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Published on July 9, 2018
Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) say they have adapted an existing technique to study the melting behavior of proteins so that it can be used for the study of bacteria. Antibiotic resistance is spreading worldwide so there is a strong need for new technologies to study bacteria, according to…
Published on February 7, 2017
“Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes really… pressure… and time…,” bellows Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, when foreshadowing his friend Andy Dufresne’s harrowing escape from prison in the critically acclaimed movie Shawshank Redemption. Oddly enough, this same logic can be applied to antibiotic resistance, although…
Published on March 9, 2016
It’s a first—a study that tracks antimicrobial use and resistance through the entire beef production process. And it has surprising results. First, an examination of samples from 1741 cattle yielded no resistance genes. Second, an examination of environmental samples from cattle pens revealed the presence of genes that confer resistance…
Published on April 17, 2023
Decisions about how to treat antimicrobial resistance can be made much faster with metagenomic sequencing than by conventional laboratory tests, new research shows. This approach could save lives and better manage care. In this study, rapid metagenomics provided accurate results within just six hours. The new research was presented at…
Published on September 21, 2022
OpGen announced Tuesday it has signed a research and development collaboration agreement with FIND, a global alliance focused on bringing diagnostics throughout the developing world, for a feasibility study on the use of Unyvero A30 RQ platform for use in rapid pathogen ID and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) testing from blood…
Published on January 15, 2018
BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and Check-Points Health B.V., said today they have gained the CE Mark designation in Europe for a next-generation molecular screening test for antibiotic-resistant carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPOs) using the fully-automated BD MAX system. The BD MAX Check-Points CPO assay is designed to detect the five most…
Published on January 3, 2024
A new antibiotic class that works against multidrug-resistant bacteria has been discovered, offering new opportunities to tackle these dangerous microbes. The macrocyclic peptide zosurabalpin showed promising antibacterial activity against Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), according to two papers published in the journal Nature. The Gram-negative bacteria is deemed an urgent threat by the U.S.…
Published on September 7, 2023
A novel test that shapes pathogen nucleic acid into nanoballs could provide a cheap, sensitive way to detect such infections without the need for laboratory analysis, making it particularly useful for low-resource settings. The self-assembling nanoballs pass through a simple electrical detection system, where they disrupt the current to identify…
Published on June 21, 2023
Sporting an all-star team of scientific founders that includes Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, Joe DeRisi, PhD, Michael Wilson, MD, Pardis Sabeti, MD, DPhil, and Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, Delve Bio announced its launch via a $35 million Series A financing that will help commercialize its metagenomic sequencing platform for infectious…
Published on May 31, 2023
SNIPR Biome, a Danish biotech combining CRISPR gene editing and microbiome-based technology, has achieved good initial results in a Phase I trial of its therapy to target Escherichia coli infections in vulnerable cancer patients. Currently known as SNIPR001, the therapy being tested combines four CRISPR-armed bacteriophages that selectively target and…
Published on September 27, 2022
U.S researchers have developed a rapid processing system that can dramatically improve the time taken to detect bacterial and fungal infections in the bloodstream, potentially allowing faster administration of antibiotics. The culture-free, “biphasic” approach enables pathogen DNA to be amplified directly from just 1 ml of whole blood, reducing the…
Published on August 16, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has really highlighted the need for effective genomic pathogen surveillance and allowed researchers around the world to hone their skills and technology. While these advances are not in doubt, whether they are maintained and used to help prevent new pandemics and fight global threats such as antimicrobial…
Published on July 29, 2022
Over 200 million predicted protein structures have been made freely available by Google offshoot DeepMind and the intergovernmental European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Their AlphaFold Protein Structure Database uses artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast the 3D shape of nearly all catalogued proteins known to science, covering almost every organism that has…
Published on June 22, 2022
Research led by Stanford University shows that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), the bacteria responsible for causing typhoid fever, is mutating and becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and these resistant strains are spreading quickly. Jason Andrews, an associate professor at Stanford University, and colleagues found almost all the resistant…
Published on April 11, 2022
Scientists at MIT have created a genetically engineered strain of Lactococcus lactis bacteria that can break down beta-lactam antibiotics, such as ampicillin and amoxicillin, in the gut that can harm beneficial bacteria in the gut microbiome. As observed in a mouse model, the advantage of this strategy is that levels…