Antibiotics

For something that has evolved with us over millions of years, and remains part of our physiology over our entire lives, our gut microbiome, oddly, remains somewhat of a mystery. Comprised of trillions of microbes of at least a thousand different species, this community of bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi…

Numerous criticisms of medical science have been articulated in recent years. Some critics argue that spurious disease categories are being invented, and existing disease categories expanded, for the aim of profit. Others say that the benefits of most new drugs are minimal and typically exaggerated by clinical research, and that…

AbstractA hexanucleotide-repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the most common genetic variant that contributes to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia1,2. The C9ORF72 mutation acts through gain- and loss-of-function mechanisms to induce pathways that are implicated in neural degeneration3,4,5,6,7,8,9. The expansion is transcribed into a long repetitive RNA, which negatively sequesters…

Last week, the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance database grew to over 5,000 fact-checks. The International Fact-Checking Network also released its WhatsApp chatbot, putting the combined effort of over 70 fact-checking networks from more than 40 countries in the palm of your hand. The database unites fact-checkers around the world in publishing, sharing…

The world’s attention has been focused on the coronavirus pandemic for the past couple of months, and rightly so. The global death toll has hit 285,000, the economy is in shambles, and our day-to-day lives are completely transformed. It’s obviously a huge deal. But as we all focus on that,…

For hundreds of millions of years plants have had the ability to harness carbon dioxide from the air using solar energy. The Max Planck research network MaxSynBio is on the trail of building artificial cells as sustainable green bioreactors. A Max Planck research team led by Tobias Erb from the…

Sepsis may not be on your radar but it is an extremely deadly killer. Worldwide, a stunning one-third of people who get it die, and many who do live have life-changing side effects such as chronic pain and fatigue, organs that don’t work well, even amputations. Sepsis is caused by…

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 87, had to be hospitalized recently after he complained of uneasiness in the chest and recorded a fever as well. He was rushed to AIIMS, Delhi, where he was kept under observation by doctors. While his health remains stable as of now, doctors have now…

Mixing and matching genes of marine and terrestrial origin in the biosynthesis of the mupirocin antibiotics† Author affiliations * Corresponding authors a School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol, UK E-mail: chris.willis@bristol.ac.uk, matt.crump@bristol.ac.uk b School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol, UK c School of Cellular…

Image: Getty Images As the end of the second world war neared, mass production of the newly developed antibiotic penicillin enabled life-saving treatment of bacterial infections in wounded soldiers. Since then, penicillin and many other antibiotics have successfully treated a wide variety of bacterial infections. But antibiotics don’t work against…