New research from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine suggests that the lung microbiome plays a significant role in asthma severity and response to treatment.
Scientists around Tetyana Milojevic from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna are in search of unique biosignatures, which are left on synthetic extraterrestrial minerals by microbial activity. The biochemist and astrobiologist investigates these signatures at her own miniaturized "Mars farm" where she can observe interactions between the archaeon Metallosphaera sedula and Mars-like rocks. These microbes are capable of oxidizing and integrating metals into their metabolism. The original research was currently published in the journal "Frontiers in Microbiology".
Soil organisms are diverse, with characteristics that can astound. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) October 15 Soils Matter blog post explains which soil critters glow—and why.
Demonstrating the microfluidic-based, mini-metagenomics approach on samples from hot springs shows how scientists can delve into microbes that can’t be cultivated in a laboratory.
A new mouse study found that, even in immunized animals, noroviruses can escape the immune system and still spread by hiding out in an extremely rare type of cell in the gut.
A team of researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health has received a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how gut bacteria play a role in the development of diabetes among residents of Starr County, Texas.
Scientists have determined that fungus may play a key role in chronic intestinal inflammation disorders. They found that patients with Crohn’s disease tend to have much higher levels of the fungus Candida tropicalis compared to their healthy family members. A new review published in Digestive and Liver Disease looks at these findings and provides insights into potential new therapeutic approaches using antifungals and probiotics in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease (CD).
UCLA researchers have demonstrated for the first time that black tea may promote weight loss and other health benefits by changing bacteria in the gut.
Researchers at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech have released findings that explain how a type of healthy bacteria in yogurt and other dairy products might reduce disease symptoms in certain patients with lupus.
Researchers at the University of Delaware are looking at ways to improve gut health of livestock animals. Many of the projects are funded by industry and look at mechanisms for antibiotic alternatives such as yeast cell wall extracts, feed enzymes and feed modifiers.
A new study of the human microbiome has uncovered millions of previously unknown genes from microbial communities in the human gut, skin, mouth, and vaginal microbiome, allowing for new insights into the role these microbes play in human health and disease.
A recent report from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Working Group on the role of microbiota in blood pressure regulation underscored “there is a critical need to discover novel and innovative ways to address the blood pressure control issue.”
UT Southwestern researchers have uncovered new clues about how gut bacteria and the body’s circadian clock work together to promote body fat accumulation.
How did the gut, the skin and musculature evolve? This question concerns scientists for more than a century. Through the investigation of the embryonic development of sea anemones, a very old animal lineage, researchers from the University of Vienna have now come to conclusions which challenge the 150 year-old hypothesis of the homology (common evolutionary origin) of the germ layers that form all later organs and tissues.
A study led by scientists at Harvard Medical School reveals that a gene that has a protective influence against diabetes is powerfully shaped by the trillions of intestinal bacteria collectively known as the gut microbiota.
Soils can be extraordinarily biodiverse and differ widely in the kinds of microbial communities that inhabit them. Without a vibrant soil microbial community, humans would not be able to depend on soil for food and other ecosystem services. The “Life Underground: Who, Where, Why?” lecture planned at the Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting in Tampa, FL, will address this important topic.
If our microbiome overindulges, we might not have access to the nutrients we need. That’s the suggestion from new research conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Federico Rey’s group that shows mice that harbor high levels of microbes that eat choline are deprived of this essential nutrient.
The public's help is being enlisted in the Microbiome Immunity Project, what's thought to be the biggest study to date of the human microbiome — the communities of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on the human body, where they influence our health.
Elite athletes work hard to excel in sports, but they may also get a natural edge from the bacteria that inhabit their digestive tracts. Scientists have now tapped into the microbiome of exceptional runners and rowers, and have identified particular bacteria that may aid athletic performance. The goal is to develop probiotic supplements that may help athletes — and even amateur fitness enthusiasts — recover from a tough workout or more efficiently convert nutrients to energy.
Researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, with colleagues from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center, have determined that a specific region of the small bowel, called the duodenal-jejunal flexure or DJF, shows a high frequency of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) with mutations of the NF1 gene.
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have demonstrated for the first time using micromotors to treat a bacterial infection in the stomach. These tiny vehicles, each about half the width of a human hair, swim rapidly throughout the stomach while neutralizing gastric acid and then release their cargo of antibiotics at the desired pH.
Biologists conducted the first large-scale experiment on a Superfund site using poplar trees fortified with a probiotic — or natural microbe — to clean up groundwater contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE.
In Nature Biotechnology, an international team led by DOE Joint Genome Institute researchers has developed standards for the minimum metadata to be supplied with single amplified genomes (SAGs) and metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) submitted to public databases.
Microbiome researchers Rob Knight, PhD, University of California San Diego, Jeffrey Gordon, MD, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Norman Pace, PhD, University of Colorado Boulder, will share this year’s Massry Prize, splitting the $200,000 honorarium. These researchers lead a field that works to produce a detailed understanding of microbiomes andand methods for manipulating them for the benefit of human and environmental health.
Mayo Clinic researchers, along with colleagues at the University of Iowa, report that a human gut microbe discovered at Mayo Clinic may help treat autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. The findings appear in Cell Reports.
Rodeo Therapeutics, a new drug development company created by two highly regarded Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers, has raised $5.9 million to develop small-molecule drugs that promote the body’s repair of diseased or damaged tissues.
Researchers in Georgia State University’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences have received a four-year, $1.4 million federal grant to study novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of intestinal inflammation.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a particular gut microbe can prevent severe flu infections in mice, likely by breaking down naturally occurring compounds — called flavonoids — commonly found in foods such as black tea, red wine and blueberries.
The combination of a bacterium that normally lives in the gut and a protein-rich diet promotes a more tolerant, less inflammatory gut immune system, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings, in mice, suggest a way to tilt the gut immune system away from inflammation, potentially spelling relief for people living with inflammatory bowel disease.
Researchers at Michigan Medicine and in China showed that a type of bacterium is associated with the recurrence of colorectal cancer and poor outcomes. They found that Fusobacterium nucleatum in the gut can stop chemotherapy from causing a type of cancer cell death called apoptosis.
In saliva, scientists have found hints that a “ghost” species of archaic humans may have contributed genetic material to ancestors of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa today.
The research adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that sexual rendezvous between different archaic human species may not have been unusual.
University of Delaware researchers have been awarded a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation that will be used to study how microbe genes get toggled off or on. This research is a major driver of precision medicine and its personalized treatments for diseases in humans today.
Can the kinds of microbes colonizing the gut at age 1 predict later cognitive development? Findings from the UNC School of Medicine shed light on the surprising role of bacteria in how our brains develop during the first years of life.
It lurks in hospitals and nursing homes, preying upon patients already weak from disease or advanced age. It kills nearly 30,000 Americans a year, and sickens half a million more. But new research shows that Clostridium difficile bacteria can’t do this without enough of a humble nutrient: calcium. That new knowledge may lead to better treatments.
Bugs in your eyes may be a good thing. Resident microbes living on the eye are essential for immune responses that protect the eye from infection, new research shows. The study, which appears in the journal Immunity on July 11, demonstrates the existence of a resident ocular microbiome that trains the developing immune system to fend off pathogens. The research was conducted at the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
A study by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine shows that when mice that are genetically susceptible to developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were given antibiotics during late pregnancy and the early nursing period, their offspring were more likely to develop an inflammatory condition of the colon that resembles human IBD.
Millions of U.S. residents take proton pump inhibitors which are widely prescribed to treat heartburn, ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems. Now, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that long-term use of the popular drugs carries an increased risk of death.
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found evidence that the most difficult C. difficile cases, known as multiple recurring C. difficile infections (mrCDI), are rapidly becoming more common.
Based on a new molecular study of tissues biopsied from various parts of the upper digestive tract, researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified significant, if subtle, differences in gene mutations and other factors that could help in developing more tailored treatment options for cancer patients.
Researchers have identified gut microbiota that interact with brain regions associated with mood and behavior. This may be the first time that behavioral and neurobiological differences associated with microbial composition in healthy humans have been identified.
A research group in the division of Gastroenterology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has received a National Cancer Institute grant to extend a Barrett's Esophagus translational research network with Columbia University and the Mayo Clinic until 2022.
Beer lovers may soon have a gut-friendly drink to raise a toast to, thanks to the creation of a novel probiotic sour beer by a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is one of the most studied spills in history, yet scientists haven’t agreed on the role of microbes in eating up the oil. Now a research team at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified all of the principal oil-degrading bacteria as well as their mechanisms for chewing up the many different components that make up the released crude oil.
Much the way every person has a unique microbial cloud around them, ships might also carry distinct microbial signatures. The key is testing the right waters--the bilge water from the bottoms of ships.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have shown a high fat diet may lead to specific changes in gut bacteria that could fight harmful inflammation.
A microscopic fungus called Candida tropicalis triggered gut inflammation and exacerbated symptoms of Crohn’s disease, in a recent study conducted at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
The use of topical antibiotics can dramatically alter communities of bacteria that live on the skin, while the use of antiseptics has a much smaller, less durable impact. The study, conducted in mice in the laboratory of Elizabeth Grice, PhD, an assistant professor of Dermatology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is the first to show the long-term effects of antimicrobial drugs on the skin microbiome.
One in three people has a potentially nasty parasite hiding inside their body -- tucked away in tiny cysts that the immune system can’t eliminate and antibiotics can’t touch. But new research reveals clues about how to stop it: Interfere with its digestion during this stubborn dormant phase.
UAB researchers have made the first direct demonstration that fecal donor microbes remained in recipients for months or years after a transplant to treat the diarrhea and colitis caused by recurrent Clostridium difficile infections.