The recent H1N1 influenza epidemic has raised many questions about how animal viruses move to human populations. One potential route is through veterinarians, who, according to a new report by University of Iowa College of Public Health researchers, are at markedly increased risk of infection with zoonotic pathogens -- the viruses and bacteria that can infect both animals and humans.

Dartmouth Medical School researchers have devised a novel approach for thwarting the relentless bacterial infections that thrive in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis (CF), unlocking new possibilities against a tenacious and toxic hallmark of the common genetic disease.

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a promising strategy for destroying the molecular scaffolding that can make Pseudomonas bacterial infections extremely difficult to treat in cystic fibrosis patients, wearers of contact lenses, and burn victims.

Actor and pancreatic cancer patient Patrick Swayze's recent hospitalization with pneumonia as a result of his compromised immune system underscores the sensitivity of the lungs: many patients die from lung complications of a disease, rather than the disease itself.

A new report demonstrates how a sensitive imaging technique gives scientists the upper hand in seeking out bacteria in chronic infections.

In the same way that winter is commonly known to be the "flu season," a new study suggests that the dog days of summer may well be the "bacterial infection" season.

Brown University physicists have completed the most detailed study of the swimming patterns of a microbe, showing for the first time how its movement is affected by drag and a phenomenon called Brownian motion. The findings appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

NOD2 is a cytosolic pattern recognition receptor similar in structure and function to Toll like receptors (TLRs). It can recognize and respond to a component found in the cell wall of bacteria, muramyl dipeptide (MDP), and has been shown to play an important role in the innate immune response of macrophages to bacterial infections.

A simple blood test may help detect serious bacterial infections (SBIs) like urinary tract infections and blood stream infections in young infants who come to the emergency department (ED) with fevers that have no clear cause.

A new paper by a team of researchers led by Shahriar Mobashery, Navari Family Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, provides important new insights into the process by which bacteria recycle their cell wall.

In rats with experimental colitis, the marked increase in bacterial translocation in postcolitis rats has been reversed by melatonin administration. This is due to melatonin's anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects.

A potential diagnostic test that could help surgeons confirm or rule out the presence of infection-causing bacteria in prosthetic joints that require surgical revision has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).