Microbe Magazine

The mechanisms of the experimental therapeutics used during the 2014–2015 West African Ebola epidemic were developed to target strains that caused the 1976 and 1995 outbreaks. However, some 600 mutations appear in circulating strains of Ebola that postdate those earlier strains, and 10 of those c... More...

Given the widespread use of first and second-generation “legacy” tetracyclines for more than 60 years since their 1948 introduction, resistance in clinically important bacterial pathogens is common. Third-generation tetracycline derivatives such as tigecycline were developed to thwart that resist... More...

The development of antibacterial compounds that perturb novel processes is imperative in addressing antibiotic resistance. While many antibiotics target the ribosome, molecules that inhibit ribosome assembly have yet to be used in this manner, although the opportunities to do so may well be legio... More...

Concerns about colony health and population declines in European honey bees have generated interest in these pollinators' microbiomes. That of workers has previously been characterized. David R. Tarpy of North Carolina State University, Raleigh, et al. have now investigated that of queens, d... More...

Since 2003, H5N1 has killed millions of poultry, and infected more than 650 people, inflicting 60% mortality upon the latter. While human-to-human transmission hasn't happened, a small number of mutations could change that, resulting in a huge pandemic. Now a team of investigators from St. J... More...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the predominant community-associated MRSA clone in the United States. Along with skin infections, it can cause necrotizing pneumonia and endocarditis. Strategies to limit MRSA's spread must be grounded in kn... More...