When sneezing and a prickly throat signal an oncoming cold, many people reach for what they believe will be a safe preventative ? a tea or capsule containing echinacea. In the first study to examine the effects of a botanical supplement on bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, research at the University of Arkansas suggests people may be risking some unwelcome side effects with this common herbal remedy.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a new website today offering technologies available for commercial licensing that are related to rare diseases or conditions. The listing can be found at http://www.ott.nih.gov/rarediseases and currently consists of more than 500 such technologies, including drugs, biologics, and devices, available to be transferred from the NIH and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the private sector for further research and development and potential commercialization.
How does an organism know when it must produce a protein and in what amount? Clever control mechanisms are responsible for the regulation of protein biosynthesis. One such type of mechanism, discovered only a few years ago, is riboswitches, which function as a sort of “off” switch for the production of certain proteins.
Approx. 100 people were reported to have fallen sick with an acute bacterial infection E. Coli after eating contaminated green onions at fast food chain Taco Bell restaurants in US.
CQU Rockhampton is now the headquarters of an Australian research team seeking better ways to prevent respiratory infections which kill millions of people worldwide every year.
This tip sheet provides summaries of the studies published in the November/December issue of Annals of Family Medicine and cover topics such as antibiotic use for rhinosinusitis and sore throat, the impact of the 2004 flu vaccine shortage and other clinical topics.
Version 2.0 of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute has been released to the public. The content of IMG 2.0 has been entirely refreshed and extended with the latest versions of genomes available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s (NCBI) Reference Sequence collection (RefSeq).
A recent University of Iowa study reveals a new immune defense mechanism in normal airways and may help explain why people with cystic fibrosis (CF) are particularly susceptible to bacterial lung infections. The findings also may point the way to new approaches for treating the disease.
Anthrax, when inhaled, is nearly always fatal, in part because the bacteria have a very effective way of stealing iron from human cells to reproduce. This involves two molecules, siderophores, that compete with the body’s own iron-transport molecules. UC Berkeley researchers have now found that humans produce a protein that sidelines one of these siderophores, but not the other. A drug that blocks the second siderophore should be able to stop anthrax in its tracks.
Living in a home with multiple dogs may help reduce an infant’s risk for developing wheezing in the first year of life, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC).