Blog
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April 06, 2018Posted: April 06, 2018Read MoreWhile GBS screenings are the standard in the US and in Europe, there are still parts of the world where the 1 in 5 women globally who carry GBS may not receive screening or treatment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a study led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, involving more than 100 researchers who published a series of 11 research papers reporting on GBS occurances...
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March 30, 2018Posted: March 30, 2018Read MoreWhat doesn’t need water, can freeze solid and come back to life, survives intense radiation, and stays alive in the vacuum of space?
Although the answer isn’t a cinematic horror, it certainly looks the part. The humble tardigrade (also known as a moss piglet or water bear) is a small-scale animal that rarely grows larger than half a millimeter in length. It is quite poss... -
March 23, 2018Posted: March 23, 2018Read MoreKombucha, an effervescent beverage originating in Asia, has received much attention lately in the neutraceutical and alternative health industries as being an anti-carcinogenic, fermented tea. It is believed to help regulate the gut microbiome, aid in metabolism and cell proliferation, increase detoxification, and help protect the liver.
Kombucha originated in China over 2,000 years ago and...
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March 16, 2018Posted: March 16, 2018Read More
Recent research suggests that Alzheimer’s could be due to amyloid plaque forming around an infectious agent.Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disease that affects more than three million people each year. There are limited treatment options and no cure. While it generally affects those over the age of 60, it has been diagnosed in peop... -
March 09, 2018Posted: March 09, 2018Read MoreDietary sugar and Clostridium difficile are not usually two things you hear of in one sentence, but it was recently discovered that a sugar additive, trehalose, may encourage the virulence of Clostridium difficile.
The supporting study titled “Dietary trehalose enhances virulence of epidemic Clostridium difficile” was very recently published in January 201... -
March 02, 2018Posted: March 02, 2018Read More...According to the American Cancer Society, “colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States, excluding skin cancers” and is responsible for over 50,000 deaths annually.
In a recent newspaper article published in New York Times, “Gut Microbes Combine to Cause Colon Cancer, Study Suggests” by Gina Kolata, researchers have found a -
February 12, 2018Posted: February 12, 2018Read MoreAntibiotic development has had its challenges recently; and while the concern of drug-resistant Gram-negative has been vastly described since the past couple of decades, there is a growing light at the end of the tunnel with the recent approval of the broad spectrum antimicrobials between 2015-17. Even more encouraging is the potential regulatory filing and approval of several antimicrobial candidates...
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February 02, 2018Posted: February 02, 2018Read More...Bananas are the world’s most exported fruit and have become a dietary staple for many people and cultures. Of the 114 million tons produced annually, 85% are produced for consumption in the United States [1]. Unfortunately, the most popular fruit in the world may be under threat by a lethal fungal disease. Fusarium wilt of banana, or Panama disease, affects the seedless Cavendish banana, which is b -
January 26, 2018Posted: January 26, 2018Read More...
Fluoroquinolones have been the staple of antimicrobial therapy since the launch of the flagship representative "Ciprofloxacin" by Bayer in the early 1980s.Fluoroquinolones have a fluorine atom attached to the core quinolone molecular ring and this modification results in a class of broad-spectrum bactericidal agents that show increased stability and potency against both Gram
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January 19, 2018Posted: January 19, 2018Read More
A new device called the iChip, short for isolation chip, may unlock the potential to culture the majority of microbes that still remain undiscovered....So far, standard microbiology culture methods have only been able to grow about 1% of microbial species in vitro on synthetic media (1). Beginning in 2002, the iChip was designed
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January 12, 2018Posted: January 12, 2018Read MoreThink of your daily morning routine. You wake up, shower, get dressed, eat, gather your belongings, and make your way out the door to work or wherever the day takes you. Most everyone has a mental checklist of the items we can’t forget in order to function properly throughout the day. I can’t speak for everyone, but most of our lists follow these general guidelines; “Phone, keys, wallet, beverage of cho...
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December 22, 2017Posted: December 22, 2017Categories: MicrobiologyRead MoreAt the age of five, Robert Koch astounded his parents by telling them that he had taught himself to read with the aid of a newspaper. This feat merely foreshadowed the intelligence and tenacity which were to be so characteristic of Koch in his adult life. The son of a mining authority, Robert Koch was born on December 11, 1843 at Clausthal in the Upper Harz Mountains in the northwestern region of Germany...
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December 15, 2017Posted: December 15, 2017Read MoreThe Happiest Place on Earth just made news in November for all the wrong reasons. Disneyland recently shut down two contaminated cooling towers after health officials discovered the towers had elevated levels of Legionella bacteria.
Eleven separate cases of Legionnaires’ disease have surfaced in the Anaheim area. The victims were infected sometime between late August and October. A...
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December 08, 2017Posted: December 08, 2017Read MoreOn September 1, 2017, San Diego County officials declared a state of emergency due to a major outbreak of Hepatitis A in the region.
Since November 2016, 544 infections and 20 deaths have been reported. In comparison, for the last five years, San Diego County has recorded only 28 cases annually on average. Among the recent outbreak of reported cases, the majority have been homeless i...
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December 01, 2017Posted: December 01, 2017Read MoreIn an attempt to reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics, researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a tool that physicians can use to distinguish between a bacterial or viral infection in a patient that is suffering from an infection. Antibiotics are useless in treating viral infections; sadly, bacterial resistance is stimulated by the indiscriminate and often unnecessary use of...
