http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, San Diego - led by 2008 Nobel-Prize winner Roger Tsien, PhD - have shown that bacterial proteins called phytochromes can be engineered into infrared-fluorescent proteins (IFPs). Because the wavelength of IFPs is able to penetrate tissue, these proteins are suitable for whole-body imaging in small animals. Their findings will be published in the May 8 edition of the journal Science. http://www.physorg.com/news160925275.html Chemistry Thu, 07 May 2009 14:28:19 EST news160925275 To date, it has been unknown exactly how mammals are capable of sniffing out whether a conspecific is ill. The biologists Prof. Marc Spehr and Daniela Flügge are following a good lead. They have discovered that a messenger substance of the immune system that attracts defence cells to the affected site in bacterial infections also responds to receptors in the vomeronasal organ (VMO, Jacobson's organ). This organ, which has hardly been studied to date, reacts to pheromones and is also held responsible for spontaneous aversion or attraction when selecting a partner. The results of this study on the newly detected receptor family FPR (formyl peptide receptor) within the olfactory system have been published in the current Internet edition of Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news160905741.html Biology Thu, 07 May 2009 09:02:48 EST news160905741 (AP) -- The first U.S. double hand transplant is taking place at a Pittsburgh hospital. http://www.physorg.com/news160719520.html Medicine & Health Tue, 05 May 2009 05:40:40 EST news160719520 Obstructive sleep apnea, or periodic interruptions in breathing throughout the night, thickens sufferers' blood vessels. Moreover, it increases the risk of several forms of heart and vascular disease. http://www.physorg.com/news160673771.html Biology Mon, 04 May 2009 16:36:50 EST news160673771 As the swine flu continues its global spread, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have discovered important clues about why influenza is more severe in some people than it is in others. http://www.physorg.com/news160659764.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 May 2009 12:43:21 EST news160659764 As the number of swine flu cases grows, so do the questions about how the virus is transmitted and what people can do to prevent it. Here are answers from interviews with doctors and from public-health Web sites. http://www.physorg.com/news160218868.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:15:01 EST news160218868 Several bacterial pathogens use toxins to manipulate human host cells, ultimately disturbing cellular signal transduction. Until now, however, scientists have been able to track down only a few of the proteins that interact with bacterial toxins in infected human cells. http://www.physorg.com/news159628588.html Biology Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:34:04 EST news159628588 (PhysOrg.com) -- Generally speaking, patients with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) deteriorate suddenly, in bursts, often as a result of bacterial or viral infections. http://www.physorg.com/news159551174.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:46:49 EST news159551174 Questions such as "How to search for weird alien life?" and "Would Earth microbes survive if delivered to the surface of Mars?" are addressed in articles that are part of the collection of reports presented in the current issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert. http://www.physorg.com/news159540297.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:45:35 EST news159540297 The bacteria responsible for chronic infections in cystic fibrosis patients use one of the sugars on the germs' surface to start building a structure that helps the microbes resist efforts to kill them, new research shows. http://www.physorg.com/news159537486.html Biology Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:58:29 EST news159537486 A single crafty protein allows the deadly bacterium Salmonella enterica to both invade cells lining the intestine and hijack cellular functions to avoid destruction, Yale researchers report in the April 17 issue of the journal Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news159106541.html Biology Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:16:05 EST news159106541 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have revealed a hidden code that determines the expression level of a gene, providing a way to distinguish efficient genes from inefficient ones. The new research, which involved creating hundreds of synthetic green-glowing genes, provides an explanation for how a cell "knows" how much of each protein to make, providing just the right amount of protein to maintain homeostasis yet not too much to cause cell toxicity. http://www.physorg.com/news158506251.html Biology Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:32:27 EST news158506251 A new study reveals the importance of adenylylation in the regulation of cell signaling from bacteria to higher organisms. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 10th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, provides new insight into bacterial pathogenesis and opens intriguing avenues for exploring post-translational modifications in eukaryotic cells. http://www.physorg.com/news158503513.html Biology Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:45:33 EST news158503513 Researchers in California are reporting for the first time that metals are key ingredients that give the coatings of anchoring byssal threads of marine mussels their amazing durability. The study could lead to the design of next-generation coatings for medical and industrial applications, including surgical coatings that protect underlying tissues from abrasion and also life-threatening bacterial infections, the researchers say. Their study appears in ACS` Langmuir. http://www.physorg.com/news158435687.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:55:16 EST news158435687 Smoking cigarettes is not only the principle cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but it may change the body's immune responses to bacteria that commonly cause exacerbations of the disease, according to new research in a mouse model. http://www.physorg.com/news158303753.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:16:44 EST news158303753 A new technology that kills dangerous pathogens on food at home and in restaurants, grocery stores, beverage-manufacturing and food-processing facilities has been licensed to the maker of FIT Fruit and Vegetable Wash(TM). The licensing agreement between the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. and HealthPro Brands, Inc., FIT's parent company, vastly extends the range of applications for the company's current anti-microbial food wash. http://www.physorg.com/news158234730.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:06:03 EST news158234730 The world is on the cusp of an explosion of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases that could deluge hospitals and leave physicians fighting a nearly untreatable malady with little help from modern drugs, global experts said Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news157915085.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:18:58 EST news157915085 Using probiotics successfully against a number of animal diseases has helped scientists from University College Cork, Ireland to understand some of the ways in which they work, which could lead to them using probiotics to prevent and even to treat human diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news157869202.html Biology Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:34:45 EST news157869202 As a major food source for much of the world, rice is one of the most important plants on earth. http://www.physorg.com/news157818548.html Biology Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:29:28 EST news157818548 Antibiotics used extensively in intensive livestock production may be having an adverse effect on agricultural soil ecosystems. In a presentation to the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Harrogate International Centre, today (Monday 30 March), Dr Heike Schmitt from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands described how antibiotics passed from the animals in manure that was then spread on farmland. Although higher organisms, such as earthworms, would only be affected at unrealistic concentrations of antibiotics, changes in soil bacterial communities have been found repeatedly using molecular microbiological techniques. http://www.physorg.com/news157637559.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:13:08 EST news157637559 Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a promising strategy for destroying the molecular scaffolding that can make Pseudomonas bacterial infections extremely difficult to treat in cystic fibrosis patients, wearers of contact lenses, and burn victims. Jerry Nick, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at National Jewish Health, and his colleagues report in the April 2009 issue of The Journal of Medical Microbiology that a long string of aspartic acid molecules disrupts the molecular bonds that hold together the structure supporting Pseudomonas biofilms. http://www.physorg.com/news157038031.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:41:01 EST news157038031 Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have used a new approach, known as RNA-Seq, to profile the gene expression of the bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis. Their study, published March 20, 2009, online by the Journal of Bacteriology, marks the first time any bacterial transcriptome -the complete collection of mRNAs produced by a bacterium as it expresses different genes -has been comprehensively defined, and provides a much more detailed view of how bacteria regulate their gene expression. http://www.physorg.com/news156774964.html Biology Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:36:29 EST news156774964 (PhysOrg.com) -- Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on Earth and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists. One of the new species has been named as Janibacter hoylei, after the Distinguished Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, the second as Bacillus isronensis recognising the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to its discovery and the third as Bacillus aryabhata after India`s celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and also the first satellite of ISRO. http://www.physorg.com/news156626262.html Biology Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:19:37 EST news156626262 Researchers are studying some common soil bacteria that "inhale" toxic metals and "exhale" them in a non-toxic form. http://www.physorg.com/news156436753.html Biology Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:40:08 EST news156436753 Scientists in Colorado have discovered a new approach to prevent bacterial infections from taking hold. Writing in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, Dr Quinn Parks and colleagues describe how they used enzymes against products of the body's own defence cells to prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria from building a protective biofilm which enables them to avoid both the body's immune mechanisms and antibiotics. http://www.physorg.com/news156405963.html Biology Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:07:25 EST news156405963 Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of medicine's most vexing challenges. In a study described in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University are developing a new generation of antibiotic compounds that do not provoke bacterial resistance. The compounds work against two notorious microbes: Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera; and E. coli 0157:H7, the food contaminant that each year in the U.S. causes approximately 110,000 illnesses and 50 deaths. http://www.physorg.com/news156174057.html Chemistry Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:44:40 EST news156174057 Bacteria and humans tend to live in highly diverse and complex communities. Most interestingly, bacteria and humans appear to prefer to live in a democracy. This is the basic message of the paper entitled "Initial community evenness favours functionality under selective stress", published this week in the last issue of Nature. The article reports that initial high community evenness is a key factor in preserving functional stability of an ecosystem in the face of selective stress. http://www.physorg.com/news156105112.html Biology Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:32:28 EST news156105112 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biofilms are everywhere - in dental plaque and ear canals, on contact lenses and in water pipelines - and the bacteria that make them get more resilient with age, finds a new study in FEMS Microbiology Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news156088573.html Biology Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:56:40 EST news156088573 Most aphids host mutualistic bacteria, Buchnera aphidicola, which live inside specialized cells called bacteriocytes. Buchnera are vital to the aphids well being as they provide essential amino acids that are scarce in its diet. Now research published in the open access journal BMC Biology suggests that the aphids' ability to host Buchnera depends on genes they acquired from yet another species of bacteria via lateral gene transfer (LGT). http://www.physorg.com/news155845431.html Biology Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:25:01 EST news155845431 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nearly a billion years ago, bacteria evolved an insidious means of infecting their hosts - a syringe-like mechanism able to inject cells with stealthy hijacker molecules. These molecules, called virulence factors, play a sophisticated game of mimicry, imitating many of the cells` normal activities but ultimately co-opting them to serve the bacteria`s needs. Now researchers at The Rockefeller University have identified a new class of these coup artists that appear to take over a key process that regulates a wide range of cellular duties, from cell-cycle progression to cell death, even communication between cells. http://www.physorg.com/news155317992.html Chemistry Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:54:34 EST news155317992