Bacteria mutate for a living, evading antibiotic drugs while killing tens of thousands of people in the United States each year. But as concern about drug-resistant bacteria grows, one novel approach under way at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeks to thwart the bug without a drug by taking a cue from nature.

Scientists have identified the role of two proteins that contribute to disease-causing bacteria cells’ versatility in resisting certain classes of antibiotics.

A team of scientists from the University Paris Descartes has solved the structure of two proteins that allow bacteria to gain resistance to multiple types of antibiotics, according to a report in EMBO reports this month.

UCLA biochemists and colleagues have answered an important question about the structure of microcompartments — the mysterious molecular machines that seem to be present in a wide variety of pathogens and other bacteria.

Bacteria often get bad press, with those found in water often linked to illness and disease. But researchers at The University of Nottingham are using these tiny organisms alongside the very latest membrane filtration techniques to improve and refine water cleaning technology.

Scientists at the University of York have characterised an important new step in the mechanism used by bacteria to evade our immune system.

A mathematical model that looks at different strategies for curbing hospital-acquired infections suggests that antimicrobial cycling and patient isolation may be effective approaches when patients are harboring dual-resistant bacteria.

One of the ways we defend ourselves against bacterial foes is to “hide” their food, particularly the metals they crave. A multi-disciplinary team led by Vanderbilt University investigators has now discovered that a protein inside certain immune system cells blocks the growth of “staph” bacteria by sopping up manganese and zinc.

A bacterium that harvests far-red light by making a rare form of chlorophyll (chlorophyll d) has revealed its genetic secrets, according to a team of researchers who recently sequenced the bacteria’s genome.

Novel molecular techniques have been responsible for major strides in microbial ecology and are addressing broadly important scientific questions about the variety and distribution of microbial life, according to an article in the February 2008 issue of BioScience.

For most people, the name “E. coli” is synonymous with food poisoning and product recalls, but a professor in Texas A&M University’s chemical engineering department envisions the bacteria as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more.

The long-sought-after biological “gateway” that anthrax uses to enter healthy cells has been uncovered by microbiologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).