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IMAGE: Associate professor in the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine view more
Credit: University of Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 26, 2021 - The mechanism by which acute viral respiratory infections promote secondary bacterial growth and infection in the airways depends on iron-carrying extracellular sacs secreted by the cells lining the host s airways, report researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in a paper published today in
Cell Reports.
The sacs, or vesicles, which carry iron bound to a protein called transferrin, associate with bacterial cells and supply them with essential nutrients, promoting the growth of expansive bacterial communities. The finding gives us a glimpse into how bacteria exploit the host s defense system against pathogens and can offer a new way for creating therapies to prevent secondary bacterial infections in the clinical setting.
Courtesy of Terri and Tom Bone
Terri and Tom Bone, donors to the Magee-Womens Research Institute for prematurity research.
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Terri Bone remembered calling the neonatal intensive care unit from her hospital room to check on her newborn daughter.
“The nurse told me, ‘she stopped breathing last night, but she is OK,’ ” said Bone. “ ‘Premature babies do that sometimes.’ ”
After 10 days in the NICU at what is now UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, baby Megan went home.
Now, 29, Megan is a pediatric neurologist in Texas. As a University of Pittsburgh medical student, she spent time in 2017 in that very same NICU where she was born five weeks early at 6 pounds.
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VIDEO: Duke University researchers are concentrating and separating tiny particles by spinning individual droplets of liquid with soundwaves. view more
Credit: Ken Kingery, Duke University
DURHAM, N.C. - Mechanical engineers at Duke University have devised a method for spinning individual droplets of liquid to concentrate and separate nanoparticles for biomedical purposes. The technique is much more efficient than traditional centrifuge approaches, working its magic in under a minute instead of taking hours or days, and requires only a tiny fraction of the typical sample size. The invention could underline new approaches to applications ranging from precision bioassays to cancer diagnosis.