Binghamton University biologist named Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology

Binghamton University, State University of New York researcher Karin Sauer is among 65 scientists elected as Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology this year. Fellows are elected by their peers based on their scientific achievements and original contributions to the field of microbiology.

In Memoriam: Jonathan W. Uhr, M.D., renowned immunologist and longtime Chair of Microbiology

Jonathan W. Uhr, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who discovered how antibodies are made and developed a technique that led to the early detection of cancer cells, died Feb. 15. He was 96. Dr. Uhr was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Media Tip: Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source to accelerate biological and environmental research

In October 2023, the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, officially launched a new initiative to expand biological and environmental research at the world leading X-ray and analysis facility.

Whole Orchard Recycling Provides Alternative to Burning Trees

Whole orchard recycling is an alternative process for disposing of trees at the end of their productive lives. Researchers are studying how this process may also help improve nitrogen in soils. Hear a microbiologist explain whole orchard recycling on the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s Bonding Over Science podcast.

Intestinal bacteria release molecular ‘brake’ on weight gain

Bacteria that live in the intestines inhibit a molecule that limits the amount of fat absorbed, increasing weight gain in mice fed a high-sugar, high-fat diet, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center report. The findings, published in Science, could eventually lead to new ways to combat obesity, diabetes, and malnutrition – health problems that plague hundreds of millions worldwide.

Race-based variations in gut bacteria emerge by 3 months of age

Variations in the gut microbiome are linked to the incidence and mortality of diseases. A new study highlights a critical development window during which these differences emerge. The findings are based on analysis of data from 2,756 gut microbiome samples from 729 U.S. children between birth and 12 years of age.

Autonomous discovery defines the next era of science

Argonne National Laboratory is reimagining the lab spaces and scientific careers of the future by harnessing the power of robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning in the quest for new knowledge.

Promising Results of Next-Generation Intranasal COVID-19 Booster Vaccine: Implications for Infection Prevention and Transmission

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY is pleased to announce that CastleVax, Inc. has completed enrollment and a preliminary analysis of a phase 1 trial of its licensed Newcastle disease virus (NDV)-based COVID-19 booster vaccine.

Breakthrough microscopy technique “supersizes” cells to reveal genetic activity

Breakthrough microscopy techniques are helping researchers visualize the ways our molecules interact with the human genome. Researchers at Yale School of Medicine used a series of expandable gels to pull apart a cell and expand it to 4000 times its…

In a first, researchers image adaptive immune systems at work in fish

A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison offers a first-of-its-kind visual of a non-mammal species’ adaptive immune system in action. The advance holds potential implications for a range of scientific aims, from improving wildlife vaccines to better understanding fundamental disease processes and possibly the evolution of adaptive immunity itself.

A New Strategy to Break Through Bacterial Barriers in Chronic Treatment-Resistant Wounds

Researchers in UNC’s School of Medicine’s department of Microbiology and Immunology and the UNC-NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a new strategy to improve drug-delivery into chronic wounds infections.

UNLV Study Sheds Light on Ancient Microbial Dark Matter

Omnitrophota are nano-sized bacteria first discovered 25 years ago. Though common in many environments around the world, until now they’ve been poorly understood. An international research team produced the first large-scale analysis of Omnitrophota genomes, uncovering new details about their biology and behavior. The team’s findings are reported in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature Microbiology.

Healthy gut bacteria can help fight cancer in other parts of the body, UTSW researchers find

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how healthy bacteria can escape the intestine, travel to lymph nodes and cancerous tumors elsewhere in the body, and boost the effectiveness of certain immunotherapy drugs. The findings, published in Science Immunology, shed light on why antibiotics can weaken the effect of immunotherapies and could lead to new cancer treatments.

Your Gut’s Microbiome, On a Chip

In APL Bioengineering, researchers describe how gut-on-a-chip devices can bridge lab models and human biology. Modeling the microbiome is particularly difficult because of its unique environmental conditions, but through creative design, gut-on-a-chip devices can simulate many of these properties, such as the gut’s anaerobic atmosphere, fluid flow, and pulses of contraction/relaxation. Growing intestinal cells in this environment means that they more closely resemble human biology compared to standard laboratory cell cultures.

First Stem Cells From a Bat Species Known to Harbor SARS-CoV-2 Could Shed Light on Virus Survival and Molecular Adaptability

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have generated the first induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from bats, gaining valuable insights into the close relationship between bats and viruses.

Beyond the average cell

Models based on an average cell are useful, but they may not accurately describe how individual cells really work. New possibilities opened up with the advent of single-cell live imaging technologies. Now it is possible to peer into the lives of individual cells. In a new paper in PLOS Genetics, a team of biologists and physicists from Washington University in St. Louis and Purdue University used actual single-cell data to create an updated framework for understanding the relationship between cell growth, DNA replication and division in a bacterial system.

Microbial miners could help humans colonize the moon and Mars

The biochemical process by which cyanobacteria acquire nutrients from rocks in Chile’s Atacama Desert has inspired engineers at the University of California, Irvine to think of new ways microbes might help humans build colonies on the moon and Mars.

UT Southwestern scientists among top 1% of highly cited researchers across the globe

More than 20 UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists are among the 2022 Highly Cited Researchers listed in the top 1% of researchers from across the globe

Scientists Unveil New System for Naming Majority of the World’s Microorganisms

In an article published Sept. 19 in the journal Nature Microbiology, a team of scientists present a new system, the SeqCode, and a corresponding registration portal that could help microbiologists effectively categorize and communicate about the massive number of identified yet uncultivated single-celled microorganisms known as prokaryotes.

Watching Plant Roots Grow in a Transparent Simulated Soil

The rhizosphere, the underground ecological zone between and around plant roots, is difficult to study. Scientists have now developed a rhizosphere-on-a-chip with a transparent simulated soil structure that allows researchers to view how roots grow over time through the pores in the soil. Paired with specialized mass spectrometry techniques, scientist can also use the rhizosphere-on-a-chip to map the location of root-exuded molecules, like amino acids, without hurting the plant.

A New Approach Produces a 90-Fold Increase in Known Viral Taxa

Viruses play an essential role in regulating microbiomes. However, the use of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics have produced taxonomies of only a tiny proportion of the world’s viruses. In this study, researchers used a novel algorithm to compare and incorporate 715,672 metagenome viruses from environmental samples around the world. This expands the viral taxa available to researchers from about 8,000 to 723,672. The scientists then used the data to examine samples from two Populus tree genotypes.

Low levels of high-risk salmonella evade traditional methods of detection

Poultry is responsible for more than one out of every five cases of salmonella infection in the U.S. But traditional methods of testing the chicken you grab off the grocery shelf may not be enough to detect all strains of the bacteria, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

Cleveland Clinic Appoints Ted Ross, Ph.D., as Global Director of Vaccine Development

Ted Ross, Ph.D., has been appointed Global Director of Vaccine Development at Cleveland Clinic.

In this newly created role, he will lead the development of novel vaccine platforms for a variety of infectious diseases, including influenza, HIV and COVID-19. A highly renowned scientist with expertise in virology, vaccines, immunology and microbiology, Dr. Ross’ research focuses on the design of new vaccines and the implementation of new vaccine trials.

This class of microbes is an underexploited source of new bioactive compounds

Demand for new kinds of antibiotics is surging, as drug-resistant and emerging infections are becoming an increasingly serious global health threat. Researchers are racing to reexamine certain microbes that serve as one of our most successful sources of therapeutics: the…

Predatory Bacteria, Eat Thy Neighbor

Ecologists know that adding more plant food that prey animals eat can also benefit predators. Scientists wanted to know if the same principles apply in bacterial food webs. They found that predatory bacteria grow faster and consume more resources than non-predators, and they use predatory behavior and physical features to hunt and feast on prey bacteria.

Food claiming to have ‘wild mushrooms’ rarely does

Harvesting wild mushrooms requires an expert eye, making products containing wild fungi expensive. Due to minimal food regulations, it’s nearly impossible to know what species are actually contained within. Sequencing revealed food products labeled with wild mushrooms mostly contained cultivated fungi and some mushrooms poisonous to humans.