Latest Pathogen Stories

University of Alberta researchers found a chink in the molecular armor of the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii There's new hope for development of an antibiotic that can put down a lethal bacteria or superbug linked to the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients around the world. Researchers from the University of Alberta-based Alberta Glycomics Centre found a chink in the molecular armour of the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. The bacteria first appeared in the 1970's and in the last...

Max Planck scientists decipher the structure of bacterial injection needles at atomic resolution The plague, bacterial dysentery, and cholera have one thing in common: These dangerous diseases are caused by bacteria which infect their host using a sophisticated injection apparatus. Through needle-like structures, they release molecular agents into their host cell, thereby evading the immune response. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen in...

Discovery could play role in treatments for food and prep areas Researchers at Washington State University have found that a compound in garlic is 100 times more effective than two popular antibiotics at fighting the Campylobacter bacterium, one of the most common causes of intestinal illness. Their work was recently published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. The discovery opens the door to new treatments for raw and processed meats and food preparation surfaces. "This...

WIESBADEN, Germany, March 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today it has obtained CE Marking (Conformite Europeene) in the European Union to market its rapid, high-throughput PLEX-ID(TM) instrument, along with three assays for use on the system: PLEX-ID Viral IC Spectrum, PLEX-ID BAC Spectrum BC and PLEX-ID Flu. PLEX-ID, which is based on molecular diagnostic technologies, addresses a significant unmet need for rapid detection and identification of a broad...

A vaccine could be developed to prevent Campylobacter being carried in chickens. This approach could drastically cut the number of cases of food poisoning, saving the UK economy millions each year, says an American scientist presenting his work at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Dublin. Food-borne illness costs the UK an estimated £2 billion each year. Campylobacter is the leading cause of food-borne illness and is responsible for about 30% of cases in the UK....

Findings point to new approaches to fighting powerful gut infections UC Irvine researchers have discovered how salmonella, a bacterium found in contaminated raw foods that causes major gastrointestinal distress in humans, thrives in the digestive tract despite the immune system’s best efforts to destroy it. Their findings help explain why salmonella is difficult to eradicate and point to new approaches for possible treatments. Most people infected with salmonella suffer from diarrhea,...

BOSTON, March 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists from the Schepens Eye Research Institute, a subsidiary of Mass. Eye and Ear and affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have found for the first time that a bacterial pathogen can literally mow down protective molecules, known as mucins, on mucus membranes to enter and infect a part of the body. Their landmark study, published in the March 7, 2012 PLoS ONE, describes how they discovered that an "epidemic" strain of the bacterium...

How subverting the immune system shapes the arms race between bacteria and hosts Why is it that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can cause tuberculosis with as little as 10 cells, whereas Vibrio cholerae requires the host to ingest up to tens of millions of cells to cause cholera? This is the question that two research teams, from the Pasteur Institute, in France, and the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia and the University of Lisbon, in Portugal, answer in the latest issue of the journal PLoS...

Among medical mysteries baffling many infectious disease experts is exactly how the deadly pneumonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, goes undetected in the first few day of lung infection, often until it's too late for medical treatment. New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has opened a door to the answer. Researchers led by William E. Goldman, PhD, professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina at...