

In this week’s issue:

1. Journal highlights

2. Chilled-out animals: a lower risk for food poisoning

3. UTSA infectious disease researchers advancing vaccine against Valley fever

4. Warming Arctic could teem with life by 2030

5. Researchers enlist DNA to bring carbon nanotubes' promise closer to reality

6. Is obesity an oral bacterial disease?

7. Concern over Ebola virus in pigs

8. ‘Humans can pass swine flu to pigs’

9. Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'

10. Chemist aims to turn molecules into motors

 

 

Journal highlights

Microbe

July 2009

http://archive.asm.org/microbe/index.asp?bid=65646

Virulence Factor Assembly Requires Proper Location

Animal Model for Pregnancy-Associated Malaria Shows Promise
New Method for Strain Improvement Could Boost Commodity Chemicals

Innate Immunity Fights Avian Flu

An Effort To Abate Malaria Via the Vector

 

 

Chilled-out animals: a lower risk for food poisoning

University of Bristol

July 7, 2009

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6446.html

Food poisoning bacteria become more invasive in animals that are stressed, according to new research from the University of Bristol in collaboration with the UK poultry industry.


UTSA infectious disease researchers advancing vaccine against Valley fever

Science Blog

July 7, 2009

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/utsa-infectious-disease-researchers-advancing-vaccine-against-valley-fever-22791.html

Medical mycologists have significantly advanced the fight against San Joaquin Valley Fever, a respiratory infection of humans, commonly called Valley Fever, which is caused by the Coccidioides fungus.

 

New Scientist

July 8, 2009

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17436-warming-arctic-could-teem-with-life-by-2030.html

"Teeming with life" may not be the description that springs to mind when thinking of the Arctic Ocean, but that could soon change as global warming removes the region's icy lid.

 

 

Researchers enlist DNA to bring carbon nanotubes' promise closer to reality

Science Blog

July 8, 2009

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/researchers-enlist-dna-bring-carbon-nanotubes%3F-promise-closer-reality-22812.html

A team of researchers from DuPont and Lehigh University has reported a breakthrough in the quest to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that are suitable for use in electronics, medicine and other applications.  The group says it has developed a DNA-based method that sorts and separates specific types of CNTs from a mixture.

 

 

Is obesity an oral bacterial disease?

Science Daily

July 9, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090708153240.htm

A scientific team from The Forsyth Institute has discovered new links between certain oral bacteria and obesity. In a recent study, the researchers demonstrated that the salivary bacterial composition of overweight women differs from non-overweight women. This preliminary work may provide clues to interactions between oral bacteria and the pathology of obesity. This research may help investigators learn new avenues for fighting the obesity epidemic.

 

 

Concern over Ebola virus in pigs

BBC News

July 10, 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8143823.stm

A form of Ebola virus has been detected in pigs for the first time, raising concerns it could mutate and pose a new risk to humans.

 

 

‘Humans can pass swine flu to pigs’
The Herald

July 10, 2009

http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=7031&cat=2

Pigs, fingered as the source of so-called swine flu, can also be infected by humans, German scientists said yesterday.

 

Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'

Science Daily

July 10, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090709140815.htm

Iron and manganese compounds, in addition to sulfate, may play an important role in converting methane to carbon dioxide and eventually carbonates in the Earth's oceans, according to a team of researchers looking at anaerobic sediments. These same compounds may have been key to methane reduction in the early, oxygenless days of the planet's atmosphere.

 

 

Chemist aims to turn molecules into motors

Live Science

July 10, 2009

http://www.livescience.com/technology/090710-bts-nanomotors.html

When Tufts University Assistant Chemistry Professor Charles Sykes says he loves playing with blocks, he's not referring to the typical kids' toys. Instead, he's talking about his fascination with seeing atoms and molecules move on a computer screen in front of him and using technology to move the molecules himself to see how they react to various surfaces. 

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