bacteria news from FierceBioResearcher

It turns out that hundreds of bacteria can actually 'eat' antibiotics, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School. The scientific team isolated bacteria in soil and fed them 18 different Read more...

An international team of scientists has identified 335 cases of emerging diseases that erupted between 1940 and 2004, with almost three out of four spurring disease in humans after spreading from Read more...

Even as the demand for new antibiotics grows, new research programs to advance fresh therapies have been drying up fast. While existing antibiotics steadily weaken against the onslaught of some Read more...

Before the 2001 anthrax attacks, the U.S. had only two biosafety level 4 (BSL4) labs, which conduct Read more...

A novel vaccine developed at The Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla may offer a new way to block infections without sparking bacterial resistance--a process that gradually dilutes the Read more...

The amazingly hot field of synthetic biology has now spawned an engineered virus that attacks bacteria. Timothy Lu, a doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Read more...

There's new evidence to support the theory that the enzyme protein kinase G offers a promising target in the fight against tuberculosis. The enzyme is secreted by the microbe that triggers TB and is believed to provide essential protection for the bug from the host's immune system, which tracks down and kills most pathogens. Scientists say they have a compound that can block the protein, but were worried about interfering with the action of other proteins also secreted by the microbe. …

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Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have new information on the structure of a key enzyme in bacteria that could lead to improved antibiotics and less antibiotic resistance. In findings published online in two complementary papers in Nature, the research team describes the differences in an enzyme called RNA polymerase in bacterial cells as opposed to human cells. These differences provide potential new targets for drug design.

"Knowing how RNA …

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Stem Cell Research

Scientists are using stem cells to treat incontinence. Report

Fear of federal audits has inspired researchers in Boston to mark each piece of lab equipment that is approved for use on embryonic stem cell projects. Report

Teng Ma, an …

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An experimental cancer therapy may help point the way to a new treatment for clinical depression. The approach was inspired by work done by Dr. Mary O'Brien at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, who injected lung cancer victims with Mycobacterium vaccae, a harmless version of bacteria that causes tuberculosis and leprosy. After the therapy was injected, the physician noted not only fewer symptoms of cancer, but an improvement in emotional health as well. Researchers followed …

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