Microbes in Medical News

Are Microbes Headed Back to School this Fall?

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Are microbes going back to school with your kids this fall? Not if you fill their book bags with school supplies that feature built-in Microban((R)) antimicrobial product protection to help prevent the growth of bacteria that can cause stains,...

Colon cancer and the microbes in your gut

A typical Western diet, rich in meat and fats and low in complex carbohydrates, is a recipe for colon cancer, Professor Stephen O'Keefe from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, told the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Harrogate today (Tuesday 31 March). He described an expanding body of...

SafetyTies Keep Getting Safer: Newest Neckties Reduce the Spread of Germs and Stylishly Feature the Microbes They Fight

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- It's no secret: Ties are typically major carriers of nasty disease-spreading germs that can pose a risk to health and life itself. But now, there's a totally safe way to have germs on ties with two new additions to SafetyTies collection of antimicrobial ...

Climate change could impact vital functions of microbes

BOSTON, MA -- June 3, 2008 -- Global climate change will not only impact plants and animals but will also affect bacteria, fungi and other microbial populations that perform a myriad of functions important to life on earth. It is not entirely certain what those effects will be, but they could be ...

A Laboratory Filtration System Kills 100 Percent Of Dangerous Microbes In Water

Engineers have developed a laboratory filtration system that uses a simple water purification technique and can eliminate 100 percent of the microbes// in New Orleans water samples left from Hurricane Katrina. The technique makes use of specialized resins, copper and hydrogen peroxide to purify...

High-Tech Microbes Bolsters Natural Sweetener Production

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Badal Saha and collaborators have found that the genetically engineered bacteria that eat hemicellulose in corn fiber// and other sources could set the stage for a new, biobased method of making xylitol, a mint-flavored sweetener used in chewing gum, toot...

Drug - resistant microbes raise concerns

For some time now, concern has been raised by health authorities around the world about the increasing tendency of some disease-causing microbes to become drug resistant, especially to antibiotics //. An Australian study has found that the majority of people are already harboring bacteria that ...

New clues about immune system from leprosy microbes

Scientists from UCLA and Harvard School of Medicine have successfully discovered how the body’s immune system// fights in limiting the control of infections like leprosy in some cases but not in others. The research says that the body’s initial immune system often fights with the infections in...

Overuse Of Antibiotics-Creating Monsters Out Of Common Microbes

Health officials are alarmed at the evolution of causal organisms of hitherto common diseases// into ‘superbugs’. This, they warn is the result of overzealous use of antibiotics. One such example is the recent announcement by the U.S Centers For Disease Control (CDC) that gonorrhea has ...

Vitamin D3 Protects Skin from Harmful Microbes

A study shows that fluctuations in Vitamin D3 levels control the body’s innate immune response//, affecting a skin wound’s ability to heal. Richard L. Gallo, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and chief of UCSD’s Division of Dermatology and the Dermatology section of the Veterans Affairs San ...

The Novel Cut and Splice Method Is Used To Recognize Different Microbes

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new technique for identifying the many species of microorganisms. They have // explained about their method in the journal of Applied Environmental Microbiology. Microbiology has many applications and one ...

Memory loss associated with microbes

A newly discovered microscopic organism found in river bed can cause serious memory loss and confusion, scientists have warned. The single-celled microbe was first identified in Maryland, USA.//It can cause dementia-like symptoms with sufferers experiencing memory loss and difficulties with concent...

Muskogee Community Hospital Adopts Steril-Aire UVC Lights for Infection Control, Green Benefits

...ns. "We are hopeful that UVC technology will help us to record some of the lowest infection rates in the country by keeping bacteria and other microbes continuously in check," reports MCH president Mark Roberts. "We have equipped the hospital with two and sometimes even three layers of UVC protection ...

ZyGEM Releases Data Confirming Its prepGEM(R) Bacteria Kit Is a Simple, Universal Method for Extracting DNA from Different Bacteria Species

...se the time and cost of DNA extraction, while also increasing the risk of contamination," said Paul Kinnon, CEO of ZyGEM. "The molecular detection of microbes offers major advantages over conventional approaches, yet the lack of a universal DNA extraction method has been a barrier to wider adoption of molecu...

Rare sheep could be key to better diagnostic tests in developing world, says Stanford study

...sary to diagnose infectious disease in the developing world. Identifying microbes from a patient's urine or sputum requires growing those microbes in culture dishes filled with gelatinous agar and a small amount of blood. ...

Research from Dr. Charles Gerba Finds Average Toilet Paper & Towel Dispensers Have More Bacteria Than Average Toilet Seat

... concern about the day-to-day risks of exposure to microbes remains high, Kimberly-Clark Professional has an e...n and odor-causing bacteria. It also helps prevent microbes from growing and reproducing. This keeps dispense...g the growth of microbes. When bacteria and other microbes come in contact with a dispenser protected with Mi...

Structures from the human immune system's oldest branch shed light on a range of diseases

...res, both involving a central component of an enzyme important to the complement system of the immune response, reveal how this system fights invading microbes while avoiding problems of the body attacking itself. The structures may pave the way to more efficient therapeutics for such complement-mediated d...

The microbial hydrocarbon diet

...and petrochemical spillages often involves finding microbes that can gorge themselves on the toxic chemicals. ...contaminants, such as particular hydrocarbons. The microbes are cultured first in the presence of sugar or ano...compound rather than the sugar. These optimized microbes are applied to the contamination site or spill in ...

Interest Surging in Probiotic Foods that Promote Health

...d providing important metabolic functions that we can't do for ourselves. Probiotics can enhance these normal, beneficial activities of our colonizing microbes and have been shown to promote health in a variety of ways," she said. There are numerous different probiotic foods and supplements available in...

Genomics for a Greener World

...: Deep inside the world's hydrocarbon deposits are naturally occurring microbes that have been hard at work for untold years. These microbes have the potential to make it easier and more efficient to pull oil out of ...

Microscopic manufacturers produce eco-friendly plastics

...r commercial viability. "We are now looking for a really efficient enzyme that can convert the plastic back to its building blocks. We have found microbes and enzymes that do break it down completely but we still need to improve their efficiencies," says Gross. ...

Computer simulation captures immune response to flu

...t orchestrate other parts of the immune response. Both types of T cells are spurred into action by antigen-presenting cells, which engulf the invading microbes and "show" them to the T cells so that the T cells can recognize the infection. In lymph nodes, helper T cells, in turn, cause the second major player...

New Paint Shows Germ-Fighting Potential

...paint, which can be used in homes, businesses and health-care settings, shows special promise for fighting so-called "superbugs," antibiotic-resistant microbes that are found in hospitals and cause about 88,000 deaths each year in the United States. The paint contains a new antimicrobial polymer with a typ...

Resurgent Health and Medical Recognized Among Colorado Companies to Watch

...s pathogens in the workplace. Our patented CleanTech infection prevention technology brings science and precision to the process of removing dangerous microbes from hands. For almost 20 years, its CleanTech(R) brand systems have been used worldwide in healthcare, food processing, food service, clean room manu...

Advanced Analytical Reveals New Platform for Rapid Genotypic Identification of Microorganisms at ASM 2009

...eutical, life science, and personal care/OTC markets. The company's product portfolio includes instruments for the rapid detection and enumeration of microbes by flow cytometry, and the parallel analysis of pharmaceutical compounds, biomolecules, proteins, DNA, RNA and carbohydrates by capillary electrophore...

NEWSWEEK Cover: Fear & The Flu

...uncil on Foreign Relations and a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, explains how the virus spread from pigs and birds to humans around the globe. And why microbes like the H1N1 flu have become a growing threat. "We live in a globalized world, filled with shared microbial threats that arise in one place, are ampl...

Silver Shield Masks Assist in the Fight Against Flu

...ds have been used for centuries to provide a safe and effective method of controlling dangerous pathogens. The ability of silver compounds to kill microbes was first studied in 1893 by the Swiss scientist K. Von Naegeli, who named this phenomenon the oligodynamic effect. While several metals exhibit this ...

NASA Nanosatellite to Study Antifungal Drug Effectiveness in Space

... could transmit data for as long as six months. "PharmaSat is an important experiment that will yield new information about the susceptibility of microbes to antibiotics in the space environment," said David Niesel, PharmaSat's co-investigator from the University of Texas Medical Branch Department of P...

Olivier Voinnet awarded 2009 EMBO Gold Medal

...d short interfering RNA in a wide range of different organisms, one key question that has kept Voinnet busy over the past years is "how do viruses and microbes deal with those endogenous RNA molecules?" His work helped establish that pathogens commonly interfere with, or even hijack the gene silencing pathway...

Biocoat and Agion to Develop and Co-market Coatings for Medical Devices.

...icrobial technology actively inhibit the growth of microbes on the device's surface for the life of the produc...where they have been shown to reduce the amount of microbes found on their surfaces. Recently, Medicare decla...e controlled release of silver ions which attack microbes and inhibit their growth in three different ways. ...

NIH releases the first research plan to reduce the burden of digestive diseases

...tanding of functional gastrointestinal disorders and motility disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome Identifying additional infection-causing microbes Developing more efficient tools to predict and detect cancers Developing objective criteria to diagnose and evaluate inflammatory bowel dise...

$5.5 million from Gates Foundation funds major study of childhood malnutrition

...link between obesity and the trillions of friendly microbes that live in the intestine now are investigating w... and Bangladesh have a different mix of intestinal microbes than healthy infants in the same areas, and whether those microbes might account for their illness. This three-year, ...

Superbug risk to war wounded

...s of their wounds with multidrug resistant bacteria. The potentially lethal microbes include superbugs such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MR...are surviving these severe injuries, they risk developing wound infections. microbes on the casualty's skin can be introduced into the wound at the time of inju...

Pressure BioSciences, Inc. Provides Corporate Update

...t will help fund research studies focused on discovering and cataloging the microbes that live on and in the human body. The approved research plan calls for P...eted Human Genome Project, with the mission to comprehensively characterize microbes that inhabit the human body, and to analyze their role in human health and ...

Derma Sciences Gains FDA Clearance for Novel BIOGUARD(TM) Barrier Dressing with NIMBUS(R) Technology

.... The NIMBUS cationic biocide is permanently bonded to the gauze, keeping it from depleting in the presence of wound fluid and bacteria, while killing microbes that are drawn into the absorbent dressing. Active components that leach, such as silver and iodine-based dressings, currently make up the majority o...

Home Care Tips for Reducing the Risk of Childhood Hospitalizations Due to Asthma

... causes for asthma attacks, ranging from air pollution and roach droppings to immune system changes that result from the presence, or lack of, certain microbes (allergy-causing organisms that can't be seen with the naked eye). The biggest problem, however, is that few parents realize just how toxic the home ...

March of Dimes Provides $2.7 Million in New Funding For Preterm Birth Research

...vative Scientists Aim to Predict and Prevent Preterm Birth WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists intend to identify microbes that may cause preterm labor in some women, investigate the role of an enzyme in preventing uterine contractions and an early birth, and look at diffe...

FDA Issues Final Regulations for Genetically Engineered Animals

... used in baking and brewing, and other products from genetically engineered microbes are used in cheese-making. Genetically engineered microbes are also widely used in medicine to produce drugs. Certain animals are b...

Gut instinct: Salmonella bacteria's molecular tactics to cause illness

...ons of bacteria make their home in the vertebrate gut. Though many of these microbes perform helpful duties for their host, othersthe pathogensare unwelcome vis...y act to engulf and digest pathogens and debris. Unlike other gut commensal microbes E. coli for example Salmonella is able to survive and replicate within SC...

Study of ancient and modern plagues finds common features

...r factors that underlie many notable emerging diseases: poverty, the breakdown of public hygiene practices, and susceptibility of human populations to microbes against which they have no pre-existing immunity. This last factor played a key role in the smallpox epidemic that afflicted the Aztecs of 16th centur...