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Category: Biology (page 13 of 63)

10.28.2013

bacterial profiles by ethnicity

A Venn diagram showing bacterial profiles by ethnicity.

A group of researchers can determine your ethnicity by sampling bacterial from your mouth. From Popular Science:

Almost 400 different species were thriving in the mouths of 100 people from four different ethnic backgrounds: African American, Caucasian, Latino and Chinese. Only 2 percent of bacterial species identified were present in every individual studied. Another 8 percent of species were shared by 90 percent of the participants. Each ethnic group displayed a distinct pattern of bacteria, especially under the gums. “This suggests that the host genotype influences the microbial community to a greater extent than shared environment,” the study’s authors write.”‘Nature’ appears to win over ‘nurture’ in shaping this community.”

The researchers were able to develop an algorithm that could predict an individual’s ethnicity based on bacteria from under their gums with 62 percent accuracy. The algorithm was able to classify the bacterial communities of African American participants 100 percent of the time, but wasn’t as accurate for other ethnicities.

Read the original research at PLOS One

10.09.2013

2013 nobels

Nobel_medal

The 2013 Nobel prizes in medicine, physics, and chemistry were awarded this week, with the medals for literature, peace and economics are yet to come.

In medicine, James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas Südhof received the prize for elucidating trafficking mechanisms within cells. Cells use vesicles (membrane enclosed bubbles) to transport different cargo between cellular compartments or to other cells. The three researchers won the award for discovering how these vesicles get directed to their intended target and how the cargo is eventually delivered. The Nobel summary can be found here.

In physics, the award goes to François Englert and Peter Higgs. Admittedly, I understand next to nothing about the Higgs boson, except that it is a subatomic particle that was confirmed to exist earlier this year. Particle physics is astonishing. You can read the summary here.

And in chemistry the prize goes to three scientists, Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel. These three chemists, have developed computational models for complex chemical systems. The researchers are being recognized for basically pioneering this whole field. The computations are relevant to multiple areas of chemistry including protein folding, electron transfer and catalysis. The Nobel report is here.

Congratulations to the newly minted laureates.

09.19.2013

more on the antibiotic resistance crisis

bacteriaThe New York Times editoriaizes on the CDC study that found 23,000 people a year die each year due to infections from drug resistant bacteria:

The new report, for the first time, puts 17 drug-resistant bacteria and a dangerous fungus into three categories based on how big a threat they pose. Three were deemed “urgent threats,” including a bacterium, known as CRE, that is resistant to most drugs and kills a high percentage of people who become infected with it. Though it is rare, causing 600 deaths a year, it has been identified in health facilities in 44 states. Further spread of the germ or transfer of its resistance genes to other germs could lead to a “nightmare scenario,” the agency said. Twelve drug-resistant strains, including such common germs as salmonella, tuberculosis and MRSA, were classified as “serious threats.”

Scientific American also covers a paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine that links pig manure fertilizer to MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infections in humans. From Scientific American:

The team analyzed cases of two different types of MRSA — community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA), which affected 1,539 patients, and health-care-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA), which affected 1,335 patients. (The two categories refer to where patients acquire the infection as well as the bacteria’s genetic lineages, but the distinction has grown fuzzier as more patients bring MRSA in and out of the hospital.) Then the researchers examined whether infected people lived near pig farms or agricultural land where pig manure was spread. They found that people who had the highest exposure to manure — calculated on the basis of how close they lived to farms, how large the farms were and how much manure was used — were 38% more likely to get CA-MRSA and 30% more likely to get HA-MRSA.

Expect to hear about this more and more.

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