WSU BIOL209 Microbiology

E. coli has been known to cause G.I tract infections for a long time, but now studies have been finding the same strain in the urinary tract as well. This is leading to a progressive antimicrobial resistance that is combining the effects of increased UTI antibiotic usage and agricultural antibiotic use against the same strain of E. coli.

Many studies are currently being done on the mutualistic affects of nematodes on humans. This study could potentially help the vast obesity epidemic.

If we could somehow find a way to work in on humans this could be huge. Many burn victims and other people with wound infections could be save from deadly bacteria, and without some of the harmful side effects of antibiotics.

This finding could possibly lead to new treatment remedies, slowing the onset of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's works like the cold virus, the protein alpha synuclein breaks out of the lysosome and enters a neuron. The protein aggregates and clumps, causing cell death.

17 states have reported illnesses due to this Salmonella outbreak. This is an awfully high number of states. The article shows ways to prevent salmonella, but many people fail to comply with the standard washing procedures.

Nice page describing the tests we use to identify bacteria. Good pictures.

The tested HIV vaccine was based on the common cold virus, to alert the body's immune system.There are still many HIV vaccine trials being tested, so HIV vaccines are still in the works.

Gut bacteria turns lecithin, which is within egg yolks, liver, beef, pork and wheat into TMAO causing heart disease. Stroke and heart attack can be caused by the potent TMAO, which hardens the artery by cholesterol build up on the artery walls. A nutrient within red meat and dairy, carnitine, can be transformed to TMAO by gut bugs. However, this is usually only in frequent meat eater. People that infrequently each meat reducing the amount of gut bacteria to transform the carnitine into TMAO.

Autism is trying to be linked to the number of inclusions within the placenta. The placenta were studied after the baby was born and the inclusions were counted. This could lead to more studies comparing the placenta to diseases, which would find the purpose of the placenta.

A specific approach to target the genes that are involved in wound healing seems like a progressive approach for several skin disorders.

The recent papers from the Cleveland Clinic on the role of microbiome in heart disease jogged my memory of Paul Ewald's work on this subject. In a way, he predicted the papers that appeared this week over 15 years ago. Put succinctly, "big, old, diseases are infectious." If they weren't, natural selection would have reduced their incidence. Fascinating theory, worth a read.

First carnitine and meat, now lecithin and eggs! Darn it! All things in moderation, I guess.

NYTimes report on Nathan's post about carnitine and it's conversion to TMAO by gut bacteria.

Hmm common sense?

Kind of. So if you remove the competition more completely with aggressive antibiotics, the proportion of remaining bacteria that are resistant is higher. Of course, the opposite happens when you treat incompletely with antibiotics (i.e. stop taking them early). In that case our thinking is that the immune system is unlikely to kill all the remaining bacteria, increasing the chance resistant bacteria will survive.

An interesting paper about Chlamydia and the body's immune response against infection. Although the article doesn't discuss it, I believe further research could lead to development of a vaccine. A potential paper to use for our presentation.

Excellent paper that focuses on vaccination of coccidoidomycosis. Used for our presentation.

Excellent paper about the progress towards vaccination of Coccidodiomycosis. Used for our presentation.

The living conditions of Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) are endemic to the Western Hemisphere. This paper explains the conditions of which the coccidioides is the happiest.