Daily Science News Infectious and emerging diseasesDo you wonder how many microbes are on the table in the restaurant you are eating? A lot
My apologies for abandoning my blog; I’ve been beyond busy. In the past few months I’ve lived the life of an insanely busy research professor. Here is a little update of what’s been going on:
1. Proposals, proposals, proposals. Scientists survive or better yet thrive by proposing to do interesting, important, hypothesis driven science and then publishing the results of those studies. In the past few months we’ve submitted proposals to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health to expand our work in computational biology. I’ll write more about these exciting projects when we get more information on their funding status.
2. I started a company with Dr. Adam Marsh called Evozym Biologics to harness some software and technology we developed. You can read all about us on the new website.
3. Inventions made by Professors or students or post-docs in academic laboratories are usually “owned” by the University. Then, this intellectual property is licensed to a company so the technology can be put to good use. This requires a licensing agreement between the institution and the company. This apparently takes a long time with lots of bureaucracy and is summarized well here.
4. Peer-reviewed articles. We’ve recently submitted two papers- one of genome architecture in pathogens and free-living microorganisms and another on proteins found in microbes. Stay-tuned for more information.
This article reports about the rise of gram-negative infections for which there are no useful antibiotics. Gram-negative bacteria have a complex outer membrane that protects the cell from among other things certain antibiotics. Hence, as the article points out, it is imperative that we develop NEW antibiotics to treat gram-negative pathogens- especially those that are already multi-drug resistant. Drug-companies are abandoning antibiotic development; there are simple economic reasons for this: 1) antibiotics are only taken for a short period and hence aren’t nearly as profitable as say a statin which is taken daily (being chronically ill, unfit, unwell, etc is a cash cow for the health”care” industry), 2) why spend hundreds of millions on developing an antibiotic that may be rendered useless through drug resistance selection.
Nevada makes the Wall Street Journal and it is nothing flattering.
The edge is a fantastic website dedicated to “promoting inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society” (quoted from the site). At the end of 2009 they asked the thought provoking question, “how is the internet changing the way you think”. One of my favorite answers links to The edge at the starts of this entry. A list of the responders can be found here. In upcoming posts I’m going to spend some space writing about how the internet, open access data and informatics will change biology in the next decade.
Happy Friday. Today is the first annual DEES holiday party. We are going bowling!
More bad news for people who buy beef that comes from hundreds of different animals and many different sources. There are more E. coli (non-pathogenic) in the average human digestive tract than people on earth yet it only takes about 10 E. coli O157:H7 to cause problems in the body; at best you’ll get miserably sick, unfortunately greater problems also occur. Meat in the diet should be considered a luxury at any tax bracket. Know where your food comes from- if you don’t- well don’t eat it. If money is an issue, save some by eating less good meat.
Devastating story about food production and inspection in the United States. On a similar note, today I was listening to public radio and heard some amazing statistics from Michael Pollan during a lecture he gave for the California Lecture Series. I’d highly recommend listening to it.Pollan was talking about industrial food production and the links to our poor health.
Some amazing stats I took away from this lecture: in the 60s’ we spent around 18.5% of our income on food and about 5% of GDP on healthcare costs. The rise of “cheap” food, through, for example processing efficiencies, corporate farming and genetic engineering has decreased our food expenses to 9% of income (at a great cost to our health, a MASSIVE increase in obesity, etc). Today we spend about 28% of GDP on healthcare. Amazingly and tragically linked problems.
DRI’s campus in Reno is having a public open house this Saturday between 10am and 3pm.
I encourage the vast group of people who are reading this weblog to attend! It will feature exhibits by many of DRI’s great faculty. You’ll get to make rain gauges, learn about ground-penetrating radar, hear fantastic lectures from some of the faculty and have fun! Our Reno campus has expanded and a visit will be well worth it. The event is incredibly children friendly with exhibits on DRIs green education program and a future scientists center that will feature a “why we get sick” exhibit. If nothing else this is a great opportunity for parents to have their kids learn all about why we should be washing our hands feverishly with plain soap and water.
Here is open house info, as well as a small story KTVN did on some of my work and the work of Dr. Alexandra Lutz (who studies groundwater, water sustainability and water quality). We will be showcasing some of the fantastically awesome organisms we study as microbiologists but in soft, plushy format thanks to the great company Giant Microbes. Here is just one of the many will be talking about, drawing and discussing in a very child friendly format: oops I can’t do that from home Stephan even with my VPN…ok…something to consider. Actually I can’t upload from darwin.dri.edu either.
In anticipation of the exciting DRI open house next week where we’ll discuss “why we get sick” with kids here are some interesting articles about cleanliness.
