Associations between the human microbiome and health outcomes are facilitating the development of microbiome-targeted recommendations and treatments to help prevent and treat disease.
To study microbes, scientists need to collect, process, and share data in a standardized way. The National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) Ambassador Program launched in 2021 to increase awareness and adoption of microbiome metadata standards. During the program’s year-long term in 2021 and 2022, more than 800 researchers attended 23 Ambassador-hosted presentations.
Alzheimer’s disease causes changes to the brain that begin two decades or more before symptoms appear. A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that the bacteria that live in the gut also change before Alzheimer’s symptoms arise, a discovery that could lead to diagnostics or treatments for Alzheimer’s disease that target the gut microbiome.
Newborns delivered by cesarean section who are swabbed with the vaginal fluid of their mothers after birth have beneficial bacteria restored to their skin surface and stools, according to a new study. In the first randomized study of its kind, published in the science journal mBio, a team of researchers found the process, known as vaginal seeding, definitively engrafted new strains of maternal bacteria in the babies’ bodies.
Director Joseph Mougous notes that interbacterial interactions affect humans in many ways, such as whether certain pathogens succeed in invading the gastrointestinal tract. Mougous has published findings about the bacterial battles that occur even amongst the beneficial microbes in our gut, where the outcome can ultimately also influence health.
In a comprehensive metagenomic study, DZIF scientists Prof. Bärbel Stecher and Prof. Alice McHardy, together with an international research team, investigated the evolution of intestinal bacteria exposed to repeated disruptions by antibiotics.
Reporters and bloggers are invited to join top nutrition experts for a dynamic program at NUTRITION 2023. The annual flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition runs July 22-25 at the Sheraton Boston and features research announcements, expert discussions, and more.
Microbes are by far the most important factor in determining how much carbon is stored in the soil, according to a new study with implications for mitigating climate change and improving soil health for agriculture and food production.
Microbes drive key processes of life on Earth. Research constantly expands the database of microbial DNA sequences but does not provide full biological information about proteins. To engineer microbes, scientists need a fuller understanding of protein function. Scientists currently infer protein function by comparing it with reference databases, but this process is slow. To address this challenge, scientists developed Snekmer, a machine learning-based tool for modeling protein function.
A new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has demonstrated that IgA acts as a “tuner” that regulates the number of microbes the body sees every day, restraining the systemic immune response to these commensal microbes and limiting the development of systemic immune dysregulation.
Scientists at McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used artificial intelligence to discover a new antibiotic which could be used to fight a deadly, drug-resistant pathogen that strikes vulnerable hospital patients.
A new tool which could help reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance is showing early promise, through exploiting a bacterial immune system as a gene editing tool.
The gut microbial community structure—communities of bacteria, viruses and fungi that live in the intestines—influences the inflammatory response in the lungs of aging mice, according to researchers from the Institute of Functional Anatomy at Charité, the Medical University of Berlin in Germany.
A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the ability of microorganisms to adapt to climate warming will slow down global warming by storing carbon in soil.
Researchers in UNC’s School of Medicine’s department of Microbiology and Immunology and the UNC-NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a new strategy to improve drug-delivery into chronic wounds infections.
University of Delaware researchers have developed a new technique to catch bacteria in the act, detecting it on produce before it reaches stores, restaurants and consumers' plates. The new platform can detect foodborne pathogens in three to six hours.
New research, published in Sciences Advances, has discovered a Chlamydia-like bacteria in corals of the Great Barrier Reef that could help scientists understand the coral microbiome and its potential impact on coral reef health.