Microbe Magazine

Low-energy surface acoustic waves in the form of ultrasonic vibrations can block bacterial biofilms from forming on medical devices, according to Gad Lavie and colleagues of the Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel. When rabbits are outfitted with catheters that are made to vibrate, the gro... More...

The effectiveness of chloroquine as a treatment for malaria was restored 12 years after it was withdrawn from use in Malawi, according to Miriam Laufer and Christopher Plowe of the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and their collaborators. In 1993, when the clinical efficacy of c... More...

Perhaps some bacterial biofilms can be held in check with small molecules, some of which are now considered drug candidates, says Eric Olson of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass. Alternatively, disrupting biofilm social activities, whether within or between bacterial species, may offer an... More...

A subsurface microbial community that is 2.8 km below a South African gold mine is dominated by a single Firmicutes phylotype, according to Li-Hung Lin of National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, Tullis Onstott of Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., and their collaborators. Altho... More...

From the information overload that typifies the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC)—and the September 2006 ICAAC in San Francisco met that standard—emerges a picture of shifting patterns for nosocomial infections and antibiotic resistance. Resistance developme... More...

Although the outlook for those infected with fungi is brighter than a decade ago, such infections remain difficult to fend off or shed. Meanwhile puzzles, challenges, and controversies keep antifungal experts from complacency over recent progress, according to several participants who spoke durin... More...

An experimental vaccine containing four immunogenic surface proteins from Staphylococcus aureus protects mice from diverse strains of this bacterial pathogen that cause disease in humans, according to Olaf Schneewind of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill., and his collaborators. Whe... More...

Recent microfossil evidence casts fresh doubt as to whether an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, according to micropaleontologist Gerta Keller of Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., and her collaborators. Their analysis of ancient marine-dwelling microorganisms, called foraminifera, suggests... More...

New developments will likely enable microorganisms to generate fuels, including ethanol, hydrogen, methane, lipids, and butanol, with heightened “productivity and yield,” according to a recent report from the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), “Microbial Energy Conversion.” The report, based... More...

Genetically modified commensal bacteria offer an unusual means for producing and delivering antiviral microbicides near or along specific organs where they are needed, according to Peter P. Lee at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., and his collaborators. They engineered Lactobacillus jen... More...