E coli tagged posts

We get healthy dietary fiber from consuming fruits, vegetables, and whole grains...

Biomedical engineers at UC Davis have created that mimic some of the properties of living cells. The artificial cells do not grow and divide, but could detect, react to and destroy bacteria in a lab dish.
Credit: Cheemeng Tan, UC Davis

“Lego block” artificial cells that can kill bacteria have been created by researchers at the University of California, Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering. The work is reported Aug. 29 in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. “We engineered artificial cells from the bottom-up – like Lego blocks – to destroy bacteria,” said Assistant Professor Cheemeng Tan, who led the work. The cells are built from liposomes, or bubbles with a cell-like lipid membrane, and purified cellular components including proteins, DNA and metabolites.

“We demonstrate...

Altered Extracellular Model. Biomolecular model based on the gene expression data analyses support the reduction of glucose molecules (blue gradient) and acid buildup (gold gradient) proposed to occur in the boundary layer around the cell. This altered extracellular environment has been hypothesized to result as an effect of reduced gravity-driven forces acting on the cell-fluid system and has been put forth as the biophysical mechanism governing bacterial behavior in space. Blue circles indicate overexpression of genes associated with metabolism, while gold circles represent the overexpression of acidic condition genes. Credit: Zea et al (2016)

Gene expression data suggest bacteria experience reduced glucose uptake and increased extracellular acidity in E. coli in space...

Credit: Martha Sexton/public domain

A team with University of California has found that introducing a type of antimicrobial protein called a microcin into the guts of mice with inflamed bowels caused a reduction in the degree of inflammation. The team describes their study of the use of the protein in mice and their evidence that microcins intercede in the relationship between different types of bacteria in the gut.

Over the past several decades, scientists have made a lot of progress in better understanding the factors that lead to irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, which covers a host of gut ailments, from Crohn’s disease to colitis. Most of them, they believe, are due to harmful gut bacteria multiplying and pushing out beneficial bacteria...