Esther Lederberg (December 18, 1922 – November 11, 2006) pioneered bacterial genetics, discovering lambda phage and F factor, inventing replica plating and furthered the understanding of the transfer of genes between bacteria by specialized transduction. She founded Stanford's Plasmid Reference Center. Despite groundbreaking work, she never got tenure and her discoveries are often credited to her Nobel laureate husband.
New review: A real-world thriller of hubris, pandemics, and biological weapons, Air-Borne brilliantly tells the complex and multifaceted history of aerobiology.
When KJ Muldoon was born at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in August, doctors noticed that he was lethargic. They carried out tests that revealed he had a genetic metabolic disorder that leads to the buildup of ammonia and can cause brain damage and death. Gene sequencing helped them determine the exact location of the error that led to him being unable to make a vital enzyme. This allowed doctors to use CRISPR technology to create a treatment tailored specifically towards his unique mutation. After three infusions containing billions of gene editors, his defect appears to have been corrected and his condition, at least partially reversed. "This is an important first step towards an entirely new type of personalized medicine. I think it's going to utterly transform the way we practice medicine, particularly in the area of rare diseases," says Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a professor for translational research at the University of Pennsylvania, who worked on KJ's case. See the @npr story at the first link. There's a link to the original article in the New England Journal of Medicine at the second link.
Whoa iqtree is finally up to version 3. It's setup in a separate github repo so if you rely on automated setup scripts (like I do) you'll have to make minor changes.
Time to run some tests to see if recent results remain consistent.
What happened to February? The shortest month seemed shorter than ever this year — even though January feels very long ago. This #NewstodonFriday, to counter the doom and the gloom, we’re watching Jane Fonda’s SAG Awards acceptance speech on repeat (it’s the last item in this thread). Please do read and boost the whole thread of stories from newsrooms with a presence in the fediverse. It makes a difference to our brave independent media friends.
The received wisdom has always been that spacecraft need to be as microbe-free as possible, but our
@ScienceDesk shared this New Scientist story that says the situation might be more complex. “On the space station, astronauts often get rashes, unusual allergies, fungal or bacterial infections, as well as activation of latent viruses such as Epstein-Barr,” writes Michael Le Page. Professor Pieter Dorrestein of the University of California San Diego told Le Page his theory is that the immune system needs to be periodically “pinged.”
"Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here"
Dr Sarah McAnulty
New review: How is the living world organized and classified? Encyclopaedic in scope yet compelling to read, the deeply researched Kingdoms, Empires, & Domains is an 851-page behemoth that surveys 26 centuries of our changing understanding.
Handbook of Aquatic Microbiology Edited by Pramod Kumar Pandey & Rameshori Yumnam & Sumanta Kumar Mallik, 2024
This handbook covers the different aspects of the aquatic environment, microbiology, and microbial applications. It highlights the role of microorganisms as pollution indicators and as bio-control agents. The book covers the impact of pollution on microorganisms, biofilms, cyanobacterial blooms, and the metagenomics approach to isolate microbes.
This comprehensive handbook covers the different aspects of the aquatic environment, microbiology, and microbial applications. The world’s aquatic environment is facing a serious threat due to inappropriate planning, implementation, and management. This book compiles effective strategies for managing the aquatic environment. It highlights the role of microorganisms as pollution indicators, in bioremediation, and as bio-control agents. The book also covers the impact of pollution on microorganisms, biofilms, cyanobacterial blooms, and the metagenomics approach to isolate microbes. This book is essential for students and researchers of Microbiology, Environmental Sciences, and Biotechnology.
1 Includes key themes like environmental DNA application, metagenomes, extremophiles, microbial population genetics and statistical aspects of aquatic microbiology
2 Discusses the beneficial microbes of the aquatic environment
3 Covers applications of microbes in bioremediation, as pollution indicators and as algicidal agents
4 Reviews freshwater biogeochemical cycles and sediment microbiology
5 Explores microbial communities of biofloc and microbiomes in aquaponics