WSU BIOL209 Microbiology

Exciting experimental treatment that stops cancer cells. The treatment uses the patient's own T-cells(disease fighting cells) and uses some sort of virus as a vector to change those cells into cancer fighting cells. My concern was was is there a damage done to other immune systems cells that also have the CD19 molecule on their surface? dendritic cells to name, which is mandatory for the body to fight both bacterial as well as viral infections. You wipe the dendritic cells and that introduces opportunistic infections. Regardless amazing news.

The Ottawa Hospital has been severely criticized in a report about practices and hygiene. The report was commissioned following a high number of Clostridium difficile cases over a two year period. This is especially relevant to me because it encompasses both CLS and microbiology.

A sad reminder of why we use proper sterilization techniques.

If this was around during the discovery of antibody structure we might not have Fc and Fab regions!

This could help researchers find a vaccine for this disease, which has symptoms closely related to Dengue Fever.

The article shows a new strain of bird flu H7N9.  The virus has a hard time infecting humans, but for every one human infected there are thousands of birds infected.  This strain is less harmful than H5N1, but still one death has been reported.

Viruses are smarter then we ever imagined!! Researchers have realized that virus have their own time-clock. Virus's take about 8 hours to sufficiently make copies and overtake our bodies. They slowly build in our bodies, before the body actually realizes what is happening - by that time it is too late. Researchers are now tricking viruses into changing the time needed to overtake the body - making the body react quicker and kill the virus. The flu vaccine is still the best way, however, if we can fool the time it takes for a virus to overthrow the body - can we stop it in general? 

Even though this article is taken from the opinions page of the NY Times, it still discusses a rather important issue. Sometimes the old saying "A little dirt never hurt" rings oh so true.

Possibly a budding career field for future microbiologists?

Scientist have a found innate protein that increases inflammation and,agents that block it, resulting in increased in survival and improved lung function in animal models pneumonia. "The F-box protein Fbxo3, and other related proteins, represent ideal targets for treatment of acute lung injury, because it controls the innate immune response, is upstream of important inflammatory signaling pathways, and is more selective than traditional drugs that regulate protein turnover" noted Mark T Gladwin M.D., chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Pitt School of Medicine.

Bacteria Can Bypass Blood-Brain Barrier? It's a surprise to researchers who believed the brain-blood barrier created an impenetrable fortress. How are molecules from dirt getting into white matter-and what are they doing up there? 

Interesting article about how specific atomic interactions within the ribosome structure structure respond to the environment. Presents a new way to examine macromolecules and the physical principles that guide their function

New leads reveal T-cell immunity may be an important key in the strong cross protection that occurs when dengue infected humans have two or more variations of the virus.