Microbiology Now - October 2011 Archives

Scientists discover inflammation controlled differently in brain and other tissues (10/31/2011)

A team led by scientists from the Scripps Research Institute has identified a new metabolic pathway for controlling brain inflammation, suggesting strategies for treating it. ...> Full Article

First Ebola-like virus native to Europe discovered (10/30/2011)

A team of international researchers has discovered a new Ebola-like virus -- Lloviu virus -- in bats from northern Spain. Lloviu virus is the first known filovirus native to Europe. Filoviruses, which include well-known viruses like Ebola and Marburg, are among the deadliest pathogens in humans and non-human primates, and are generally found in East Africa and the Philippines. The findings thus expand the natural geographical distribution of filoviruses. ...> Full Article

Unraveling the complex signaling that helps cells know when to grow, when to sit tight (10/29/2011)

A finely tuned system evolved early on to help cells survive in a world where good times come as fast as they go. Now investigators have shown that the system is switched on by way of the mTOR protein. ...> Full Article

Putting light-harvesters on the spot (10/29/2011)

How the light-harvesting complexes required for photosynthesis get to their site of action in the plant cell is reported by RUB biologists in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The team led by Dr. Danja Schünemann has demonstrated for the first time that a membrane protein interacts with a single soluble protein to anchor the subunits of the light-harvesting complexes in the membrane. ...> Full Article

Scientists report major advance in human antibody therapy against deadly Hendra virus (10/28/2011)

A team of Federal and university scientists reports a breakthrough in the development of an effective therapy against a deadly virus, Hendra virus. The results of their study, "A Neutralizing Human Monoclonal Antibody Protects African Green Monkeys from Hendra Virus Challenge," will appear in Science Translational Medicine online. ...> Full Article

Study proves new technology kills bacteria (10/27/2011)

Clinical trial results presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America demonstrated that using antimicrobial copper surfaces in intensive care unit rooms reduced the amount of bacteria in the rooms by 97 percent, resulting in a 41 percent reduction in the hospital acquired infection rate. As part of the study, common objects such as bed rails, overbed tray tables, nurse call buttons and IV poles, were replaced with antimicrobial copper versions. ...> Full Article

Immune peacekeepers discovered (10/26/2011)

There are more bacteria living on our skin and in our gut than cells in our body. We need them. But until now no-one knew how the immune system could tell that these bacteria are harmless. Centenary Institute researchers in Sydney have discovered a set of peacekeepers -- immune cells in the outer layers of our skin that stop us from attacking friendly bacteria. ...> Full Article

Simple nerve cells regulate swimming depth of marine plankton (10/25/2011)

The ciliary beating of Platynereis gives insights into an ancestral state of nervous system evolution. ...> Full Article

Scientists reveal surprising picture of how powerful antibody neutralizes HIV (10/25/2011)

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute have uncovered the surprising details of how a powerful anti-HIV antibody grabs hold of the virus. ...> Full Article

Intruder detected: Raise the alarm! (10/24/2011)

Scientists at EMBL Grenoble have discovered how a protein sounds the alarm when it detects viruses invading a cell. The study, published today in Cell, is a key development in our understanding of the innate immune response, shedding light on how cells rapidly respond to a wide range of viruses including influenza, rabies and hepatitis. ...> Full Article

Manufacturing goes viral (10/24/2011)

Researchers have directed filamentous viruses to serve as structural building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties. By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically organized, thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated patterns of overlapping strings of material - results that may also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in nature. ...> Full Article

Cells are crawling all over our bodies, but how? (10/24/2011)

For better and for worse, human health depends on a cell's motility -- the ability to crawl from place to place. In every human body, millions of cells are crawling around doing mostly good deeds -- though if any of those crawlers are cancerous, watch out. ...> Full Article

Discovery could change the face of cell-biology research (10/23/2011)

Rewrite the textbooks and revisit old experiments, because there's a new cog in our cellular machinery that has been discovered by researchers from the University of Alberta and the University of Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. ...> Full Article

Scientists demonstrate the power of optical forces in blood cell identification (10/22/2011)

Biological analysis systems that rely on labels can be costly, labor intensive, and depend upon prior knowledge of the target in question. Researchers at NRL have developed a system that can detect optical pressure differences between populations or classes of cells. ...> Full Article

Water channels in the body help cells remain in balance (10/21/2011)

Water channels exist not only in nature -- microscopical water channels are also present in the cells of the body, where they ensure that water can be transported through the protective surface of the cell. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered that one type of the body's water channels can be modified such that it becomes more stable , which may be significant in the treatment of several diseases. ...> Full Article

Peanut allergy turned off by tricking immune system (10/20/2011)

Researchers have turned off a life-threatening allergic response to peanuts by tricking the immune system into thinking the nut proteins aren't a threat to the body, according to a new Northwestern Medicine preclinical study. The peanut tolerance was achieved by attaching peanut proteins onto blood cells and reintroducing them to the body -- an approach that ultimately may be able to target more than one food allergy at a time. ...> Full Article

Gut microbiome shapes change in human health and disease research (10/19/2011)

World class scientist professor Willem M. de Vos will explain next Monday how the microbes that are closest to our hearts -- gut microbes -- could underpin a new way of thinking about human biology. As well as looking at our own genes, we can now include those of our microbes in studies of human health and disease. This is a significant shift in the way we approach human biology. ...> Full Article

Why many cells are better than one (10/19/2011)

Researchers from Johns Hopkins have quantified the number of possible decisions that an individual cell can make after receiving a cue from its environment, and surprisingly, it's only two. ...> Full Article

Ancient gene found to control potent antibody response to retroviruses (10/18/2011)

A researcher at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer research has identified a gene that controls the process by which antibodies gain their ability to combat retroviruses. Edward Browne shows that the gene TLR7 allows the antibody generating B cells to detect the presence of a retrovirus and promotes a process by which antibodies gain strength and potency, called a germinal center reaction. The findings are published in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens on Oct. 6. ...> Full Article

Bacteria forge nitrogen from nitric oxide (10/17/2011)

The molecular mechanism of anaerobic ammonium oxidation has been unraveled. ...> Full Article

Helium raises resolution of whole cell imaging (10/16/2011)

Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the Oct. 4 issue of Biophysical Journal demonstrates that microscopy with helium ions may greatly enhance both surface and sub-cellular imaging. ...> Full Article

Chlamydia utilizes Trojan horse tactics to infect cells (10/14/2011)

A novel mechanism has been identified in which Chlamydia trachomatis tricks host cells into taking up the bacteria. Researchers from University of California San Francisco, led by Joanne Engel, report their findings in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens on Oct. 6. ...> Full Article

Raw sewage: Home to millions of undescribed viruses (10/14/2011)

Biologists have described only a few thousand different viruses so far, but a new study reveals a vast world of unseen viral diversity that exists right under our noses. A paper to be published Tuesday, Oct. 4, in the online journal mBio explores ordinary raw sewage and finds that it is home to thousands of novel, undiscovered viruses, some of which could relate to human health. ...> Full Article

Bacteria enter via mucus-making gut cells (10/13/2011)

Cells making slippery mucus provide a sticking point for disease-causing bacteria in the gut, according to a study published on Oct. 3 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. ...> Full Article

Humans and sharks share immune system feature (10/12/2011)

A central element of the immune system has remained constant through more than 400 million years of evolution, according to new research at National Jewish Health. T-cell receptors from mice continue to function even when pieces of shark, frog and trout receptors are substituted in. The function of the chimeric receptors depends on a few crucial amino acids, found also in humans, that help the T-cell receptor bind to MHC molecules presenting antigens. ...> Full Article

Discovered: Previously unknown cell interaction key in immune system attacks (10/12/2011)

Most of the time, the immune system is the body's protector. But in autoimmune diseases, the immune system does an about face, turning on the body and attacking normal cells. A major discovery by La Jolla Institute scientist Amnon Altman, Ph.D., and his colleagues, of a previously unknown molecular interaction that is essential for T lymphocyte activation, could have major implications for stopping this aberrant immune system behavior and the accompanying undesirable immune responses that cause autoimmune diseases and allergies. ...> Full Article

Caltech engineers build smart petri dish (10/11/2011)

The cameras in our cell phones have dramatically changed the way we share the special moments in our lives, making photographs instantly available to friends and family. Now, the imaging sensor chips that form the heart of these built-in cameras are helping engineers at the California Institute of Technology transform the way cell cultures are imaged by serving as the platform for a "smart" petri dish. ...> Full Article

New insight into plant immune defenses (10/11/2011)

Researchers have identified an important cog in the molecular machinery of plant immunity -- a discovery that could help crop breeders produce disease-resistant varieties to help ensure future food security. There may also be implications for treating human immune-related disorders. ...> Full Article

Tick responsible for equine piroplasmosis outbreak identified (10/10/2011)

The cayenne tick has been identified as one of the vectors of equine piroplasmosis in horses in a 2009 Texas outbreak, according to US Department of Agriculture scientists. ...> Full Article

Manipulated gatekeeper: How viruses find their way into the cell nucleus (10/10/2011)

Adenoviruses cause respiratory diseases and are more dangerous for humans than previously assumed. They manipulate gatekeeper molecules and infiltrate the cell nucleus with the aid of the host cell. A team of researchers headed by cell biologists and virologists from the University of Zurich have succeeded in demonstrating this mechanism in detail for the first time. ...> Full Article

Tracing an elusive killer parasite in Peru (10/9/2011)

Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, not all epidemics involve people suffering from zombie-like symptoms -- some can only be uncovered through door-to-door epidemiology and advanced mathematics. Michael Levy, PhD, assistant professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and colleagues, are in the trenches combining tried-and-true epidemiological approaches with new statistical methods to learn more about the course of a dangerous, contagious disease epidemic. ...> Full Article

Central Asia's hidden burden of neglected tropical diseases (10/8/2011)

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases will publish an article emphasizing the rising burden of neglected tropical diseases in Central Asia on Tuesday, Sept. 27. ...> Full Article

Researchers identify enzyme that regulates degradation of damaged proteins (10/7/2011)

A study by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and UC Irvine has identified an enzyme called a proteasome phosphatase that appears to regulate removal of damaged proteins from a cell. The understanding of how this process works could have important implications for numerous diseases, including cancer and Parkinson's disease. ...> Full Article

Scientists identify microbes responsible for consuming natural gas in Deepwater Horizon spill (10/7/2011)

In the results of a new study, scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- and the particular microbes responsible for consuming natural gas immediately after the spill. ...> Full Article

Hide-and-seek: Altered HIV can't evade immune system (10/6/2011)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have modified HIV in a way that makes it no longer able to suppress the immune system. Their work, they say in a report published online Sept. 19 in the journal Blood, could remove a major hurdle in HIV vaccine development and lead to new treatments. ...> Full Article

Enzymes possible targets for new anti-malaria drugs (10/5/2011)

Researchers have validated that two enzymes used by malaria parasites to chew up human hemoglobin are potential anti-malarial drug targets. ...> Full Article

Researchers discover how 'promiscuous parasites' hijack host immune cells (10/4/2011)

Cornell researchers recently discovered how T. gondii evades our defenses by hacking immune cells, making it the first known parasite to control its host's immune system. Immunologists from the College of Veterinary Medicine published the study Sept. 8 in PLoS Pathogens, describing a forced partnership between parasite and host that challenges common conceptions of how pathogens interact with the body. ...> Full Article

Targeting HIV's sugar coating (10/3/2011)

University of Utah researchers have discovered a new class of compounds that stick to the sugary coating of the AIDS virus and inhibit it from infecting cells -- an early step toward a new treatment to prevent sexual transmission of the virus. ...> Full Article

Virus discovery helps scientists predict emerging diseases (10/2/2011)

Fresh insight into how viruses such as SARS and flu can jump from one species to another may help scientists predict the emergence of diseases in future. ...> Full Article

Researchers identify components that keep immune system in check (10/1/2011)

UNC researchers have revealed the genetic underpinnings of cells -- called Foxp3-expressing regulatory T cells or Tregs -- that can prevent the immune response from turning cannibalistic. Their finding lends insight into these key cells, which are currently being tested as treatments for diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, arthritis and lupus. ...> Full Article