Microbe Magazine

A new coronavirus, similar in some ways to the SARS virus that arose a decade ago, appeared in the Middle East late in 2012 and is responsible for at least 13 human cases in 3 clusters, according to Gwen Stephens of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She was one of sever... More...

A newly formulated, biodegradable, and water-soluble hydrogel disperses biofilms and shows promise as a topical antimicrobial treatment against a variety of bacterial and fungal pathogens, according to Yi-Yan Yang of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore, and her collabo... More...

A single mutation in the H5N1 avian influenza virus that changes the pH at which the hemagglutinin surface protein is activated and simultaneously lowers its capacity to infect ducks while raising its capacity to infect mammals, according to Charles J. Russell of St. Jude Children's Research... More...

The nuclear export protein (NEP) of influenza A determines when the replicated virus exits from the nuclei of host cells, thus acting as a molecular clock while also controlling the spread of this virus, according to Benjamin tenOever at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, N.... More...

Four recently identified Sargasso 11 (SAR11) pelagiphages, DNA viruses, named for the Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique that they infect, offer proof that these most successful marine bacteria are not immune to viral predation, according to Stephen J. Giovannoni at Ore... More...

“Therapeutic interfering particles” (TIPs) consisting of truncated HIV genomes someday may be used to treat individual patients and curtail the AIDS epidemic, according to Leor Weinberger of the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco, Calif., and his collaborator Bruce Torbett of the Scripps Resear... More...