How electricity-eating microbes use electrons to fix carbon dioxide

How electricity-eating microbes use electrons to fix carbon dioxide

Led by Arpita Bose, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, a Washington University team showed how an electricity-eating microbe takes up electrons from conductive substances like metal oxides or rust to reduce carbon dioxide. The work is described in the journal Nature Communications.
Blodgett awarded CAREER grant to study biosynthetic silence

Blodgett awarded CAREER grant to study biosynthetic silence

Joshua Blodgett, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, received a five-year $900,500 grant to support his research related to actinomycete bacteria. This type of bacteria produces a majority of current antibiotics and may harbor other useful small molecules that could be revealed by activating silent genes.
Drug-resistant bacteria possess natural ability to become vulnerable to antibiotics​​​

Drug-resistant bacteria possess natural ability to become vulnerable to antibiotics​​​

Infections with one of the most troublesome and least understood antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are increasing at alarming rates, particularly in health-care settings. But by studying A. baumannii, a frequent cause of difficult-to-treat infections in hospitals,  researchers have identified a naturally occurring​ process that restores its vulnerability to antibiotics.
A person’s diet, acidity of urine may affect susceptibility to UTIs

A person’s diet, acidity of urine may affect susceptibility to UTIs

The acidity of urine — as well as the presence of small molecules related to diet — may influence how well bacteria can grow in the urinary tract, a new study shows. The research, led by Jeffrey Henderson, MD, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, may have implications for treating urinary tract infections, which are among the most common bacterial infections worldwide.

In mice, vaccine stops urinary tract infections linked to catheters

The most common type of hospital-associated infection may be preventable with a vaccine, new research in mice suggests. The experimental vaccine, created by School of Medicine researchers, prevented urinary tract infections associated with catheters, the tubes that hospitals and other care facilities insert to drain urine from the bladder.
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