Research from North Carolina State University will allow the development of energy-efficient LED devices that use ultraviolet (UV) light to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. The technology has a wide array of applications ranging from drinking-water treatment to sterilizing surgical tools…
Better than antibiotics, it is being used in contact lenses to prevent infections and biomedical products are the next stage The superbugs have met their match. Conceived at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), it comes in the form of a coating which has a magnetic-like feature that attracts bacteria and kills them without the need for antibiotics…
Margination, the natural phenomenon where bacteria and leukocytes (white blood cells) move toward the sides of blood vessels, is the inspiration for a novel method for treating sepsis, a systemic and often dangerous inflammatory response to microbial infection in the blood…
A new catheter coating that reduces bacterial attachment to its surface is being developed by scientists who are reporting their work at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Dublin this week. The antimicrobial coating could eventually be applied to other medical implants to reduce infection which would provide significant socioeconomic benefits to the NHS…
A new method for identifying bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) will lead to much faster, more effective treatment as well as a reduction in costs. The procedure, described in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, could eventually be used for the identification of micro-organisms in other bodily fluids, including blood and spinal fluid…
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a new laboratory test that can rapidly identify the bacterium responsible for staph infections. This new test takes advantage of unique isotopic labeling combined with specific bacteriophage amplification to rapidly identify Staphylococcus aureus…
A new clinical Standard Reference Material (SRM) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will help health care professionals more accurately diagnose and treat cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common pathogen that is particularly dangerous for infants and persons with weakened immune systems. CMV is found in 50 to 80 percent of the population…
Researchers at MIT have developed a new way of revealing the presence of specific chemicals - whether toxins, disease markers, pathogens or explosives. The system visually signals the presence of a target chemical by emitting a fluorescent glow. The approach combines fluorescent molecules with an open scaffolding called a metal-organic framework (MOF)…
In pets and people, the time it takes to diagnose an infection may mean life or death. Now, a University of Missouri veterinarian is identifying ways to diagnose pet infections in approximately a third of the current diagnosis time. The resulting test could be used eventually for humans…
University of California, Berkeley, scientists have shown that ionized plasmas like those in neon lights and plasma TVs not only can sterilize water, but make it antimicrobial - able to kill bacteria - for as long as a week after treatment…