CRISPR-Equipped Bacteria Detect Tumors
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have created a bacterial sentinel system that can alert clinicians to the presence of tumors. The technology takes advantage of the specificity of the CRISPR system and the tendency of bacteria to uptake fragments of DNA from their environment. Termed “Cellular Assay for Targeted CRISPR-discriminated Horizontal gene transfer” (CATCH), the system has been created to detect gastrointestinal tumors in its first iteration. This involves administering the CRISPR-enabled bacteria to the gut. The bacteria have been engineered to respond to DNA fragments that encode...
Source: Medgadget - September 7, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Genetics Oncology UCSD Source Type: blogs
How Bacteria-Infecting Viruses Could Save Lives
Dr. Ry Young. Credit: Texas A&M University.
“My parents told me that I already wanted to be a scientist when I was 7 or 8 years old. I don’t remember ever considering anything else,” says Ry Young, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and biology at Texas A&M University, College Station.
Dr. Young has been a researcher for more than 45 years and is a leading expert on bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria. He and other scientists have shown that phages, as bacteriophages are often called, could help us fight bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - April 20, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Bacteria Infectious Diseases Profiles Scientific Process Viruses Source Type: blogs
Cool Images: Bewitching Bacteria
Some bacteria benefit us as part of our microbiome—the vast collection of microorganisms that live in and on our bodies—while others can make us sick. Whether helpful or dangerous, bacteria can appear colorful and striking under a microscope. These photos provide just a small peek into the incredible diversity of these microbes.
Credit: Liyang Xiong and Lev Tsimring, BioCircuits Institute, UCSD.
This floral pattern emerged when a researcher grew two strains of bacteria—Acinetobacter baylyi (red) and Escherichia coli (green)—together for 2 days in a petri dish. A. baylyi are found in soil and typically do...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 27, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Cells Bacteria Cool Images Infectious Diseases Microbes Source Type: blogs
The bacterial horror of hot-air hand dryers
Follow me on Twitter @JohnRossMD
If you’re the kind of person who avoids public bathrooms at all costs, you may feel validated, as well as disturbed, by a new study from researchers at the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac University. They suspected that hot-air hand dryers in public restrooms might be sucking up bacteria from the air, and dumping them on the newly washed hands of unsuspecting patrons.
To test this theory, scientists exposed petri dishes to bathroom air under different conditions and took them back to the microbiology laboratory to look for bacterial growth. Petri dishes exposed to bathroom air fo...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 11, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs
Whole issues of Genome Biology/Genome Medicine on "Genomics of Infectious Disease"
Wow this has really got some nice papers: BioMed Central | Article collections | Genomics of infectious diseases special issue. I note - this goes well as a follow up to the series I co-coordinated in PLOS a few years back: Genomics of Emerging Infectious Disease - PLOS CollectionsFrom their site:Infectious diseases are major contributors to global morbidity and mortality, and have a devastating impact on public health. The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 3 deaths worldwide are due to an infectious disease, with a disproportionate number occurring in developing regions. While the completi...
Source: The Tree of Life - November 23, 2014 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
