News tagged with pathogens
50-year cholera mystery solved: Answers may help clear the way for a new class of antibiotics
For 50 years scientists have been unsure how the bacteria that gives humans cholera manages to resist one of our basic innate immune responses. That mystery has now been solved, thanks to research from biologists at The University ...
May 29, 2012 |
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What makes a worm say 'yuck'
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) say they have uncovered a way that animals detect pathogens in their bodies that allows their systems to respond before cellular damage ...
May 15, 2012 |
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Diagnostic labs analyze from bugs to toenails
Found an odd bug in your closet? Rhododendrons inexplicably wilting? Need a toenail analyzed? There's a lab for that.
May 25, 2012 |
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Study unravels origin of devastating kiwifruit bacterium
An international research team led by Virginia Tech Associate Professor Boris Vinatzer and Giorgio Balestra of the University of Tuscia in Italy has used the latest DNA sequencing technology to trace a devastating ...
May 09, 2012 |
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New technology uses solar UV to disinfect drinking water
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Purdue University researchers has invented a prototype water-disinfection system that could help the world's 800 million people who lack safe drinking water.
Sep 29, 2011 |
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Research team gives drug dropouts a second chance
(Phys.org) -- A cross-disciplinary team of researchers at the University of Maryland has designed a molecular container that can hold drug molecules and increase their solubility, in one case up to nearly ...
May 07, 2012 |
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Fighting bacteria's strength in numbers
Scientists at The University of Nottingham have opened the way for more accurate research into new ways to fight dangerous bacterial infections by proving a long-held theory about how bacteria communicate ...
May 17, 2012 |
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Researchers reconstruct genome of the Black Death
led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany -- has sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in human history.
Oct 12, 2011 |
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A new optical microscopy approach opens the door to better observations in molecular biology
Researchers from the Institut Pasteur and CNRS have set up a new optical microscopy approach that combines two recent imaging techniques in order to visualize molecular assemblies without affecting their biological ...
May 17, 2012 |
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Study finds a weak spot on deadly ebolavirus
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the US Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have isolated and analyzed an antibody that neutralizes Sudan virus, a major species of ebolavirus ...
Nov 21, 2011 |
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Identical virus, host populations can prevail for centuries
A Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist, analyzing ancient plankton DNA signatures in sediments of the Black Sea, has found for the first time that the same genetic populations of a virus and its algal host ...
Jul 21, 2011 |
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Bees 'self-medicate' when infected with some pathogens
Research from North Carolina State University shows that honey bees "self-medicate" when their colony is infected with a harmful fungus, bringing in increased amounts of antifungal plant resins to ward off ...
Mar 30, 2012 |
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Manipulating genes with hidden TALENs
(PhysOrg.com) -- A better understanding of gene function in model plant and animal systems could be used to develop useful traits in livestock and crop plants, and might someday lead to developments in stem ...
Feb 13, 2012 |
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Powerful fungal infection drug amphotericin kills yeast by simply binding ergosterol
With one simple experiment, University of Illinois chemists have debunked a widely held misconception about an often-prescribed drug.
Jan 16, 2012 |
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New antibiotic could make food safer and cows healthier
Food-borne diseases might soon have another warrior to contend with, thanks to a new molecule discovered by chemists at the University of Illinois. The new antibiotic, an analog of the widely used food preservative ...
Mar 19, 2012 |
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Pathogen
A pathogen (from Greek πάθος path "suffering, passion", and γἰγνομαι (γεν-) gignomai (gen-) "I give birth to"), infectious agent, or (more commonly) germ, is a biological agent that causes disease or illness to its host. There are several substrates and pathways whereby pathogens can invade a host; the principal pathways have different episodic time frames, but soil contamination has the longest or most persistent potential for harboring a pathogen.
The body contains many natural defenses against some of the common pathogens (such as Pneumocystis) in the form of the human immune system and by some "helpful" bacteria present in the human body's normal flora. However, if the immune system or "good" bacteria is damaged in any way (such as by chemotherapy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), or antibiotics being taken to kill other pathogens), pathogenic bacteria that were being held at bay can proliferate and cause harm to the host. Such cases are called opportunistic infection.
Some pathogens (such as the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which may have caused the Black Plague, the Variola virus, and the Maleria protozoa) have been responsible for massive numbers of casualties and have had numerous effects on afflicted groups. Of particular note in modern times is HIV, which is known to have infected several million humans globally, along with the Influenza virus. Today, while many medical advances have been made to safeguard against infection by pathogens, through the use of vaccination, antibiotics, and fungicide, pathogens continue to threaten human life. Social advances such as food safety, hygiene, and water treatment have reduced the threat from some pathogens.
Not all pathogens are negative. In entomology, pathogens are one of the "Three P's" (predators, pathogens, and parasitoids) that serve as natural or introduced biological controls to suppress arthropod pest populations.
For more information about Pathogen, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
