Health News

‘Trojan horse’ antibiotic can kill drug-resistant bacteria

‘Trojan horse’ antibiotic can kill drug-resistant superbugs from WITHIN ‘by hijacking their defences’ The drug, called cefiderocol, works by attaching itself on to iron molecules  Once allowed inside the bacterial cell, it can destroy it from within, experts say Experts now hope it will top up the world’s dwindling arsenal of antibiotics Antibiotic resistance is […]

Health News

A novel biosensor to advance diverse high-level production of microbial cell factories

A research group at KAIST presented a novel biosensor which can produce diverse, high-level microbial cell factories. The biosensor monitors the concentration of products and even intermediates when new strains are being developed. This strategy provides a new platform for manufacturing diverse natural products from renewable resources. The team succeeded in creating four natural products […]

Health News

How fatal biofilms form

By severely curtailing the effects of antibiotics, the formation of organized communities of bacterial cells known as biofilms can be deadly during surgeries and in urinary tract infections. Yale researchers have just come a lot closer to understanding how these biofilms develop, and potentially how to stop them. Biofilms form when bacterial cells gather and […]

Health News

Doctors Use Bacteria as Weapon Against Cancer

SUNDAY, Sept. 30, 2018 — It’s a perfect case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. A potentially dangerous bacteria appears to target malignant cells and could provide a new means of fighting cancer, a small, preliminary study reports. The bacteria, Clostridium novyi-NT, can cause gas gangrene and sepsis if infection is allowed […]

Health News

Understanding antibiotic resistance in patients with cystic fibrosis

A defective gene causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). There, it traps bacteria, causing patients to develop frequent lung infections that progressively damage these vital organs and impair patients’ ability to breathe. Most patients with this progressive genetic disorder die by the fourth decade of […]

Health News

Reclassification recommendations for drug in ‘magic mushrooms’: If phase III clinical trials are successful, researchers suggest categorizing the drug as schedule IV

In an evaluation of the safety and abuse research on the drug in hallucinogenic mushrooms, Johns Hopkins researchers suggest that if it clears phase III clinical trials, psilocybin should be re-categorized from a schedule I drug — one with no known medical potential — to a schedule IV drug such as prescription sleep aids, but […]

Health News

First gut bacteria may have lasting effect on ability to fight chronic diseases: Discovery could eventually allow doctors to establish beneficial gut bacteria in infants right after birth

New research showing that the first bacteria introduced into the gut have a lasting impact may one day allow science to adjust microbiomes — the one-of-a-kind microbial communities that live in our gastrointestinal tracts — to help ward off serious chronic diseases. Findings by U of A microbial ecologist Jens Walter and his colleagues suggest […]

Health Problems

How bad bacteria gain an edge in the gut

The bacterium Clostridium difficile, which is responsible for the majority of antibiotic-associated diarrhea outbreaks worldwide, produces a unique compound called p-cresol to gain a competitive advantage over natural protective gut bacteria. The findings were reported by Lisa Dawson and Team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues on September 11 in […]