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Bacterial nanosized speargun works like a power drill

Millions of tiny microbes on leaves, stones or our skin jostle for space. And almost everywhere they have to compete for resources and nutrients. In the course of evolution, some bacteria have therefore developed a weapon to…


Immune defense without collateral damage

In the human body’s fight against bacterial pathogens, white blood cells are in the front line. They identify and ingest the invaders, and render them harmless using highly toxic substances. It is important that these…


Cholesterol disrupts lipid metabolism in the cell

Our cells continuously receive external signals, which are transmitted across the cell membrane into the cell, to be processed in the cell nucleus. Various signaling pathways are found in the cell membrane. One is the…


W. Alden Spencer Award goes to Silvia Arber and Botond Roska

The W. Alden Spencer Award is presented annually by the Department of Neuroscience and the Kavli Institute for Brain Science at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, in recognition of outstanding…


Bacteria acquire resistance from competitors

The frequent and sometimes careless use of antibiotics leads to an increasingly rapid spread of resistance. Hospitals are a particular hot spot for this. Patients not only introduce a wide variety of pathogens, which may…


Who am I? How cells find their identity

The origin of every cell of our body is a single cell, the fertilized egg. On the way to become a specialized cell, whether blood, heart or nerve cells, its descendants follow a genetic program. This program determines the…


Bacteria rely on classic business model

The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most common and dangerous pathogens in hospitals causing severe infections in patients, such as wound infections, pneumonia or meningitis. During the first stage of…


Speed controllers for protein production

Proteins perform various jobs in cells, they catalyze thousands of biochemical reactions, relay signals and are required for building cellular structures and transport processes. Within every single cell of our body vast…


Researchers crack a puzzle of bacterial genome evolution

The forefather of phylogenetic trees can be found in Charles Darwin's revolutionary work "On the Origin of Species". These trees provide information about the evolution and relationships of species, from simple cells to…


A “Catch-22” vaccine against Salmonellosis

Antibiotics are still the treatment of choice in fighting bacterial infections. However, due to their extensive and sometimes improper use in medicine and livestock farming, resistant pathogens are increasingly emerging,…