Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a symptomatic infectious disease caused by the anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium called Clostridium difficile. Recently CDI has become increasingly prevalent worldwide. The severity of the infection is also on the rise, meaning the requirement for a rapid and accurate method of diagnosis [...]
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease and predominantly spread through an airborne route. It continues to be a significant global health issue causing about [...]
File 1 - Successful completion of BJS Biotechnologies projects at UCL
A collaborative project by The Scripps Research Institute, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Henan Normal University has seen a stable expansion of the genetic alphabet. Their paper has now been published in PNAS detailing the creation of a semisynthetic organism with a 6-letter [...]
Termites eat decaying wood, but it's hard to digest so they rely on a gut full of bacteria to break down the cellulose. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a [...]
Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide, with cases of life-threatening diseases such as tuberculosis becoming resistant to even the most powerful drugs. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is being used as a tool to find out more about the transmission [...]
Genetic and genome engineering is a useful tool for researchers, from producing proteins to understanding disease, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has a vital role supporting this process by cloning the DNA fragments used to modify the genomes of [...]
Mycobacterium mucogenicum is a bacterium found in soil and water, and it caused an outbreak of bloodstream infections in four young people with sickle cell anaemia at a US University haematology outpatient clinic in 2008. Researchers from East Carolina University [...]
PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is an amazing tool for use in clinical and diagnostic medicine and research, but there is more than just one kind, all with different applications and levels of sensitivity. This is a whirlwind trip around the [...]
Bacteria are incredibly diverse and live in most habitats on the planet, from intense cold to extreme heat, and even in radioactive waste – in fact, the biomass of bacteria exceeds that of all the animals and plants on the [...]
