Ninety percent of the cells humans carry are microbes. Only a few of the bacteria we encounter are pathogenic and can cause disease. Pathogens possess the inherent ability to cross anatomic barriers or breach other host defenses that limit the microbes that make up our normal flora. A significant part of human evolution has gone into developing ways to thwart microbial intrusion. In turn, microbes have come up with clever ways to avoid and circumvent host defenses but human — microbe...

In the final episode of this 3 part video series on how to optimize antibiotic use and minimize the emergence of drug resistant pathogens, Dr. Linda Tollefson, Assistant Commissioner for Science at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, goes in depth on the use of antimicrobial drugs in agriculture, their efficacy, and adverse human health consequences. Dr. Stuart Levy, professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine, discusses policy, regulatory and...

On September 18, 2008 at the Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C., Dr. Stuart Levy, professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dr. Linda Tollefson, Assistant Commissioner for Science at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discussed how to optimize antibiotic use and how to minimize the emergence of drug resistant pathogens. In part 2 of this 3 part video series, Dr. Levy discusses how antibiotic resistance develops, the development...

Will we become defenseless against bacteria? Will bacteria always find a way to infect and even kill us? The emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria poses an enormous problem around the world. Scientists believe that the overuse of antibiotics is increasing the appearance of these pathogens. In the US, increasing casualties resulting from drug resistant staphylococcus infections received wide media attention. While antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, many patients...

A talk at the GME (Genomes, Medicine and Environment) Conference in 2007 by Jonathan A. Eisen. The talk is about the creation of "A Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea - GEBA"

Ronald Atlas, former President for the American Society for Microbiology, discusses the new One Health Initiative that recognizes the inter-relationships among human, animal, and environmental health and seeks to enhance communication, cooperation, and collaboration in integrating these areas for the health and well-being of all species. Development of the One Health Initiative began in 2007 with the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) efforts to strengthen communications and...

Using nanotechnology, Cornell scientists created a fabric that can detect biohazards like E. coli and other pathogens. Super Cloth is a segment from Partners Video Magazine's latest episode, The Science of Small. To view the entire episode visit: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/partners/partners.html

Six Science bloggers talk about why they blog, the role of blogging in science, feedback they've received, and the greatest microbiological discovery in the past decade. Bloggers featured include: John Logsdon Sex, Genes & Evolution http://www.johnlogsdon.blogspot.com Jonathan Badger T. Taxus http://ttaxus.blogspot.com Yersinia http://www.myspace.com/lenore138 Moselio Schaechter Small Things Considered http://schechter.asmblog.org Tara Smith Aetiology ...

Biology of bacteria.

A simple classification scheme that uses only the presence or absence of a protein domain architecture has been used to determine the phylogeny of 174 complete genomes. The method correctly divides the 174 taxa into Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya and satisfactorily sorts most of the major groups within these superkingdoms. The most challenging problem involved 119 Bacteria, many of which have reduced genomes. When a weighting factor was used that takes account of difference in genome size...