Pathogen identification — next-generation sequencing optimizes diagnostics

Novel method takes inspiration from law enforcement

17-Jun-2024 - Invasive infections such as sepsis require immediate and targeted treatment. Experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB and group partners have succeeded in establishing a reconceptualized detection principle that can make a crucial contribution to ...

New mechanism for regulating cell division in the bacterial pathogen Klebsiella uncovered

Small ribonucleic acid with a big impact

23-Feb-2024 - Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the most common and most dangerous bacterial pathogens impacting humans, causing infections of the gastrointestinal tract, pneumonia, wound infections and even blood poisoning. With the aim of discovering therapeutically exploitable weaknesses in Klebsiella, a ...

Complex green organisms emerged a billion years ago

Research team investigates the emergence of multicellularity

25-Jan-2024 - Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex bodies. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists led by the University of Göttingen has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of morphological complexity in streptophytes, which include land plants ...

How protists crack the walls of algae

Orciraptor agilis produces a number of partly novel enzymes and binding proteins: Such enzymes could potentially be useful in industrial applications

20-Jun-2022 - A team of researchers led by Dr Sebastian Hess from the University of Cologne’s Institute of Zoology has studied the expression of carbohydrate-active enzymes in the unicellular organism Orciraptor agilis by RNA sequencing. Orciraptor is a so-called ‘protoplast feeder’ and lives exclusively from ...

PathoFact identifies pathogens faster and more accurately

New open access tool for the diagnosis of infections

03-Mar-2021 - Scientists from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) and the Department of Life Sciences and Medicine of the University of Luxembourg have developed a new bioinformatics tool that can help them identify pathogens much faster and more accurately than was ever possible with ...

Hundreds of novel viruses discovered in insects

10-Jan-2020 - New viruses which cause diseases often come from animals. Well-known examples of this are the Zika virus transmitted by mosquitoes, bird flu viruses, as well as the MERS virus which is associated with camels. In order to identify new viral diseases quickly and prevent possible epidemics, DZIF ...

Gene recombination deactivates retroviruses during invasion of host genomes

09-Aug-2018 - Most vertebrate genomes contain a surprisingly large number of viral gene sequences – about eight percent in humans. And yet how do exogenous viruses – apparently having invaded from outside – manage to become integrated into the host genome? Answers to this question are provided in a study by an ...

Dissecting bacterial infections at the single-cell level

22-Nov-2016 - Technological advances are making the analysis of single bacterial infected human cells feasible, Würzburg researchers have used this technology to provide new insight into the Salmonella infection process. Infectious diseases are a leading cause of mortality worldwide. The development of novel ...

High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in agricultural biotechnology startup

29-Oct-2015 - The non-GMO plant breeding industry increasingly uses high-throughput DNA sequencing to arrive at new crop varieties faster and more efficiently. Computomics offers the cutting-edge bioinformatics analysis services required to efficiently use high-throughput sequencing data. Services include ...

Columbia researchers report novel approach for single molecule electronic DNA sequencing

Columbia researchers have developed a novel approach to potentially sequence DNA in nanopores electronically at single molecule level with single-base resolution

25-Sep-2012 - DNA sequencing is the driving force behind key discoveries in medicine and biology. For instance, the complete sequence of an individual's genome provides important markers and guidelines for medical diagnostics and healthcare. Up to now, the major roadblock has been the cost and speed of ...