News by Subject Biology

Most of what we know today about deadly bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa was obtained from studies done in laboratory settings. Research reported May 14 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that this laboratory-based information may have important limits for predicting how these bugs behave once they've invaded humans.

Bacteria have long been thought to develop antibiotic resistance largely due to repeated exposure through over-prescribing. But could much bigger environmental pressures be at play?

A major route toward creating effective vaccines against dengue virus and Zika involves the E protein that covers the surface of each viral particle. But creating such a vaccine has proven difficult for a number of reasons. Now UNC School of Medicine researchers have delineated the details of one major barrier to a promising vaccine. It's something we all have -- a natural body temperature of about 98.6 degrees.

Researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization of Australia, or CSIRO, are interested in harnessing the bacterial ability to degrade atrazine in order to remediate atrazine-polluted environments. In a new research paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a team from CSIRO and Australian National University describe previously unknown proteins involved in atrazine degradation.

Jet fuel, pantyhose and plastic soda bottles: all three could be made from bioengineered bacteria, as Sandia National Laboratories has now demonstrated.

Michigan State University researchers have found that when triclosan, a substance that reduces or prevents bacteria from growing, is combined with an antibiotic called tobramycin, it kills the cells that protect cystic fibrosis bacteria, known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by up to 99.9 percent.