News by Subject Biology

Auburn University researchers have published a new hypothesis that could provide the foundation for new scientific studies looking into the association of habitat loss and the global emergence of infectious diseases. The research was recently presented in the paper, 'The Coevolution Effect as a Driver of Spillover,' in the latest issue of the scientific journal, Trends in Parasitology.

Researchers from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) have discovered bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, living in their kitchen sponges. As the threat of antibiotic resistance increases, bacteriophages, or phages for short, may prove useful in fighting bacteria that cannot be killed by antibiotics alone.

Researchers have now shown that patients who are heavily colonized with Candida auris on their skin can shed the fungus and contaminate their surroundings. This finding provides an explanation for the extensive contamination that often occurs in healthcare facilities with C. auris outbreaks. These results can help inform infection control efforts.

Researchers have used whole genome sequencing (WGS) to demonstrate transmission of a single bacterial strain that possessed a carbapenem-resistance gene in a northern California hospital. The gene armed the bacteria with resistance to carbapenems, a type of antimicrobial drug reserved as a last-line treatment for serious infections.

New research has found that Cannnabidiol is active against Gram-positive bacteria, including those responsible for many serious infections (such as Staphyloccocus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae), with potency similar to that of established antibiotics such as vancomycin or daptomycin.

Swimming in the ocean alters the skin microbiome and may increase the likelihood of infection, according to research presented at ASM Microbe 2019, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

Antibiotic-resistant infections are a threat to global public health, food safety and an economic burden. To prevent these infections, it is critical to understand how antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their genes are transmitted from both meat and plant-foods. Researchers have now shown how plant-foods serve as vehicles for transmitting antibiotic resistance to the gut microbiome.