All Articles Tagged As: biofilm

Scripps Research Institute scientists solve a mystery of bacterial growth and resistance (5/8/2012)

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have unraveled a complex chemical pathway that enables bacteria to form clusters called biofilms. ...> Full Article

The Black Queen Hypothesis: A new evolutionary theory (4/3/2012)

Microorganisms can sometimes lose the ability to perform a function that appears to be necessary for their survival, and yet they still somehow manage to endure and multiply. How can this be? The authors of an opinion piece appearing in mBioŽ, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, on March 27 explain their ideas about the matter. ...> Full Article

Superbugs from space offer new source of power (3/6/2012)

Scientists at Newcastle University have created a "designer slime" that can double the electrical output of existing microbial fuel cells. ...> Full Article

Honey could be effective at treating and preventing wound infections (2/12/2012)

Manuka honey could help clear chronic wound infections and even prevent them from developing in the first place, according to a new study published in Microbiology. The findings provide further evidence for the clinical use of manuka honey to treat bacterial infections in the face of growing antibiotic resistance. ...> Full Article

Mighty mesh (1/31/2012)

New research at Harvard explains how bacterial biofilms expand to form slimy mats on teeth, pipes, surgical instruments, and crops. ...> Full Article

Manipulating the way bacteria 'talk' could have practical applications, Texas A&M profs say (1/7/2012)

By manipulating the way bacteria "talk" to each other, researchers at Texas A&M University have achieved an unprecedented degree of control over the formation and dispersal of biofilms -- a finding with potentially significant health and industrial applications, particularly to bioreactor technology. ...> Full Article

New communication code discovered in disease-causing bacteria (12/19/2011)

Single-celled bacteria communicate with each other using coded messages to coordinate attacks on their targets. Until now, the diversity of codes employed by these invading bacteria was thought to be extremely limited. However, a new report published Dec. 12 in PLoS ONE reveals bacterial communication by a novel, previously undescribed signal type. ...> Full Article

Tiny protein helps bacteria 'talk' and triggers defensive response in plants (12/14/2011)

Scientists have discovered a new signal that helps invading bacteria communicate but also helps targeted rice plants coordinate defensive attacks on the disease-causing invaders, a finding that could lead to new methods of combating infection not just in plants, but in humans. ...> Full Article

NTU opens $120 million centre to harness powers of biofilms (9/19/2011)

The Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), aims to achieve innovative solutions through the study of microbial biofilms. ...> Full Article

Chemists discover most naturally variable protein in dental plaque bacterium (8/25/2011)

Two UC San Diego chemists have discovered the most naturally variable protein known to date in a bacterium that is a key player in the formation of dental plaque. ...> Full Article

1 species of pathogen can produce 2 distinct biofilms (8/11/2011)

Many medical devices, ranging from artificial hip joints to dentures and catheters, can come with unwelcome guests -- complex communities of microbial pathogens called biofilms that are resistant to the human immune system and antibiotics, thus proving a serious threat to human health. However, researchers may have a new way of looking at biofilms, thanks to a new study published in the Aug. 2 issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology. ...> Full Article

Study shows bacteria use Batman-like grappling hooks to 'slingshot' on surfaces (7/28/2011)

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have diagnosed a complex sequence of movements that make-up the "twitching" motility in bacteria with type IV pili (TFP). TFP act like Batman's grappling hooks that extend and bind to a surface to retract and pull the cell along. Using a high-speed camera and a novel two-point tracking algorithm, UCLA researchers also noticed the bacteria had the additional capability to "slingshot" on surfaces. ...> Full Article

How bacteria move (7/28/2011)

A University of Houston researcher is studying how bacteria move along various surfaces before they form potentially dangerous biofilms. She has co-authored a paper that is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...> Full Article

Biologist discovers key regulators for biofilm development (7/7/2011)

A recent study led by a Syracuse University biologist discovered that a complex cascade of enhancer binding proteins is responsible for turning on genes that initiate the formation of a biofilm in bacteria. ...> Full Article

Engineer to launch bacteria into space aboard the final mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis (7/5/2011)

There will be some very interesting passengers on the final mission of the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis scheduled to launch July 8, 2011: thousands of bacteria. ...> Full Article

Biodegradable tooth-binding micelles inhibit Streptococcus mutans biofilm growth (3/31/2011)

During the IADR/AADR/CADR General Session, lead researcher F. Cheni will hold an oral presentation on a research study titled "Biodegradable Tooth-binding Micelles Inhibit Streptococcus mutans Biofilm Growth." ...> Full Article

Biofilm reorganization: Back to the theoretical drawing board (3/29/2011)

In a surprising new study, researchers using image-analysis methods similar to those employed in facial-recognition software have made a startling discovery that rules out the two main theories scientists had created to explain how bacteria self-organize into multicellular aggregate mounds. The study by researchers from Rice University and the University of Georgia has implications for biofilm research and appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...> Full Article

Choosing your neighbors: Scientists see how microbes relate in space (2/26/2011)

It is now possible to see up to 28 differently labeled microbes in a single field of view, due to a new microscopy technique developed at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. ...> Full Article

A pesky bacterial slime reveals its survival secrets (1/14/2011)

By rethinking what happens on the surface of things, engineers at Harvard University have discovered that Bacillus subtilis biofilm colonies exhibit an unmatched ability to repel a wide range of liquids -- and even vapors. ...> Full Article

Remarkable biological complexity of bacterial cells is focus of newly released book (11/26/2010)

As summarized in a new book from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, "Cell Biology of Bacteria," advanced technologies have recently revealed how bacterial cells possess distinct intracellular compartments that help orchestrate complex biochemical processes. ...> Full Article

Research provides new leads in the case against drug-resistant biofilms (11/17/2010)

Films of bacteria that form around foreign materials in the body can be very difficult to defeat with drugs, but research led by Brown University biologists has identified a couple proteins that play a key role in building these "biofilms." This pair could prove to be a very important target for developing new antibiotics to fight infections. ...> Full Article

Improved antibiotic coatings (10/21/2010)

A research group in Australia is working on techniques to permanently bind antibacterial coatings to medical devices by binding them to a polymer layer. ...> Full Article

Microbial hair: It's electric (10/12/2010)

Some bacteria grow electrical hair that lets them link up in big biological circuits, according to a study in PNAS. The finding suggests that microbial colonies may survive, communicate and share energy in part through electrically conducting hairs known as bacterial nanowires. ...> Full Article

Bacteria breakthrough is heaven scent (8/18/2010)

A team of marine microbiologists at Newcastle University have discovered for the first time that bacteria have a molecular "nose". ...> Full Article

Bacterial diversity of Tablas de Daimiel studied for first time (7/11/2010)

A team of Spanish scientists has studied the bacteria -- microorganisms that are "essential" for important processes such as nitrogen and carbon-fixing and decomposition of matter -- in the Tablas de Daimiel National Park. The scientists discovered 265 new phylum groups by using DNA analysis. ...> Full Article

Biosensors reveal how single bacterium gets the message to split into a swimming and a stay-put cell (6/6/2010)

When certain bacteria reproduce by splitting in two, one cell inherits a propeller for swimming and the other builds a stalk to cling to surfaces. University of Washington researchers developed biosensors to observe what was going on biochemically. They found that a signaling chemical c-di-GMP was unevenly distributed during cell division, and that the swimming cell got less than the stalk cell. The biosensors enabled the researchers to measure these fluctuations in a single bacterium smaller than any animal or plant cell. ...> Full Article

Microbe power as a green means to hydrogen production (6/2/2010)

Scientists have been hard at work harnessing the power of microbes as an attractive source of clean energy. Now, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University researcher Dr. Prathap Parameswaran and his colleagues have investigated a means for enhancing the efficiency of clean energy production by using specialized bacteria. ...> Full Article

Researchers find compound effective in destroying antibiotic-resistant biofilms (4/11/2010)

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a chemical compound that, when used in conjunction with conventional antibiotics, is effective in destroying biofilms produced by antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria such as the Staphylococcus strain MRSA and Acinetobacter. The compound also re-sensitizes those bacteria to antibiotics. ...> Full Article

Microbial answer to plastic pollution? (4/3/2010)

Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according to Jesse Harrison presenting his research at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today. ...> Full Article