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Microscopic image of a torn piece of gray plastic on a white background.
Alpine and Arctic Microbes Break Down Plastics
Alejandra Manjarrez, PhD | Jul 7, 2023 | 2 min read
Researchers identified cold-adapted microbes that degrade certain plastics at low temperatures, potentially saving energy in industrial recycling.
Illustration of gut microbes
Microbial Menace in Cancer Patients
Niki Spahich, PhD | Jul 5, 2023 | 2 min read
Fyza Shaikh investigates how microbes shape cancer patients’ health and recovery.
What Lies Beneath: Wastewater Testing for Pathogens
What Lies Beneath: Wastewater Testing for Pathogens
The Scientist’s Creative Services Team | 1 min read
Michael Wiley will discuss detecting pathogens in communities through wastewater surveillance programs.
Infographic showing a new way to assess antibiotic effectiveness based on how much bacteria jiggle
Jiggling Bacteria Reveal Antibiotic Resistance
Ida Emilie Steinmark, PhD | Jul 5, 2023 | 1 min read
Finding an effective antibiotic against an infection can easily take 24 hours. Faster testing could save lives and help doctors avoid broad-spectrum antibiotics, which can foster resistance.
Cheese wheels with moldy rinds on a wooden plank
Deleting a Gene Quells a Pesky Cheese-destroying Fungus
Natalia Mesa, PhD | Jun 30, 2023 | 3 min read
Fungi disrupt microbial communities on cheese by making antibiotics. 
What Could Cause the Next Pandemic?
What Could Cause the Next Pandemic?
The Scientist’s Creative Services Team | 2 min read
Scientists prepare for the future by filling in the research gaps between zoonotic viral reservoirs, emerging viruses, and human immune defenses.
Epithelial cells and fungal spores are marked with fluorescent dyes. Cells have an irregular shape and are shown in green and blue colors. Spores are spherical in shape and are labeled green if they are surrounded by p11 protein. A protein in mature phagosomes is labeled violet.
Fungal Spores Hijack a Host Protein to Escape Death
Mariella Bodemeier Loayza Careaga, PhD | Jun 20, 2023 | 3 min read
Uncovering the components used by Aspergillus fumigatus to avoid intracellular destruction broadens our understanding of the mold’s pathogenesis. 
bacteria inside a biofilm
How Bacterial Communities Divvy up Duties
Holly Barker, PhD | Jun 1, 2023 | 10+ min read
Biofilms are home to millions of microbes, but disrupting their interactions could produce more effective antibiotics.
Scientist working in a biosafety cabinet
Cell Culture Conquests: Finding and Defeating the Invisible Enemy
The Scientist’s Creative Services Team and MilliporeSigma | 3 min read
Cutting-edge reagents, kits, and techniques provide a robust solution to cell culture mycoplasma contamination.
Henry Erlich 
A Not-So-Simple Idea
Niki Spahich, PhD | Jun 1, 2023 | 5 min read
A moonlit drive inspired the theory behind PCR. What did it take to make that wild idea reality?
The Biofilm Life Cycle
Infographic: Stages of Biofilm Formation
Holly Barker, PhD | Jun 1, 2023 | 1 min read
Free-swimming bacteria settle on a surface to cooperate and form a protective biofilm.
Discover the microbiome’s role in diabetes 
A Question of Balance: How the Gut Microbiome Influences Diabetes
The Scientist’s Creative Services Team | 1 min read
The presence of beneficial or detrimental microbes pulls the host toward health or disease.
Julie Trolle and Jef Boeke
Self Sufficient Cells?
Katherine Irving | Jun 1, 2023 | 4 min read
Animal cells cannot produce 9 of the 20 amino acids they need to function. Some researchers are looking to change that.
Aerial view Mangrove forest and canal through the forest.
Garbage to Guts: The Slow-Churn of Plastic Waste
Iris Kulbatski, PhD | Jun 1, 2023 | 4 min read
The winding trail of environmental microplastics leads researchers to the human digestive ecosystem.
Brush Up: Quorum Sensing in Bacteria and Beyond
Brush Up: Quorum Sensing in Bacteria and Beyond
Deanna MacNeil, PhD | 4 min read
Microbes communicate with quorum sensing to coordinate their behavior in response to how many neighbors they have.
Pseudomonas Aeruginosa
Cooperation and Cheating
Mariella Bodemeier Loayza Careaga, PhD | Jun 1, 2023 | 6 min read
Bacteria cooperate to benefit the collective, but cheaters can rig the system. How is the balance maintained?
Infographic showing strategies used by cooperators to curb the cheater population in a bacterial community
Infographic: Curbing the Cheaters 
Mariella Bodemeier Loayza Careaga, PhD | Jun 1, 2023 | 1 min read
From spatial structuring to policing, cooperative bacteria have a wide toolkit to contain the spread of cheaters.
A person holding a section of his face and looking in to his brain through a magnifying glass stock illustration
Science Philosophy in a Flash - A Look at Aging Through Young Eyes 
Iris Kulbatski, PhD | 1 min read
Aimée Parker shares how her childlike curiosity and collaborative spirit motivate her scientific pursuits.
Man in blue shirt holding a paper representation of the intestines
Gut Bacteria Contribute to Anorexia
Kamal Nahas, PhD | May 1, 2023 | 3 min read
Microbiomes transplanted from women with anorexia nervosa into mice enhanced symptoms of the eating disorder, such as rapid weight loss and reduced appetite.
Image shows photorhabdus virulence cassettes (green) binding to insect cells (blue) prior to injection of payload proteins. 
Engineered Bacterial “Syringes” Can Deliver Drugs Into Human Cells
Rohini Subrahmanyam, PhD | Apr 20, 2023 | 4 min read
Researchers repurpose tiny bacterial injection systems to specifically inject a wide variety of proteins into human cells and living mice.
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