Microbe Magazine

Cover: Mycobacterium tuberculosis-(red) infected macrophages (green) die by apoptosis. Uninfected macrophages (blue) flock to dying cells and engulf the dead cell debris containing M. tuberculosis. This process of apoptotic cell cleanup—efferocytosis—is a bactericidal mechanism, as both the internalized cell debris and bacteria are destroyed, promoting pathogen clearance and immune activation (see p. 21). (Image courtesy of Constance J. Martin and Samuel M. Behar.)
Cover: Mycobacterium tuberculosis-(red) infected macrophages (green) die by apoptosis. Uninfected macrophages (blue) flock to dying cells and engulf the dead cell debris containing M. tuberculosis. This process of apoptotic cell cleanup—efferocytosis—is a bactericidal mechanism, as both the internalized cell debris and bacteria are destroyed, promoting pathogen clearance and immune activation (see p. 21). (Image courtesy of Constance J. Martin and Samuel M. Behar.)
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FEATURES
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The Excitement of Clinical Microbiology
Clinical microbiology, one of the major branches of microbiology, goes largely unnoticed by academic microbiology researchers, in part perhaps because diagnostic activities are done in other places such as hospital and commercial labs. I suspect that many researchers have never set foot in one of...
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PCR Is Changing Clinical Diagnostics
PCR combined with mass spectrometry is providing a whole new way to identify bacteria, particularly clinically important pathogens. For years, unculturable bacteria troubled physicians observing signs in their patients that were characteristic of infections while reading “no growth” on lab report...
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Double-Wrapped and Disposed: How Efferocytosis Kills M. tuberculosis
Cell death is continual in multicelluar organisms. During development, vestigial organs and structures appear and disappear. Webbing between our fingers, which is necessary for them to form properly, disappears between the 6th to 8th weeks of fetal development through programmed cell death. Cells...
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