Microbe Magazine

Years spent anticipating the emergence of a pandemic influenza virus strain with the potential to spread readily among humans paid off in April when public health experts identified a novel “swine” influenza A (H1N1) virus as the source of a rapidly expanding and also deadly outbreak that centere... More...

Nearly 100 host genes support the replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and blocking several of them can suppress viral replication in cultured cells, according to Andrew Tai of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass., and his collaborators. Thus some of these host factors might pro... More...

Genetically engineering culture-grown human skin cells to produce an antimicrobial peptide makes them better at withstanding pathogens and could improve their overall clinical performance when used for dressing burns or other skin wounds, according to Lynn Allen-Hoffman at the University of Wisco... More...

With algorithms to help determine what genes to add or remove, bacteria can be engineered to produce industrial commodity chemicals from simple sugars such as glucose and sucrose, according to researchers at Genomatica, Inc. in San Diego, Calif. In February 2009, they announced the development of... More...

The gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes carries genes encoding previously unidentified but likely virulence factors, including two macrolide efflux proteins, according to Anne E. Kizy and Melody N. Neely from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Mich. These virul... More...

“Adam,” a computer-driven robotic device, automates microbial batch-growth experiments in microtiter plates and is being applied to identify genes encoding orphan enzymes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, according to Ross King of Aberystwyth University in Aberystwyth, United Kingdom,... More...

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus leaped onto the global stage in 2002 and, almost as abruptly, nearly vanished as a public health threat. During those few months on-stage, however, the SARS coronavirus proved responsible for about 800 deaths amid 8,000 infections—leaving plenty ... More...

Synthetic biology promises major advances in diverse areas, including development of biofuels, specialty chemicals, and agriculture and drug products, according to the report, “New Life, Old Bottles: Regulating First-Generation Products of Synthetic Biology,” by Michael Rodemeyer of the Universit... More...

When genetically engineered and in environmentally benign ways, bacteriophage can help to assemble appropriate materials into milligram-scale, high-power cathodes within lithium ion batteries, according to Angela M. Belcher of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., a... More...

Synthetic segments encompassing the 583-kbp genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium now can be fully assembled in vitro, avoiding dependence on yeast or other microbial cells for this final stage of assembly, according to Daniel Gibson and his collaborators at the J. Craig Venter Ins... More...