Certain bacteria can override a defence mechanism of the immune system, so called programmed cell death, through inhibition of death effector molecules by their outer membranes components. Shigella bacteria, which cause diarrhoea, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 27, 2019
0
672
Imagine there are arrows that are lethal when fired on your enemies yet harmless if they fall on your friends. It's easy to see how these would be an amazing advantage in warfare, if they were real. However, something just ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 7, 2021
0
1511
Day in and day out, in our bodies, the DNA in cells is damaged for a variety of reasons, and thus intercellular DNA-repair systems are fundamental to the maintenance of life. Now scientists from the UNC School of Medicine ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 7, 2017
0
1771
Penicillin, the wonder drug discovered in 1928, works in ways that are still mysterious almost a century later. One of the oldest and most widely used antibiotics, it attacks enzymes that build the bacterial cell wall, a ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 5, 2014
0
1
Sarecycline, a drug approved for use in the United States in 2018, is the first new antibiotic approved to treat acne in more than 40 years. Now, researchers at Yale and the University of Illinois-Chicago have discovered ...
Biochemistry
Aug 3, 2020
0
27
Sick wild house mice spend time away from their social groups, leading to a decrease in their potential for disease transmission according to a new study by evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich in collaboration ...
Evolution
Aug 22, 2016
0
62
A component of the human intestinal flora that has been little studied to date is the focus of a new study from Germany. Plasmids are small extrachromosomal genetic elements that frequently occur in bacterial cells and can ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 16, 2024
0
104
Bacteria known as group B Streptococcus (GBS) are a common cause of blood infections, meningitis and stillbirth in newborns. Although GBS infections can often be treated or prevented with antibiotics, the bacteria are becoming ...
Biochemistry
Aug 22, 2021
1
1519
Humans' guts are a dangerous place.
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 30, 2019
0
785
Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don't. Assembling this tough armor entails multiple steps, some of which are targeted by antibiotics like penicillin and vancomycin.
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 11, 2017
0
475
