News

The genes that are able to equip bacteria with resistance to clinically used antibiotics have been found in many different natural environments. Nevertheless, a functional overview of the resistance genes found in common human bacterial pathogens has been missing so far. Research from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark makes it possible to rank the risk of resistance genes and to predict the evolution of existing and future drugs.

After years of investigation, researchers at Johns Hopkins, the University of California, Davis, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have discovered how the immune system might protect a person from recurrent bacterial skin infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (staph). The findings, publishing online this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, open new doors to someday developing vaccines to prevent staph skin infections, which account for 14 million outpatient visits, nearly 500,000 hospital admissions and $3 billion to $4 billion in inpatient health care costs in the U.S. per year.

The most economical way to kill the bacteria that cause common food-borne illnesses – mostly caused by Salmonella enterica – is heat, but the mechanisms that kill Salmonella at lower temperatures were not fully understood until now, according to a team of researchers.

Recent cases of listeria in food ranging from frozen vegetables to ice cream bars have reinforced the need for better methods of gauging the risk of foodborne pathogen contamination in processing plants. Researchers at the South Dakota State University Department of Dairy and Food Science are responding to the industry’s need for a more comprehensive approach in Listeria risk-assessment.