Bad Bug Book (2nd Edition)

The FDA has been publishing the Bad Bug Book for free online since 2005. It provides great information about the major bacterial, viral, and parasitic causes of foodborne illness. Also included are natural toxins (fungal-, animal-, plant-derived) that contaminate food and cause illness. Each chapter has a "consumer box" that provides non-technical information, in everyday language - what can make you sick and how to prevent it. Information about the etiology, morbidity, mortality, target populations, recent outbreaks, identification, and diagnosis of each pathogen/toxin is provided.

I helped write a textbook!

The textbook is designed specifically for Kansas State's Biology 198 Principles of Biology course. The course is taught using the studio approach and based on active learning. Typical enrollment approaches 1,500 students a year. The textbook is divided into 7 learning modules and unusually begins with the big picture of ecology and then steps back to cell biology, biochemistry, genetics, and energetics before ending with whole-organism plant and animal modules.

Gut Check on Parkinson’s Disease

Does the gut flora influence Parkinson’s disease or vice versa? Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland say there is a correlation between Parkinson’s disease and the gastrointestinal flora. As to cause and effect, that remains to be shown.

Hand Dryers vs. Paper Towels - A Microbiologist's Perspective

The debate of our lifetime, no the 21st Century is raging!! Well, maybe not, but it's still an interesting microbiological question. Here's what you should know.

First off, don’t Google “hand dryers versus paper towels”. The manufacturers/retailers of both systems have bought up all of the search results and flood the search page with dubious, self-serving (self-profiting) websites and YouTube videos that look scientific, but aren’t. This is common for health- and food-related topics on the internet. Go to a reputable source of edited, peer-reviewed scientific publications, like PubMed, a website run by the US National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. This is where taxpayer-funded medical research conducted at universities, colleges, and the National Institutes of Health is posted in online publications.

Engineers design ‘living materials’

MIT researchers design hybrid materials by combining living bacterial cells with nonliving elements such as gold nanoparticles and quantum dots. These “living materials” could potentially combine the advantages of living cells (responses to the environment and production of complex biological molecules) with the benefits of nonliving materials, such as conducting electricity or emitting light. The new materials could be used to design more complex devices such as solar cells, self-healing materials, or diagnostic sensors.

Rare New Microbe Found in Two Distant Clean Rooms

Scientists have discovered a new genus and species of bacteria, Tersicoccus phoenicis. It survives on very low nutrients and has been isolated in only 2 places on Earth: spacecraft clean rooms in Florida and South America. Tersi is Latin for clean, like the room. Coccus is Greek for berry, describing the bacterium's shape. Phoenicis is for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, the spacecraft being prepared for launch when the species was first collected. Other species of bacteria have been discovered in spacecraft clean rooms, but none have been found in 2 different clean rooms and nowhere else on Earth.

UCLA engineers develop new metabolic pathway to more efficiently convert sugars into biofuels

Scientists at UCLA have created a new synthetic metabolic pathway for hydrolyzing glucose that could lead to a 50% increase in the production of biofuels! Nearly all organisms use glycolysis to convert 4 of the 6 carbon atoms in glucose into 2-carbon molecules of acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA is used to make biofuels (ethanol & butanol), fatty acids, amino acids, and pharmaceutical products. The problem is that the 2 remaining carbon atoms in glucose are lost as carbon dioxide gas and this is seen as a major inefficiency in the biorefining process.

Cold, Salty and Promiscuous - Gene-shuffling Microbes Dominate Antarctica’s Deep Lake

Antarctica’s Deep Lake has been isolated from the ocean for 3,500 years. This unique saltwater ecosystem remains liquid in extreme cold and provides researchers a unique niche for studying the evolution of extremophiles. Deep Lake is dominated by haloarchaea, microbes that require high salt concentrations to grow and are naturally adapted to -20°C. In a detailed analysis published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers have, for the first time, been able to present Deep Lake’s microbial community ecology.

Nanoparticle vaccine offers better protection

Many viruses and bacteria infect humans through mucosal surfaces, such as those in the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and reproductive tracts. To help fight these pathogens, scientists are working on vaccines that can establish a front line of defense at mucosal surfaces. Only a few mucosal vaccines are in use and development of new mucosal vaccines could help protect against influenza, other respiratory viruses, HIV, herpes simplex virus, human papilloma virus, and possibly even cancer vaccines.

K-State Microbiology Club on Twitter

Are you interested in microbiology? Are you a pre-health or pre-vet major? If so, the KSU Microbiology Club is for you! It doesn't if you're a K-State Wildcat or not, this Twitter feed should be followed! 

Meet like-minded majors and begin to build your professional network of contacts.

Visit KSU Microbiology Club on Twitter HERE.

Visit the KSU Microbiology Club website HERE.

Scientists uncover how superbug fights off antibiotic

Investigators working to stem the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have taken a major step in their efforts to develop new treatments. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have identified a novel mechanism that the hard-to-treat superbug called vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) uses to fend off the key front-line antibiotic daptomycin. VRE often affects critically ill patients.

Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers

We are facing a global health crisis caused by an obesity epidemic. Scientists report the human gut microbial composition in a population sample of non-obese and obese individuals. The 2 groups differ in the number of gut microbial genes and thus gut bacterial richness. They contain known and previously unknown bacterial species at different proportions; individuals with a low bacterial richness (23% of the population) are characterized by more adiposity, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, and a more pronounced inflammatory phenotype when compared with high bacterial richness individuals. The obese individuals among the lower bacterial richness group also gain more weight over time. Only a few bacterial species are sufficient to distinguish between individuals with high and low bacterial richness, and even between lean and obese participants. Classifications based on variation in the gut microbiome identify subsets of individuals in the general population who may be at increased risk of progressing to adiposity-associated health problems.

The Next Big Microscopic Thing - Nanobugs, Inc.

Here a nice website with very basic info about microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites). The mission of Nanobugs, Inc. is to both entertain and educate people of all ages about practical microbiology for the purpose of infection prevention and health promotion. Their entertaining formats communicate knowledge that is both memorable and usable.

Learn Medical Microbiology

Check it out microbiology folks, a new flash card app for pathogenic microbes. SPOILER ALERT! They are not free. :-(

The Microbe Cards from Eye Cue Cards are designed to look like classic trading cards, with full color images, diagrams, and text for medically important microbes. The set has 103 cards organized into bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.

Drug-resistant MRSA bacteria: Here to stay in both hospital and community

The drug-resistant bac­te­ria known as MRSA, once con­fined to hos­pi­tals but now wide­spread in com­mu­ni­ties, will likely con­tinue to exist in both set­tings as sep­a­rate strains, accord­ing to a new study.

Check out every single kind of microbe in your body online — all 5 million of them

The initial phase of the Human Microbiome Project has come to an end — and with it, the mapping of the full community of microbes that inhabit all the various nooks and crannies of the healthy human body. The results of the exhaustive study will be published as a collection in PLoS, making their findings available to everyone.

Reports of rare superbug jump in US, CDC says

A sharp jump in the number of rare but potentially deadly types of a superbug resistant to nearly all last-resort antibiotics has prompted government health officials to renew warnings for U.S. hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings.

The move comes just as researchers are reporting that people who carry dangerous CRE -- Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae -- can take more than a year before they test negative for the bacteria, making it more difficult to control and raising the risk of wider spread.

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Found in 4-Million-Year-Old Cave

"Deep in the bowels of a pristine New Mexico cave, microbiologists have discovered nearly a hundred types of bacteria that can fight off modern antibiotic drugs."

Even though they have been isolated thousands of feet below the Earth's surface for millions of years, these bacteria exhibit resistance to antibiotic drugs, even newer, synthetic derivatives.

The discovery serves as an intriguing lead in the quest to understand how drug-resistant diseases emerge. It is now hypothesized that "drug resistance" genes may have evolved millions of years ago to confer resistance to other, naturally occurring substances.