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Category Archives: Microbiology

Workshop Showcases How Antibacterial Products Are Judged Effective

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American Society for Microbiology Hosts Antibacterial Product Testing Workshop Experts Describe How Germ-Killing Effectiveness of Antibacterial Soaps, Sanitizers Can Be Demonstrated

Newswise WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15, 2013 Antibacterial experts and manufacturers of antibacterial soaps are showcasing the latest methods for demonstrating the effectiveness of antibacterial hand soaps and sanitizers in killing disease-causing germs.

During the 2013 meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) and the Personal Care Products Council are outlining the latest scientific techniques that are being used to evaluate the activity of rinse-off and leave-on antibacterial products used on the skin.

Manufacturers of antibacterial products take their responsibility for producing safe and effective products very seriously, said Dr. Francis Kruszewski, Director of Human Health & Safety at the American Cleaning Institute. We want to show the nations leading microbiologists the science behind the methods we use to evaluate the antibacterial effectiveness of hand cleansing products.

In a session convened by ACI and the Personal Care Products Council, scientists demonstrate:

New developments in scientific methods and models used to measure the germ-killing effectiveness of antibacterial products

The science of alcohol-based hand rubs

Statistical considerations in testing topical antimicrobial products

The principles of microbial risk assessment

The scientific methods were showcasing provide the foundation for ensuring the antibacterial benefits of the hand cleaning products being used in homes, hospitals, and food handling establishments every day, said Dr. John Krowka, Senior Microbiologist at the Personal Care Products Council.

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Workshop Showcases How Antibacterial Products Are Judged Effective

New coronavirus tested at Canada’s national lab

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Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory is developing diagnostic tests for the new coronavirus infection that has sickened at least 40 people worldwide and caused at least 20 deaths.

The Winnipeg lab obtained a live sample of the novel coronavirus from Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on May 4.

The virus strain is the human beta-coronavirus EMC (HCoV-EMC), a spokesperson for the agency said in an email.

The lab's research priorities for the virus include:

Doctors and researchers want to develop antibody tests to help with diagnosis.

Provincial public health laboratories can also detect the coronavirus using diagnostic tests that the national lab produced using the genetic sequence data of the new virus.

The virus first appeared last year in the Middle East and travellers have brought it to France, Britain and Germany.

"The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has informed WHO of an additional two laboratory-confirmed cases with infection of the novel coronavirus," the UN health agency said in a statement Wednesday.

It is the first time that health-care workers have been confirmed with the infection from exposure to patients, Gregory Hartl, head of public relations and social media for WHO, said in an email.

Hartl said he did not know what kind of health-care workers they were.

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New coronavirus tested at Canada's national lab

Canada’s national lab has sample of new coronavirus

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TORONTO -- Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg has a sample of the new coronavirus that is causing infections in a number of countries, most notably Saudi Arabia.

Scientific director Dr. Frank Plummer says the lab obtained the virus from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The Dutch lab was the one that first identified the new virus last June in a sample from a Saudi man who had died of a mysterious illness.

Plummer says the coronavirus arrived at the Winnipeg facility on May 4.

He says the lab is growing up stocks of the virus and will use it to assess diagnostic tests being used in Canada.

As well Winnipeg scientists plan to do some work to see which animal species can be infected with the new virus.

That research will be done in conjunction with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's national lab, the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases. The animal lab is housed in the same complex as the National Microbiology Laboratory.

The Winnipeg lab made diagnostic tests months ago, based on genetic sequence data of the new virus. Those tests have been in the hands of provincial labs since last fall, Plummer says.

To date about a handful of people have been tested for the infection in Canada, but all the tests have come back negative.

But having the actual virus to work with will allow the Winnipeg scientists to start developing a blood test to look for past infection with the virus, Plummer says.

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Canada's national lab has sample of new coronavirus

Canada’s national lab has new sample of coronavirus, planning studies

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TORONTO - Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg has a sample of the new coronavirus that is causing infections in a number of countries, most notably Saudi Arabia.

Scientific director Dr. Frank Plummer says the lab obtained the virus from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The Dutch lab was the one that first identified the new virus last June in a sample from a Saudi man who had died of a mysterious illness.

Plummer says the coronavirus arrived at the Winnipeg facility on May 4.

He says the lab is growing up stocks of the virus and will use it to assess diagnostic tests being used in Canada.

As well Winnipeg scientists plan to do some work to see which animal species can be infected with the new virus.

That research will be done in conjunction with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's national lab, the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases. The animal lab is housed in the same complex as the National Microbiology Laboratory.

The Winnipeg lab made diagnostic tests months ago, based on genetic sequence data of the new virus. Those tests have been in the hands of provincial labs since last fall, Plummer says.

To date about a handful of people have been tested for the infection in Canada, but all the tests have come back negative.

But having the actual virus to work with will allow the Winnipeg scientists to start developing a blood test to look for past infection with the virus, Plummer says.

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Canada's national lab has new sample of coronavirus, planning studies

Microbes capture, store, and release nitrogen to feed reef-building coral

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Public release date: 14-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology

Microscopic algae that live within reef-forming corals scoop up available nitrogen, store the excess in crystal form, and slowly feed it to the coral as needed, according to a study published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Scientists have known for years that these symbiotic microorganisms serve up nitrogen to their coral hosts, but this new study sheds light on the dynamics of the process and reveals that the algae have the ability to store excess nitrogen, a capability that could help corals cope in their chronically low-nitrogen environment.

"It was a great surprise to find the nitrogen-rich crystals inside the algae," says corresponding author Anders Meibom of the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Switzerland. "It all makes perfect sense now. The algae suck up the ammonium and nitrate like a sponge when the concentration of these molecules increases, then store this nitrogen as uric acid crystals for later use."

Like all reef-forming corals, the species they studied, Pocillopora damicornis, is actually a symbiosis of two different organisms: the coral provides protection to a species of photosynthetic algae called dinoflagellates, which, in turn, provide sugars and nitrogen to the coral host. The symbiosis allows the coral to thrive in clear, tropical waters that are naturally nutrient-poor. In many places, however, coral reefs are suffering from an excess of nutrients - pollution from sewage and fertilizers that impacts the symbiotic relationship and the health of coral in unknown ways.

To better understand these exchanges of materials and to determine how an excess of nutrients might affect the balance, the researchers exposed pieces of coral to varying concentrations of isotopically-labeled nitrogen-rich compounds. Using the facilities at the Aquarium Tropicale Porte Dore in Paris, France, the scientists applied a relatively new analytic technique called nano-scale secondary ion mass-spectrometry (NanoSIMS) to follow the path of the nitrogen. NanoSIMS enabled them to visualize and quantify the uptake, movement, and accumulation of this labeled nitrogen within the coral.

When supplied with nitrogen in the form of ammonium, nitrate or aspartic acid the dinoflagellates responded by rapidly storing the nitrogen as crystals of uric acid within its cells. But the dinoflagellates don't hang onto the nitrogen for long. Starting at about six hours after exposure, the microbes begin translocating nitrogen-rich compounds to the coral host, where the nitrogen is used in specific cellular compartments all over the surface layers of the coral.

This storage and release process helps explain how these corals get through the ups and downs of nitrogen concentrations, says Meibom. "This gives the coral-algae symbiosis a very efficient way to deal with strong fluctuations in nitrogen availability," writes Meibom. "When the nitrogen availability suddenly becomes high, the algae can take-up large amounts of nitrogen on a timescale of a few hours, store it into crystals inside the algae cells and then release this stored nitrogen for metabolic processes and growth when the nitrogen levels become normal again."

To follow up on this work, Meibom says he and his colleagues are now studying how carbon-based nutrients are taken up and distributed in the same coral-algae symbiosis.

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Microbes capture, store, and release nitrogen to feed reef-building coral

T2 Biosystems Invites Attendees of the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting to Events Featuring the …

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LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

T2 Biosystems, a company developing direct detection products enabling superior diagnostics, today announced details of its participation at the upcoming American Society for Microbiology General Meeting being held May 18-21, 2013, in Denver, CO. T2 Bio will provide two opportunities to learn about its core T2MR technology, as well as T2Candida, its rapid and sensitive flagship assay that is capable of identifying five Candida species directly from whole blood in approximately 3 hours with a limit of detection as low as 1 CFU/mL.

T2 Biosystems will host a symposium entitled T2MR direct detection of Candida in whole blood: rapid, species-specific identification of Candida infections. The symposium will take place on May 19, 2013, and feature distinguished speakers Peter Pappas, MD, Principal Investigator, Mycoses Study Group and Professor, University of Alabama, Birmingham and Michael Pfaller, MD, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa. In addition, T2 Biosystems will provide demonstrations of the T2Candida diagnostic test on the T2Dx instrument throughout exhibit hall hours at booth #732.

Dr. Pfaller will present the diagnostic and therapeutic landscape of candidemia, the fourth-leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Candidemia currently has a 40% mortality rate, largely due to the delay in diagnosis, which can take two to five days with the current gold standard of blood culture. Dr. Pappas will introduce T2Candida, T2 Bios flagship diagnostic test, as a means to rapidly and accurately identify species-specific Candida directly from whole blood in approximately three hours, which is up to 25X faster than blood culture.

Additionally, T2 Biosystems team members will conduct live demonstrations of the T2Candida test being run on its T2Dx instrument throughout exhibit hall hours. Please visit the T2 Bio booth, #732, at the ASM exhibition hall to learn more about T2MR and T2Candida.

For further information on the T2Candida Symposium, please contact mavery@macbiocom.com.

T2Candida is for research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

About Sepsis & Candidemia

Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the bodys severe reaction to infection by bacteria, fungi, viruses or parasites. It is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States, and each hour of delayed treatment increases the mortality of these patients by 8%. Candida is a fungal pathogen known to cause sepsis, and it is associated with approximately 100,000 cases of candidemia in the U.S. annually, making it the fourth-leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Currently, candidemia has a 40% mortality rate, which can be reduced to 11% with early identification of the specific species. Current detection methods rely on blood culture, a process that can take two to five days before identifying a Candida infection. The T2MR platform is able to detect species-specific Candida directly from whole blood without the limits experienced with optical detection technology, even at low copy numbers, and provide results in approximately three hours.

About T2 Biosystems

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Microbiology Workshop 19

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Microbiology Workshop 19 20 March 2012 L1110508
Rapid methods and automation is a dynamic area in applied microbiology dealing with the study of improved methods in the isolation, early detection, characterization, and enumeration of microorgani...

By: Evsevios Hadjicostas

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Microbiology Workshop 19

New Biotech Company Focusing on San Antonio’s Expanding Industry: Craft Beer

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San Antonios newest biotech company, Alamo Yeast Labs, will be the first biotech company in Texas to service the craft beer industry and avid home brewers. Alamo Yeast Labs will premier its services during San Antonio Beer Week with a free seminar on brewing microbiology.

San Antonio, TX, May 08, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Alamo Yeast Labs, in San Antonio, Texas, will officially debut its services during San Antonio Beer Week with a free brewing microbiology seminar on Monday, May 20th, 2013 at Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling. Alamo Yeast Labs intends to provide breweries and home brewers with quality microbiological products and services that are necessary to the brewing process.

Alamo Yeast Labs is the first of its kind in Texas, says Sena Rayos, President of Alamo Yeast Labs. It is a biotech company that services the craft beer industry by providing yeast products, microbiological services, and beverage analysis. We strive to have a real, personal connection with all of our customers and we hope to stand out by truly helping everyone who makes beer.

Mrs. Rayos discovered the idea for her company while working for a biotech company in Austin, Texas that was across the street from a popular Texas brewery. Through her observations, she soon realized the importance of microbiology to the brewing process, and decided to launch a company dedicated to the sciences of brewing beer.

Brewing encompasses many aspects of science: biochemistry, microbiology, engineering, chemistry, states Mrs. Rayos. By understanding the science behind brewing, I think many people will appreciate all the hard work and thinking that goes behind making that bottle of craft beer.

Alamo Yeast Labs is one of four companies of its kind in the United States. Most beer-related microbiological companies are located in California and the Northwest region of the United States, generally, where many of the large craft beer companies are located.

San Antonio is a great place to start this business because the craft beer culture is really starting to take off, asserts Mrs. Rayos. Its an exciting time to be in a place where you can be a part of this movement and its history. The people in San Antonio have been overwhelmingly supportive and I think thats what makes SA stand out and possible for me to start this company.

Event Details

Event: Brewing Microbiology Seminar

Date and Time: Monday, May 20th, 2013; 5 PM to 7 PM

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New Biotech Company Focusing on San Antonio’s Expanding Industry: Craft Beer

OU microbiologists elected as fellows in the American Academy of Microbiology

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Public release date: 8-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jana Smith jana.smith@ou.edu 405-325-1322 University of Oklahoma

Two University of Oklahoma microbiology professors are among a national group of 87 newly elected fellows in the American Academy of Microbiology. Rodney K. Tweten, OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, and Tyrell Conway, OU Norman Campus, were elected through a highly-selective, peer-review process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology.

Tweten, George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the OU College of Medicine, is nationally and internationally noted as a pioneer in research of bacterial toxins, the cholestral-dependent cytolysins (CDCs), a major contributor to the pathogenesis of diseases, such as streptococcus pneumonia, staphylococcus and listeria. These diseases are especially virulent in children causing nearly a million childhood deaths annually worldwide.

Tweten is recognized as the first researcher to describe the three-dimensional crystal structure of CDCs and his research has translated to practical applications, such as the production of a vaccine candidate for S. pneumonia, which is planned to enter phase one clinical trials. Consistently funded for more than 26 years, Tweten's research is currently supported by three grants from NIH/NIAID and PATH Vaccine Solutions (Gate's Foundation). The success of his laboratory has led to one patent and two patent applications pending.

Conway, Henry Zarrow Presidential Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Arts and Sciences, serves as co-director of OU's Advanced Center for Genome Technology. Conway's research is focused on understanding how bacterial cells work, from genome to transcriptome to metabolome, their genetic circuitry and metabolic networks, the physiology of the colonized E. coli cell, how it controls its growth and competes for nutrients in the gut microbial community.

Conway's group published the first E. coli microarray experiment in 1999 and now is focused on computational aspects of high-throughput gene expression data. The research group is also exploring and characterizing the symbiotic relationship in which E. coli scavenges oxygen to generate anaerobic conditions in the intestine, which stimulates growth of anaerobes that degrade complex polysaccharides in turn releasing simple sugars that cross-feed E. coli.

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The American Academy of Microbiology is the honorific leadership group of the American Society for Microbiology. The mission of the Academy is to recognize scientific excellence, as well as foster knowledge and understanding in the microbiological sciences. More information on the Academy can be found at http://academy.asm.org.

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OU microbiologists elected as fellows in the American Academy of Microbiology

Pathogen turns protein into a virulence factor in 1 easy step

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Public release date: 7-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology

To infect its host, the respiratory pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa takes an ordinary protein usually involved in making other proteins and adds three small molecules to turn it into a key for gaining access to human cells. In a study to be published May 7 in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine, the University of Virginia, and Universidad de las Islas Baleares in Mallorca, Spain, uncover this previously unknown virulence factor in P. aeruginosa, one of the most common causes of hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Co-author Joanna Goldberg of Emory says scientists have long thought P. aeruginosa mostly uses this protein called elongation factor-Tu (EF-Tu) inside the cell, but she and her collaborators have learned that as a virulence factor, it could represent a vulnerability for the bacterium. "EF-Tu is presumed to be an essential protein, and it's performing these moonlighting functions as well. If we figured out how it was doing that, we could devise strategies to inhibit it," says Goldberg.

P. aeruginosa pneumonia is a big problem in the hospital setting, where it is a frequent cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia and is the leading cause of death among critically ill patients whose airways have been damaged by ventilation, trauma, or other infections. The pathogen is also a contributor to disease in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients and forms thick biofilms that are difficult or impossible to treat with antibiotics. Goldberg and her co-author Sebastian Alberti and their colleagues study the molecular events that enable the bacterium to infect human cells in the hopes of finding ways to prevent P. aeruginosa pneumonia.

In their earlier work, Goldberg and Alberti found that P. aeruginosa takes the protein EF-Tu, which was generally thought to exist only inside the cell, and decorates the exterior of the cell with it, but in a modified form. This modified EF-Tu is recognized by antibodies to the common bacterial epitope phosphorylcholine (ChoP), indicating that the EF-Tu is modified somehow to mimic ChoP, allowing P. aeruginosa to enjoy the benefits of ChoP. By interacting with receptors on human cells, ChoP carries out a crucial step for setting up an infection for a number of different types of respiratory pathogens.

But how is EF-Tu modified, they wondered? And does it help P. aeruginosa establish an infection? This study answers those questions.

Using a host of techniques, including mass spectrometry, site directed mutagenesis of key residues in the protein, and genetic loss of function/gain of function studies, they found that P. aeruginosa only makes small changes to EF-Tu to get it to mimic this powerful ligand. P. aeruginosa transfers three methyl groups to a lysine on EF-Tu, giving it a structure similar to ChoP and allowing it to fit in the PAFR receptor in the way ChoP does.

But the modified EF-Tu not only looks like ChoP, in many ways it works like ChoP: testing in cultures of human airway cells shows that the modification of EF-Tu enables the bacterium to adhere to human cells.

"It allows [P. aeruginosa] to adhere to the cells and invade," says Goldberg. "And it seems to be involved in virulence in mouse models. It might also impact persistence in the lung."

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Pathogen turns protein into a virulence factor in 1 easy step

Department of Pathology and Microbiology at University of Nebraska Medical Center to Join PathCentral’s New Digital …

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OMAHA, Neb. & IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

PathCentral (www.pathcentral.net), a technology-enabled company dedicated to the success of the international pathology community, and the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), today announced that UNMC will participate in the PathCentral Pathology Network (www.pathcentralpro.net), the specialtys most comprehensive online information exchange and digital consultation forum.

The PathCentral Pathology Network will provide the basic framework for providing consultative services to our customers throughout the world and will improve access to expert opinion in both urban and rural areas, said Steven H. Hinrichs, MD, Department Chair.

The PathCentral Pathology Network enables physicians to upload case files using digital images for pathologists to review and render critical consulting diagnoses on both a global and a domestic real-time basis. In terms of scanning technology and imaging software, the Network is agnostic and designed to be non-exclusive that is, open to all users regardless of location or consulting institution. The PathCentral Pathology Network seeks to connect the worlds pathologists, incorporating tools from social media, making it an ideal forum for pathologists to send and perform consults, create connections, post information, share cases, ask questions, and expand professional relationships.

About Department of Pathology and Microbiology at University of Nebraska Medical Center

The Department of Pathology and Microbiology provides expert diagnostic services in both anatomic and clinical pathology. Their faculty have performed and published important research demonstrating the capabilities of digital imaging.

About PathCentral

Through its comprehensive suite of products and services, PathCentral provides independent community-based pathologists with the tools they need to increase revenues, improve operating efficiencies, ensure patient safety, and become highly competitive in their local markets. With its blend of leading edge IT cloud computing technology and global connectivity, PathCentral intends to enable pathologists around the world to grow, thrive and more effectively meet the demands of 21st Century diagnostic medicine. For more information, please visit http://www.pathcentral.net.

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  1. Microbiology