Phage in Biological News

NYU scientists discover dangerous new method for bacterial toxin transfer

... microbes. When they modeled that phage therapy in the lab, however, the NYU researchers ... in raw milk. The unwitting selection of a phage with similar properties for mastitis therapy ... a protein protruding from the cell where the phage can dock. Bacteriophages also generally kill ...

Properties of unusual virus revealed in research

... which ultimately results in the creation of new phage proteins. These new proteins are used to construct new phages inside the bacterial cell. But the phage that we are studying is different. It injects ... RNA polymerase." The team says that the N4 phage that they are studying is the ...

Researchers study virus with unusual properties

... which ultimately results in the creation of new phage proteins. These new proteins are used to construct new phages inside the bacterial cell. But the phage that we are studying is different. It injects ... RNA polymerase." The team says that the N4 phage that they are studying is the ...

Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology

... phage Therapy May Control Staph Infections in Humans ... higher mortality rate. A bacteriophage, or phage for short, is a virus that infects bacteria. In ... These results suggest a potential use of the phage for the control of both local and systemic human ...

Biologists surprised to find parochial bacterial viruses

... biologist Forest Rohwer, who has prepared the world's largest database of phage DNA. In the first step of the tests, researchers crushed small bits of the ... Finally, all three of these metagenomes were compared with Rohwer's phage database and with several large gene-sequence databases, like GenBank. ...

Hidden interactions between predators and prey: evolution causes cryptic dynamics in ecology

... species in a laboratory microcosm, the bacterium Escherichia coli and the phage virus T4. Despite wide swings in phage abundance, they maintained a constant bacterial population by including ...

Einstein and Pitt researchers develop new TB test that will dramatically cut diagnosis time

... implanted in their genome. Bacteriophages spread by injecting their DNA into bacterial cells. In this case, the GFP gene accompanies the DNA of the phage into the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell, the bacterium that causes TB, causing the cell to glow. A clinician could detect the glow with equipment ...

Scientists identify human monoclonal antibodies effective against bird and seasonal flu viruses

... medical conditions or advanced age, could all benefit from this new type of therapy." In the study, the team of scientists used a human antibody phage display library to identify 10 mAb that bind to the stem of H5 type HA, the influenza protein responsible for viral entry into the host cell. The ...

Scientists identify human monoclonal antibodies effective against bird, seasonal flu viruses

... medical conditions or advanced age, could all benefit from this new type of therapy." In the study, the team of scientists used a human antibody phage display library to identify 10 mAb that bind to the stem of H5 type HA, the influenza protein responsible for viral entry into the host cell. The ...

Human genomics in China

... rounds of revolution in DNA sequencing technology in the past 40 years, which directly led the first sequencing trial of 4 bases of the λ phage cos to the current program of sequencing the genomes of a thousand individuals. Second, the integration with computational science and computer ...

Study reveals how viruses collectively decide the fate of a bacterial cell

... "In the case of perhaps the most extensively studied bacteriophage, lambda phage, experimental evidence indicates that a single infecting phage leads to host cell death and viral release, whereas if two or more phages infect a host the outcome is typically latency," explained Weitz, who is a ...

Upgraded IMG 2.3 Data Management System released by DOE JGI to eager user community

... said Baker. The new version of IMG contains a total of 2,878 genomes consisting of 729 bacterial, 46 archaeal, 40 eukaryotic, and 1,661 bacterial phage genomes, and 402 plasmids that did not come from a specific microbial genome sequencing project. Among these genomes, 2,609 are finished and 269 are ...

UCSD discovery may provide novel method to generate medically useful proteins

... However, the genetic mechanism used by the phage to generate this diversity is completely ... The function of the massively variable phage protein is to tether the phage to the bacteria they infect. ...

'Mad cow' proteins successfully detected in blood

... (FDA). The test, known as the Gamma phage Assay, was modified by scientists at the U.S. ... specimens. The original form of the Gamma phage Assay was first developed by the Centers for ... (CDC) in the mid-1950s. The modified gamma phage method is the first diagnostic test to gain FDA ...

Anthrax test, developed by army and CDC, receives FDA approval

... (FDA). The test, known as the Gamma phage Assay, was modified by scientists at the U.S. ... specimens. The original form of the Gamma phage Assay was first developed by the Centers for ... (CDC) in the mid-1950s. The modified gamma phage method is the first diagnostic test to gain FDA ...

Scientists find viruses can't stick to sea bugs in the dark

... there is not sufficient light, the spread of the phage might be decreased, which could undermine the efficiency of phage treatment." Ying Jia hopes that the research ... better understanding of the relationship between phage and cyanobacteria and so the health of the seas, ...

Basis for DNA ejection from single phage particles

... tail structure that ensures the attachment of the phage to the host bacteria. A common feature of phages ... without directly contacting the membrane. phage nucleic acid transport poses a fascinating ... pressure built during packaging of the DNA in the phage capsid was responsible for DNA ejection. This ...

Different strategies underlie the ecology of microbial invasions

... that even though some of the invading bacteria can be killed by their own phage parasites, upon their death they release a burst of infectious parasites ... become factories producing more parasites. Amplification therefore makes phage carriers able to successfully compete with phage-susceptible bacteria even ...

Harmless virus may hold key to more effective HIV drug discovery

... New phage display technique successful in identifying compounds that show potential ... can potentially target and bind to other proteins, using a process called phage display. In this study, Weiss and Olszewski first created one such library ...

Genes and biomarkers that allow doctors to choose the right therapy for the right patient

... lung and brain tumors to determine which peptides ?or protein fragments ?were active in the tissue environment surrounding the tumors. This phage displayed library ?called so after the bacteriophage viruses used to capture protein fragments ?was then isolated and tested. With the library, ...

Pitt phage hunter takes on tuberculosis

... They found that when infected by the Bomber, the germ could no longer form its protective coatings. Furthermore, this occurred because the phage had disrupted a M. smegmatis gene called groEL1-which has a nearly identical counterpart in M. tuberculosis. The NIH grant will allow Hatfull ...

Unraveling the viral mechanism

... that actually anchor the bacteriophage to the surface of the bacteria itself. The shape of these "tail" structures gives clues about how the virus or phage and cell interact. Then as Chiu and Jiang used the computer visualization tool to strip away the surface shell entirely, they saw the concentric ...

New hybrid virus provides targeted molecular imaging of cancer

... infect mammalian cells, bacterial viruses have evolved to infect only bacterial hosts. The paper shows how particles of the hybrid virus, called AAV phage or AAVP, can serve as a vehicle for targeted delivery of genes to experimental tumors in mice and to the tumors' blood vessel supply, providing a ...