Tag: Microorganisms

Instead of tea with sugar: soybean molasses helped tea fungus to produce more bacterial cellulose.

sarah JonasResearch Results

Scientists tested different methods of obtaining bacterial cellulose on the base of tea fungus. It turned out that when they grow on soybean molasses, microorganisms produce more by 57% of this product than on the base of tea with sugar. This method will make the production cheaper, because soybean molasses is a by-product of soybean processing, that is obtained in great amount at factories. Thanks to such cheap and accessible substrate it will be possible to produce bacterial cellulose, that is used in medicine for wound healing and neogenesis, industrially. Results of the research supported by the grant of Russian Scientific Foundation (RSF), are published in the magazine Food Science and Technology.

Gut bioelectricity provides a path for bad bacteria to cause diseases

sarah JonasResearch Results

UC Davis Health researchers has discovered a novel bioelectrical mechanism pathogens like Salmonella use to find entry points in the gut lining that would allow them to pass and cause infection.

Yeast Fuel, Developed by Chula’s Faculty of Science Soon to Expand Its Production for the Aerospace Industry

sarah JonasFeature

Researchers from Chulalongkorn University have made use of forage grass to feed microorganisms and convert the resulting fat into jet fuel. They aim to expand petroleum-based oil replacement production to reduce impacts on human health and the environment.

Different Microorganisms Have a Taste for Different Flavors of Ammonia

sarah JonasResearch Results

Ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms (AOMs) use ammonia as an energy source while converting it to nitrite and play a pivotal role in the global nitrogen cycle. This study explored whether different AOM species preferred to use urea over ammonia. It found that some AOMs preferred urea while others used ammonia and urea simultaneously.

High production of polyols using crude glycerol by wild-type safe yeasts

sarah JonasResearch Results

Utilization of crude glycerol generated as a by-product from biodiesel production process, for the production of high value-added products, represents an opportunity to overcome the negative impact of low glycerol prices in the biodiesel industry. In the present investigation, alternative ways of valorization of crude glycerol have been provided, by using this renewable material as substrate by natural yeasts of the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) species Yarrowia lipolytica.

IU surgeon-scientist studying physiological effect of microorganisms in sinuses of chronic rhinosinusitis patients

sarah JonasFeature

An Indiana University School of Medicine surgeon-scientist is leading a multi-institutional grant investigating the role of the sinus microbiome in chronic rhinosinusitis, an inflammatory disease that causes the lining of the sinuses to swell.

Differences in alcohol metabolism play a role in the severity of alcohol hangovers

sarah JonasResearch Results

Hangovers are common among people who drink alcohol. Previous research showing that a hangover’s combination of both mental and physical misery can occur after a single episode of alcohol consumption also revealed that a rapid breakdown of alcohol into acetaldehyde is associated with less severe hangovers. Findings from an investigation of the metabolic influence of oral microbiota on hangover severity will be shared at the 46th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) in Bellevue, Washington.

RPI Researchers To Develop New Market for Farm Waste

sarah JonasAnnouncement

There are more than 80,000 sheep and lambs living on over 2,000 farms in New York State. Their wool has many uses including clothing, carpets, furniture, bedding, insulators, fertilizers, and more. However, about 10-15% of wool is wasted during the sorting and cleaning processes. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are aiming to turn that waste into a new profit source for farmers, and produce an eco-conscious, high-performance yarn in the process.

It Isn’t the Picky Eaters that Drive Soil Microbial Metabolism

sarah JonasResearch Results

How do microbes in soil communities interact to release nutrients from material in the soil? Researchers have discovered that microbes able to break down one type of available food, chitin, are critical for the community’s success but do not necessarily grow the fastest. Instead, species with the ability to use a wide range of food sources produced by other members of the community become the most abundant. The researchers also found that individual microbes can change their behavior when grown alone or in the community.

Same same but different

sarah JonasResearch Results

A method for detecting intraspecies genomic diversity of uncultivated bacterial DNA has been developed. This enhanced MAG method’s ability to detect previously overlooked variations focuses on the DNA sequence and structural traits of the genome. The spectrum of microdiversity in environmental bacterial genomes has been found to be broader than expected.

Pineapple Jelly Probiotics Health Drink for Elderly Adults that Can Help Fix Farmers’ Problems

sarah JonasFeature

A team of researchers from Chula Faculty of Science in cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University has developed the “Jelly Nata Probiotics” jelly drink made from pineapple to benefit the mental wellbeing of the elderly, add value to pineapple while also solving the oversupply of pineapples.

Lower Airways Are Distinct in Cystic Fibrosis Even at Younger Ages

sarah JonasResearch Results

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that the lower airways in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) have a higher burden of infection, more inflammation and lower diversity of microorganisms, compared to children with other illnesses who also have lung issues. They noted a clear divergence in these bacterial communities in toddlers, which is typically before progressive lung disease takes hold in patients with CF. Their findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, could help providers target specific pathogens earlier, treat them and potentially prevent more severe lung disease.

Study: Dental implant surfaces play major role in tissue attachment, warding off unwanted bacteria

sarah JonasResearch Results

The surface of implants, as well as other medical devices, plays a significant role in the adsorption of oral proteins and the colonization by unwanted microorganisms (a process known as biofouling), according to a new study led by the University at Buffalo and the University of Regensburg.

Bacteria and Algae Get Rides in Clouds

sarah JonasResearch Results

Human health and ecosystems could be affected by microbes including cyanobacteria and algae that hitch rides in clouds and enter soil, lakes, oceans and other environments when it rains, according to a Rutgers co-authored study.

Cooperative Microorganisms Get Competitive

sarah JonasFeature

Organisms in phototropic microbial communities survive by exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide with each other. Using a combination of computational modeling and experiments, researchers found that two different kinds of microorganisms can coexist in either in a cooperative or competitive fashion depending on resource availability, the environment, and the microorganisms’ genetic background.

After Turning Microorganisms Into Art, Student Helps NASA Study Origins of Life Through Algae (Video)

sarah JonasFeature

Rutgers student Julia Van Etten, whose @Couch_Microscopy Instagram page garnered more than 25,000 followers by showcasing microorganisms as art, is now working with NASA on research into how red algae can help explain the origins of life on Earth.

New Portable Tool Analyzes Microbes in the Environment

sarah JonasResearch Results

Imagine a device that could swiftly analyze microbes in oceans and other aquatic environments, revealing the health of these organisms – too tiny to be seen by the naked eye – and their response to threats to their ecosystems. Rutgers researchers have created just such a tool, a portable device that could be used to assess microbes, screen for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and analyze algae that live in coral reefs. Their work is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

How microbes reflect the health of coral reefs

sarah JonasResearch Results

Microorganisms play important roles in the health and protection of coral reefs, yet exploring these connections can be difficult due to the lack of unspoiled reef systems throughout the global ocean. A collaborative study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Centro de Investigaciones Marinas – Universidad de La Habana (CIM-UH) compared seawater from 25 reefs in Cuba and the U.S. Florida Keys varying in human impact and protection, and found that those with higher microbial diversity and lower concentrations of nutrients and organic carbon—primarily caused by human activities—were markedly healthier.