Imagine yourself swimming in a pool: It’s the movement of your arms and legs, not the viscosity of the water, that mostly dictates the speed and direction that you swim.
For tiny organisms, the situation is different. Microbes’ speed and direction are subjected more to the physical vagaries of the fluid around them.
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Bacteria can directly cause human blood and plasma to clot - a process that was previously thought to have been lost during the course of vertebrate evolution, according to new research at the University of Chicago, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Institut Pasteur in Paris. Their findings were published online Nov. 2 [...]
When it comes to the decision to wake up and grow, bacterial spores "listen in" to find out what their neighbors are doing and then they follow the crowd, according to a new report in the October 31st issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. Although there is still a lot to learn [...]
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted unanimously yesterday to recommend that adults ages 19 to 64 with asthma receive pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23), known as PNEUMOVAX® 23 (Pneumococcal Vaccine Polyvalent). Merck & Co., Inc. is the sole supplier of PNEUMOVAX 23 in the United States. [...]
UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) researchers have discovered how one highly effective antibiotic finds and destroys its targeted bacteria. The findings could have great implications for combating antibiotic resistance and promoting antibiotic efficiency. In research published online Oct. 22 in Nature, the UAB team pinpointed the place on bacteria where an antibiotic called myxopyronin [...]
