Category Biology/Biotechnology

Forget MRSA and E. coli. There’s another bacterium that is becoming increasingly dangerous due to antibiotic resistance – and it’s present on the skin of every person on the planet. A close relative of MRSA, Staphylococcus epidermidis, is a major cause of life-threatening infections after surgery, but it is often overlooked by clinicians and scientists because it is so abundant.

Researchers from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath warn that the threat posed by this organism should be taken more seriously and use extra precautions for those at higher risk of infection who are due to undergo surgery.

They have identified a set of 61 genes that allow this normally harmless skin bacterium to cause life-threatening illness...

This is a composite view of recording sites used for identifying neural correlates of mood state in the epilepsy monitoring unit patients; a subset of these were also used in the stimulation studies.
Credit: Ben Speidel, Chang Lab, UCSF

Researchers have found an effective target in the brain for electrical stimulation to improve mood in people suffering from depression. As reported in the journal Current Biology on November 29, stimulation of a brain region called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) reliably produced acute improvement in mood in patients who suffered from depression at the start of the study.

Those effects were not seen in patients without mood symptoms, suggesting that the brain stimulation works to normalize activity in mood-related neural circuitry, the researchers sa...

An image of the proteoglycans that have increased in the perineuronal net (green) that surrounds nerve cells (red) in the spinal cord following injury. Proteoglycans in the net limit functional regeneration and plasticity after spinal cord injury. The chondroitinase enzyme removes the net and allows for regeneration and functional recovery, especially at chronic stages.

Promising results provide hope for humans suffering from chronic paralysis. Millions of people worldwide are living with chronic spinal cord injuries, with 250,000 to 500,000 new cases each year – most from vehicle crashes or falls. The most severe spinal cord injuries completely paralyze their victims and more than half impair a person’s ability to breathe...

From left: Salk scientists Ludovic Mure and Satchin Panda uncover how certain retinal cells respond to artificial illumination.
Credit: Salk Institute

Scientists uncover how certain retinal cells respond to artificial illumination. For most, the time spent staring at screens – on computers, phones, iPads – constitutes many hours and can often disrupt sleep. Now, Salk Institute researchers have pinpointed how certain cells in the eye process ambient light and reset our internal clocks, the daily cycles of physiological processes known as the circadian rhythm. When these cells are exposed to artificial light late into the night, our internal clocks can get confused, resulting in a host of health issues.

The results, published November 27, 2018, in Cell Reports, may help lead to new treatments...