Archive for April, 2010
Microbion BioSciences Corporation Part of New Institute Committed to Improved Treatment of War Wounded
Bozeman, Montana – The United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), in conjunction with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Office of the Air Force of the Surgeon General (AF/SG), and the Department of Veterans Affairs, have awarded $85 million to two consortia which in combination with the US Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR), form the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). Overall funding to the consortia from all sources is expected to exceed $250 million over the next five [...]
Read More »Uniquely Insidious: Yersinia pestis Biofilms
Bubonic plague, one of history’s deadliest infections, is transmitted by fleas infected with Yersinia pestis. The bacteria can starve fleas by blocking their digestive tracts, which stimulates the insects to bite repeatedly and thereby infect new hosts. Direct examination of infected fleas, aided by in vitro studies and experiments with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, have established that Y. pestis forms a biofilm in the insect. The extracellular matrix of the biofilm seems to contain a homopolymer of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, which is a constituent of many bacterial biofilms. A regulatory mechanism involved in [...]
Read More »