Latest Yersinia pestis Stories

Rapid, inexpensive test is promising for use in the field and in the lab, study results are published in PLOS ONE MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Specific Technologies, today announced the publication of results of the first study demonstrating detection of pathogenic bacteria, including potential bioterrorism agents such as Yersinia pestis and Bacillus anthracis which feature on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's list of potential bio-threats....

NEWARK, Del., Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- iBio, Inc. (NYSE MKT: IBIO) today announced that the U.S. Patent Office has allowed patent application 12/668,258 entitled "Yersinia Pestis Antigens, Vaccine Compositions and Related Methods." The claims cover plague antigens comprising Yersinia pestis F1 protein fused to the Company's thermostable iBioModulator(TM) protein, as well as vaccine compositions and a method for producing a protective immune response to the antigen. The invention...

The FDA has announced its approval of the antibacterial agent levofloxacin, or “Levaquin,” to treat and prevent the plague. Manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, Levaquin was approved under the FDA’s Animal Efficacy rule which allows results from animal testing to be studied if such tests on humans aren’t ethical or feasible. Why prevent the plague, and why now? Also known as Yersinia pestis, the plague is considered to be a bioterrorism threat. As such, the US government...

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...

Scientists have successfully mapped the complete genome of the Black Death - the bubonic plague that wiped out 50 million Europeans between 1347 and 1351 and remains one of the most severe epidemics of all time - various news agencies reported on Wednesday. According to Kate Kelland of Reuters, an international team of researchers extracted and purified DNA from the remains from victims buried in the so-called plague pits of London. "Building on previous research which showed that a...

  According to a study published Tuesday, a less virulent version of the 14th century's Black Death plague is still present today. DNA testing on the skeletons of plague victims unearthed in a medieval London mass grave revealed part of the same gene sequence as the modern bubonic plague. "At least this part of the genetic information has barely changed in the past 600 years" said Johannes Krause, one of the authors of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy...

Nasal vaccines that effectively protect against flu, pneumonia and even bioterrorism agents such as Yersinia pestis that causes the plague, could soon be a possibility, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate. Professor Dennis Metzger describes how including a natural immune chemical with standard vaccines can boost their protective effect when delivered through the nose.The respiratory tract is a major entry site for various...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at the American Society for Microbiology Conference on Biodefense and Emerging Diseases, scientists from Abbott Molecular presented data showing the unique power of the company's Ibis technology to identify and further characterize unknown disease-causing pathogens to help aid in the bioforensic analysis of pandemic outbreaks. In a presentation at the conference, Tim Motley, principal scientist, Ibis Biosciences, a subsidiary of Abbott...

There is an ongoing battle in the "war on terror" that remains mostly unseen to the public -- a race between scientists working to develop a vaccine to protect against plague and the terrorists who seek to use plague as a weapon."Governments remain concerned that bioweapons of aerosolized Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, could kill thousands," said Stephen Smiley, a leading plague researcher and Trudeau Institute faculty member.The anthrax scare that followed the terror...

A new study tracking the DNA signature of the plague has found that the deadly disease first broke out in China more than 2,600 years ago before making its way to Europe via Central Asia's "Silk Road" trade route. The findings prove many suspicions about the long-believed Chinese origins of the plague, which killed nearly a third of Europeans during the Middle Ages. Scientists from around the world sequenced 17 strains of Y. pestis, connecting them as pathogens that mutated from a common...