Microbe Magazine

News that an H5N1 influenza virus was rendered into a phenotype that spreads readily between mammals startled microbiologists and infectious disease experts attending the 2011 European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI) conference in Malta last September. By configuring a virus that cou... More...

Antibodies that bind the polysaccharide capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae can enhance transformation, the uptake by such cells of unadorned genetic material, according to Liise-anne Pirofski of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in B... More...

Metagenomic analysis is helping investigators learn how microbial communities behave in soils and how global cycles might affect or be affected by that behavior. Last October, more than 150 scientists from 80 institutions in 9 countries gathered for the 3rd Argonne Soil Metagenomics workshop, hel... More...

Particular single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in strains of Staphylococcus aureus that form biofilms on cardiac or other implanted devices appear to put their human carriers at greater risk of developing infections, according to geomicrobiologists at Ohio State ... More...

Chlamydia trachomatis cloaks itself with host-produced, fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) while infecting human cells and then commandeers host genes to produce still more FGF2, further driving this infectious cycle, according to Joanne Engel and her... More...

A twist of plasma technology adds antimicrobial muscle to alginate-based dressings that are used widely for treating wounds, according to Suresh Joshi of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pa. He reported recent findings during the 49th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Disease... More...