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) -- Engineers at Ohio State University have found a way to double the production of the biofuel butanol, which might someday replace gasoline in automobiles. http://www.physorg.com/news169890707.html Chemistry Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:57:34 EST news169890707 (PhysOrg.com) -- With the "last resort" antibiotic Vancomycin now plagued by the first signs of bacterial resistance, a scientific collaboration centered at Duke University has identified how a candidate successor antibiotic known as Ramoplanin A2 can kill pathogenic bacteria by interrupting how they form their cell membranes. http://www.physorg.com/news168538972.html Chemistry Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:23:20 EST news168538972 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have not yet found a way to turn dirt into gold, but they are trying to find something valuable in it nonetheless: starting materials for novel pharmaceuticals. http://www.physorg.com/news168252027.html Chemistry Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:00:01 EST news168252027 The typical dose of a medication considered pivotal in treating tuberculosis effectively is much too low to account for modern-day physiques, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers said. http://www.physorg.com/news168154072.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:50:02 EST news168154072 High-throughput sequencing has turned biologists into voracious genome readers, enabling them to scan millions of DNA letters, or bases, per hour. When revising a genome, however, they struggle, suffering from serious writer's block, exacerbated by outdated cell programming technology. Labs get bogged down with particular DNA sentences, tinkering at times with subsections of a single gene ad nauseam before moving along to the next one. http://www.physorg.com/news167833209.html Biology Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:20:43 EST news167833209 Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel way to monitor in real time the behavior of the TB bacterium in mouse lungs noninvasively pinpointing the exact location of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The new monitoring system is expected to speed up what is currently a slow and cumbersome process to test the safety and efficacy of various TB drug regimens and vaccines in animals. Plans are already under way for developing a similar system to monitor TB disease in humans. http://www.physorg.com/news167503263.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:50:02 EST news167503263 Researchers from the Molecular Immunology group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have now shown that Beta-Interferon also plays a crucial role during an immune response: without Beta-Interferon immune cells are unable to show "wanted posters" of pathogens to other cells. As a consequence, these cells will not recognize the pathogen and the immune response does not start properly. The group's results have now been published in the current issue of the scientific magazine Journal of Immunology. http://www.physorg.com/news167307019.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:30:02 EST news167307019 (PhysOrg.com) -- It has been a dismal two decades for the 450-year-old Florida citrus industry: On top of the constant pressure from hurricanes, a citrus canker epidemic shrank U.S. citrus production by roughly one-third in the 1990s, despite an eradication campaign by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.physorg.com/news167060063.html Biology Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:40:01 EST news167060063 (PhysOrg.com) -- Anthrax, long feared for its potential as a biological weapon, has lost some of its mystery. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Chicago, have determined the structure of a protein crucial to the virulence of anthrax bacteria. http://www.physorg.com/news166803334.html Chemistry Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:16:12 EST news166803334 Mycobacterium tuberculosis is arguably the world's most successful infectious agent because it knows how to avoid elimination by slowing its own growth to a crawl. Now, a report in the July 10 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers new insight into the bugs' talent for meager living. http://www.physorg.com/news166360612.html Biology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:17:56 EST news166360612 A team of Harvard scientists has taken an important first step toward the development of new treatments to help people with HIV battle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. In their report, appearing in the July 2009 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology they describe how HIV interferes with the cellular and molecular mechanisms used by the lungs to fight TB infection. This information is crucial for researchers developing treatments to help people with HIV prevent or recover from TB infection. http://www.physorg.com/news165576357.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:40:01 EST news165576357 Helicobacter pylori survives in the body by manipulating important immune system cells. This is shown in a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The discovery may lead to new treatments against the common peptic ulcer bacterium. http://www.physorg.com/news165494291.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:38:39 EST news165494291 If the growing presence of computer 'geeks' on television crime shows is any indicator, computers are increasingly becoming essential tools for detecting and combating skullduggery. However, television detectives are not the only ones taking advantage of these tools. Researchers also are beginning to collaborate with computer scientists to help uncover biological forms of deception, known as molecular mimicry. http://www.physorg.com/news165147154.html Biology Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:40:01 EST news165147154 The stomach ulcer bacterium Helicobacter pylori is not transmitted through drinking water as previously thought, but rather through vomit and possibly faeces. This is shown in a thesis at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. It is therefore possible to prevent the spread of the bacterium in developing countries through some fairly simple measures. http://www.physorg.com/news165066763.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:53:35 EST news165066763 A fundamental question about how sugar units are strung together into long carbohydrate chains has also pinpointed a promising way to target new medicines against tuberculosis. http://www.physorg.com/news164910149.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:10:04 EST news164910149 A novel bacterium that has been trapped more than three kilometres under glacial ice in Greenland for over 120 000 years, may hold clues as to what life forms might exist on other planets. http://www.physorg.com/news164251242.html Biology Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:21:07 EST news164251242 A species of bacteria, isolated from sediments deep under the Pacific Ocean, could provide a powerful clean-up tool for heavy metal pollution. http://www.physorg.com/news163394086.html Biology Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:15:37 EST news163394086 Scientists in Portugal and France managed to follow the patterns of gene expression in food-poisoning bacteria Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) live during infection for the first time. The work about to be published in PLoS Pathogens shows how the bacterial genome shifts to better adapt to infection by activating genes involved in virulence and subversion of the host defences, as well as adaptation to the host conditions. This is the first time that the molecular interactions between L. monocytogenes and its host, as they occur during the different steps of infection, are followed in real time paving the way, not only to the development of new therapies against this potentially lethal bacterium, but also for the study of other pathogen/host interactions. http://www.physorg.com/news162754099.html Biology Thu, 28 May 2009 18:28:56 EST news162754099 An experimental vaccine applied the surface of the skin appears to protect against certain types of ear infections. Scientists from the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, report their findings today at the 109th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Philadelphia. http://www.physorg.com/news162134969.html Biology Thu, 21 May 2009 14:30:16 EST news162134969 Scientists in Ohio are reporting a long-awaited advance toward making the workplace safer for more than one million machinists in the United States who may be exposed to disease-causing bacteria in contaminated metalworking fluids. Those fluids become airborne during machining of metal parts. The study appears in the current edition of ACS` monthly Journal of Proteome Research. http://www.physorg.com/news162060407.html Chemistry Wed, 20 May 2009 17:47:18 EST news162060407 Salmonella, what's gotten into you? Researchers have been asking themselves this question ever since Salmonella bacteria grown on board the space shuttle returned to Earth 3 to 7 times more virulent than Salmonella grown on the ground under otherwise identical conditions. Figuring out why could help safeguard astronauts from disease and lead to new treatments for food poisoning and other common ailments on Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news160931238.html Biology Thu, 07 May 2009 16:07:58 EST news160931238 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Indiana are reporting development of a new biosensor for use in a faster, more sensitive test for detecting the deadliest strain of Listeria food poisoning bacteria. That microbe causes hundreds of deaths and thousands of hospitalizations each year in the United States, particularly among people with weakened immune systems. Their study appears in the current issue of ACS` Analytical Chemistry. http://www.physorg.com/news159701332.html Chemistry Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:29:36 EST news159701332 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out the orientation of a protein in the antenna complex to its neighboring membrane in a photosynthetic bacterium, a key find in the process of energy transfer in photosynthesis. http://www.physorg.com/news158858285.html Biology Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:19:10 EST news158858285 Kansas State University engineers think the possibilities are deep for a very thin material. http://www.physorg.com/news158850916.html Nanotechnology Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:16:07 EST news158850916 Lack of an adequate amount of the mineral phosphate can turn a common bacterium into a killer, according to research to be published in the April 14, 2009, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. The findings could lead to new drugs that would disarm the increasingly antibiotic-resistant pathogen rather than attempting to kill it. http://www.physorg.com/news158419344.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:55:00 EST news158419344 Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out the orientation of a protein in the antenna complex to its neighboring membrane in a photosynthetic bacterium, a key find in the process of energy transfer in photosynthesis. http://www.physorg.com/news157912816.html Chemistry Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:47:12 EST news157912816 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 Micro-organisms occurring naturally in coastal mudflats have an essential role to play in cleaning up pollution by breaking down petrochemical residues. Research by Dr Efe Aganbi and colleagues from the University of Essex, presented at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Harrogate today (Monday 30 April), reveals essential differences in the speed of degradation of the chemicals depending on whether or not oxygen is present. http://www.physorg.com/news157616643.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:25:44 EST news157616643 Gas gangrene, the notorious infectious disease of two world wars can still be a problem today. Professor Richard Titball of the University of Exeter, told the Society of General Microbiology Meeting at the International Centre, Harrogate today (Monday, 30 March) that Clostridium perfringens, the bacterium responsible for gas gangrene in people, can also cause necrotic enteritis in intensively raised chickens. This frequently fatal disease has significant financial implications for the poultry industry. http://www.physorg.com/news157616403.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:20:35 EST news157616403 Bacteria are single cell organisms with no nervous system or brain. So how do individual bacterial cells living as part of a complex community called a biofilm "decide" between different physiological processes (such as movement or producing the "glue" that forms the biofilm)? http://www.physorg.com/news157615651.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:07:54 EST news157615651