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Close Up Look at a Microbial Vaccination Program

By Guest PostOctober 3, 2011Health, Sciencebacterium, berkeley lab, blake wiedenheft, casa, casb, case, cells, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repea, complex of proteins, crispr, cryo electron microscopy, e coli, escherichia coli, eva nogales, gabriel lander, human pathogens, immune system, infections by bacteria, invading pathogens, jennifer doudna, john van der oost, kaihong zhou, microbe, microbial, microbial immune systems, microbiome, perturbations, protein complex called cascade, seahorse, short interfering rnas, sirnas, symbioses, toxins, unit of dna, viruses

*Berkeley Lab Researchers Resolve Sub-nanometer Structure of Cascade, an Ally for Human Immune System*

A complex of proteins in the bacterium E.coli that plays a critical role in defending the microbe from viruses and other invaders has been discovered to have the shape of a seahorse by researchers with the U.S Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This discovery holds far more implications for your own health than you might think.

In its never-ending battle to protect you from infections by bacteria, viruses, toxins and other invasive elements, your immune system has an important ally – many allies in fact. By the time you reach adulthood, some 90-percent of the cells in your body are microbial. These microbes – collectively known as the microbiome – play a critical role in preserving the health of their human host. (more…)

New Understanding of How Humans and the Environment Interact

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Environmentadaptation to climate change, ancient maya, animal populations in the chobe river region of botswana, cnh, dynamics of coupled natural and human systems program, e coli, earth natural systems, eastern africa, ecosystem services, environmental change today, ignacio peralta, justin brashares, microbe, national science foundation, sarah ruth, sierra foothills of california, steven beissinger, tom baerwald, water quality and environmental health in botswana, wetlands

*National Science Foundation Grants Awarded for Research on Coupled Natural and Human Systems*

Water quality and environmental health in Botswana; wetlands in a working landscape; the collapse of the ancient Maya and what that has to tell us about society and environmental change today.

These and other projects that address how humans and the environment interact are the focus of $21 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to scientists, engineers and educators across the country to study coupled natural and human systems. (more…)

Study: Consumers Value Safer Food More Than Current Analyses Suggest

By Guest PostFebruary 9, 2011Economy, Healthassess the value, brian roe, consumer behavior, contamination, cost benefit analyses, cost of illness, deaths, e coli, eat bad food, economic model, food borne illnesses, food safety, government regulators, hamburger, hypothetical scenarios, kidney damage, mario teisl, pathogen, predict, roe and teisl, shiga toxin, usda

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Government regulators could more realistically assess the value of improving food safety if they considered the fact that consumers typically want to avoid getting sick – even if it means they have to pay a little extra for safer food, researchers say.

In the world of food regulation, cost-benefit analyses are a primary tool for assessing the societal benefits of mandating more stringent – and more expensive – processing practices. In most cases, regulators determine a dollar value associated with pursuing new rules by estimating how many illnesses and deaths the safer processing would prevent. (more…)

Will This Be The End of Hamburger Disease?

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2010Health, Sciencebacteria, blood vessels, cow, dairy products, e coli, e coli bacterium, e coli o157:h7, ethanolamine, food contamination, food poisoning, hamburger disease, human infections, intestine, josée harel, kidney failure, meat, nitrogen, projectsafebeef, raw milk, red blood cells, veterinary medicine

E. coli bacteria. Image credit: University of Montreal

Hamburger disease, a debilitating form of food poisoning, may be a thing of the past. New findings from an international research collaboration conducted by the French National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), involving the Université de Montréal are the first to show how the contaminating E.coli bacterium is able to survive in the competitive environment of a cow’s intestine by scavenging specific food sources. Published in this month’s Environmental Microbiology, and featured in Nature Reviews Microbiology, this study may lead to non-medicinal methods for eradicating this invasive bug.

“We studied E.coli O157:H7, which is the most prevalent species of bacteria associated with larger outbreaks,” says Josée Harel, co-author of the study and director of the Groupe de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses du Porc at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. “These outbreaks have been associated with direct contact with the farm environment and with the consumption of meat, raw milk and dairy products. Reduction or eradication of O157:H7 in cows will lead to a substantial decrease in food contamination and consequential human infections.” (more…)

Bacteria Make Thrift a Habit

By Guest PostAugust 26, 2010Scienceamino acids, bacteria, bacterial protein, bacterium, balance function, curli, daniel smith, e coli, economic cost, escherichia coli, fibers, flagellu, glycine, illness, matthew chapman, mbio, metabolic, microbes, proteins, smith and chapman, ssga, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— In these lean times, smart consumers refuse to pay a lot for throwaway items, but will shell out a little more for products that can be used again and again. The same is true of bacteria and other microbes, researchers at the University of Michigan have learned.

(more…)

Tag Archives: e coli

Close Up Look at a Microbial Vaccination Program

New Understanding of How Humans and the Environment Interact

Study: Consumers Value Safer Food More Than Current Analyses Suggest

Will This Be The End of Hamburger Disease?

Bacteria Make Thrift a Habit