microbiology
sporte | July 26, 2006Trade publications; such as catalogs, technical bulletins, and web sites; are a valuable source of information for students in biotechnology-related courses. Not only do catalogs and technical publications provide current information, but they also contain a wealth of useful facts and physical constants that biologists need on-the-job. Further, using catalogs in the classroom mimics the way that science is carried out in the real world. In the research lab, scientists and technicians often rely on catalogs, technical bulletins, and web sites, for quick and useful information.
I probably…
sporte | July 24, 2006A few years ago, the General Biology students at the Johns Hopkins University began to interrogate the unseen world. During this semester-long project, they study the ecosystems of the Homewood campus, and engage in novel research by exploring the microbial ecosystems in different sections of the campus. Biology lab students gather environmental samples from different campus ecosystems, isolate DNA, amplify 16s ribosomal DNA by PCR, and check their PCR results by gel electrophoresis.
DNA samples are next sent to the university's Genetic Resources Core Facility , where scientific staff, in…
mikethemadbiologist | July 17, 2006The carnival o'the wee beasties known as Animalcules is up at Science Matters. I have a post about MRSA and drug use in this edition. There's also a good post about drug resistance in the HIV virus.
While I'm advertising things microbial, revere at Effect Measure has a good post on patenting microbes and other organisms. He's right: it's stupid.
mikethemadbiologist | July 13, 2006A recent Harris survey reveals that 61% of children aged eight to eighteen think that viruses can be stopped by antibiotics. The Harris Interactive summary explains why this matters (italics mine):
Today's young people, tweens (ages 8 to 12) and teens (ages 13 to 18) are raised in a world where potentially deadly viruses frequently make news headlines. In addition to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), recent public attention has also focused on viruses such as those which cause bird flu (avian influenza), Human Papillomavirus…
mikethemadbiologist | July 10, 2006
Tara and Revere are both confronting the creationist anti-mutation 'argument.' I've faced this before regarding antibiotic resistance. I find it ironic that Mike Martin argues against evolution by mutation, when other creationists argue that small mutations happen, but 'kinds' are immutable. I wish these guys would figure out which idiocy they plan to adopt.
mikethemadbiologist | July 10, 2006There is a winner in the War on Drugs: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA. A recent article in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology reached the following conclusion:
Injecting drug users accounted for 49% of CA-MRSA infections but only 19% of the HA-MRSA infections (odds ratio, 4.2; 95% confidence interval, 2.4 to 7.4). Our study shows that a single clone of CA-MRSA accounts for the majority of infections. This strain originated in the community and is not related to MRSA strains from healthcare settings. Injecting drug users could be a major reservoir for CA-…
mikethemadbiologist | July 7, 2006From the Boston Globe comes this disturbing report of the massive underdiagnosis of influenza in children:
Doctors fail to diagnose the flu in the vast majority of young children, depriving them of medicines that could shorten their illness and keep them from spreading it to others, a study suggests.
Flu infections were missed in four out of five preschoolers who were treated for flu symptoms at a doctor's office or emergency room and in about three-quarters of those who were hospitalized, researchers report.
"Many of the children did not have a test performed and few of the children were…
mikethemadbiologist | June 30, 2006This week, our benevolent Seed Overlords ask, "What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?" Well, I thunked, and thunked, and thunked. Then my head began to hurt. Then I thought of one unsung success.
Vaccination.
Think about it. Typically, vaccination policy is decided by experts, and politicians usually don't meddle in it. There are problems with our vaccination policy--we don't vaccinate enough people, and we vaccinate the wrong groups (most experts claim that the most effective strategy would be to vaccinate those under 18, since…
mikethemadbiologist | June 27, 2006One of my many pet peeves is that nobody takes 'ordinary' bacterial infections seriously. I originally wrote this post Jan. 8, 2006, but I was ranting about Acinetobacter since the previous August. The good news is that people other than infectious disease specialists are worrying about it. The bad news is that the Infectious Disease Society of America states that there's no antibiotic in the pipeline to treat multidrug resistant Acinetobacter.
One of the talks I heard at the ICAAC meeting was about the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii (given by Yehuda Carmeli). Israel is having…
mikethemadbiologist | June 21, 2006I have to admit that creationists are a creative bunch, if not accurate. From the files of the Mad Biologist comes this post about a creationist explanation of antibiotic resistance. It's pretty remarkable. And I hope nobody tells the Coultergeist about this argument... (originally published April 18, 2005).
Google is an amazing thing (so is Gizoogle). I typed in "evangelical" and "antibiotic" and found a "creationist explanation" of the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. What strikes me is the selective use of facts to support a preconceived notion. While creationists do…
mikethemadbiologist | June 20, 2006...when it comes to funding and resources. And this will have serious ramifications for your health. In talking to a hospital clinical microbiologist today, he told me that microbiology labs in hospitals and states are suffering from two problems.
The first problem is that, unlike the Chemistry and Hematology laboratories which have been able to cut their personnel due to technological advances, most of the work done in microbiology laboratories is still labor intensive. Most microbiological diagnoses require isolating strains to pure cultures, and there's no rapid or cheap way to do this…
mikethemadbiologist | June 16, 2006Over at Aetiology, the carnival o'the wee beasties known as Animalcules is now online. Lotsa good stuff. My contribution can also be found here.
mikethemadbiologist | June 10, 2006The FDA just halted clinical trials for using the antibiotic Ketek (telithromycin-a macrolide antibiotic) to treat ear infections and tonsilitis in children because it can cause liver failure, blurred vision and loss of consciousness in adults. Some FDA officials have urged withdrawing Ketek entirely because the danger to patients. Unfortunately, we might need Ketec to treat certain multidrug resistant infections. I would urge that Ketec not be banned (but labelled like hell) so that it can be used as a drug of last resort, in the same way colistin is (which can cause kidney damage).
mikethemadbiologist | June 10, 2006Revere has a very good historical roundup of the 'uninevitability' of a national or universal healthcare system. One consequence of our fragmented, patchwork healthcare system is antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Just to give you an example of how bad the antibiotic resistance problem is, in most hospitals, anywhere from 20-70% of Staphylococcus aureus infections are methicillin resistant ("MRSA"). In long-term care facilities, around 90% of S. aureus infections are MRSA. MRSA infections are quite serious. Not only are they harder to treat (due to treatment failure from using the wrong…
mikethemadbiologist | June 9, 2006A recent article in Applied and Environmental Microbiology illustrates the effect that conventional farming, which uses a lot of antibiotics, has on the evolution of antibiotic resistance. The authors examined the difference in the frequency of resistance to antibiotics in the human pathogen Campylobacter. Resistance in bacteria from conventional raised poultry (actually, the carcasses) was much higher than in organic, non-antibiotic intensive farming:
for floroquinolones, which are commonly used in medicine (e.g., ciprofloxacin), less than two percent of isolates were resistant, compared…