Communicable diseases remain one of the major causes of mortality worldwide. There are disparities in the numbers of individuals affected by disease between low-and-middle-income countries and those in developed nations. Microbes will play in important role in drug discovery: producing anticancer drugs and antimicrobials. Applying One Health principles, to understand the interaction of pathogens and the human host, development of diagnostics, treatments, and disease prevention, applied microbiologists can shape global health and wellbeing outcomes.
Airborne diseases like measles, influenza and COVID-19 can easily spread between units in multi-family buildings via a type of bathroom ventilation system commonly used around the world, new research suggests.
Read storyFriendly skin bacteria could hold the key to stopping eczema in its tracks, according to researchers. A new study reveals harmless microbes living on our skin release powerful molecules that can shut down the inflammatory chaos triggered by Staphylococcus aureus, the bug long known to wreak havoc in eczema.
In light of the hantavirus outbreak, public health experts have called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to shift its default response to emerging respiratory viruses. The starting point should not be to downplay the risk of airborne transmission until it is definitively proven, they warned.
Researchers contend that studies of infection-associated chronic illnesses such as Lyme disease and COVID-19 suffer recurring problems such as the failure to prove participants have the relevant pathogen.
Every year, millions of gallons of wine are pressed, leaving behind a mountain of pulpy residue that wineries struggle to dispose of. Now, researchers say this overlooked byproduct could serve as a replacement for the antibiotics routinely added to chicken feed.
Researchers in the UK have shown how the distributions of two phytoplankton groups – known to produce natural toxins that can halt shellfish harvesting – have changed in the North East Atlantic over the last six decades.
Researchers investigated why some people with chronic hepatitis B infections went off their medications, only for the virus to start to come back — and then some of the patients were cured. It appears a certain type of T cell, some of which coordinate immune responses, spots the infection in the liver and mobilizes an attack.
A team of bioengineers has developed a new way to create highly realistic “mock” patient samples that could help accelerate the development of faster, more accessible cervical cancer screening tests for low-resource settings.
New research shows that chemicals leaching from everyday PVC—especially after exposure to sunlight—can dramatically speed up the spread of resistance genes between bacteria. The effect was strongest at low to moderate concentrations, where the leachate triggered bacterial stress responses without killing the microbes.
The industrial application of Monascus pigments has been hindered by three key bottlenecks: unstable yield, poor environmental stability, and the risk of contamination by citrinin. Researchers adopted an epigenetic derepression strategy to unlock the hidden biosynthetic potential of MPs in Talaromyces purpurogenus OUCMDZ-019.
Researchers have developed a novel, AI-powered method for turning promising but imperfect antibiotic candidates into more potent ones. ApexGO starts with a small number of imperfect candidates and improves them step by step, using a predictive algorithm to evaluate each modification and guide the next.
A research team has demonstrated that measuring influenza viral RNA in wastewater can be used to estimate community influenza incidence. The approach may help identify outbreak trends about one week earlier than publicly available patient report data.
A new study demonstrates that there is a correlation between gut microbiota and body weight. Researchers also observed that having a high BMI is detrimental to gut microbiota.
With millions of soccer fans set to descend on North America for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, experts from Georgetown University and MedStar Health have launched a pioneering Health Security Operations Center (HSOC) to monitor infectious disease transmission and mitigate global health risks.
A new artificial intelligence framework will alert water managers to E. coli contamination risk before anyone falls sick. The AI-powered predictive modeling framework uses environmental and hydrometeorological data to provide early warnings of contamination in recreational waterways.
Malaria kills more than half a million people every year, but a new vaccine is showing promise as it not only offers long-lasting strong protection but also inhibits transmission of malaria by mosquitos. The vaccine is predicted to be low cost and its cold-chain independence strongly enhances its deployability.
We get to know Professor Liang Wang, who has just been appointed as new Lead Editor in Microbiology in Health and Disease at the Journal of Applied Microbiology.
Researchers have developed a novel chemical compound that shows promise for the treatment and prevention of malaria, one of the world’s deadliest diseases. T111 has the potential to become a single-encounter malaria drug that would simplify treatment and prevent relapses that drive ongoing transmission.
Immunosenescence increases susceptibility to infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) in older adults and hinder effective containment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during therapeutic intervention.
Andelyn Biosciences has announced the launch of its LVV Curator® Platform, a standardized lentiviral vector (LVV) manufacturing solution built on the same proven modular approach that supports clinical and commercial adeno-associated virus (AAV) programs.
A new commentary highlights the time course of serological and liver enzyme elevations in mild versus severe dengue, emphasizes early recognition of progression to acute liver failure, and reviews current vaccination and prevention strategies.
An early warning system for sepsis, one of the deadliest infections for hospital patients, has been approved for use by the FDA, one of the first AI-based medical tools to get clearance. The tool detects sepsis hours faster than doctors and has reduced deaths by nearly 20%.
A group of researchers has discovered that Akkermansia bacteria are not unique to our guts, but can also be found in the ocean. In both habitats they use similar skills to ensure their survival and success. They seem to carry an old and widespread survival toolkit.