In the quest to understand genomes -- how they're built, how they're organized and what makes them work -- a team of Johns Hopkins researchers has engineered from scratch a computer-designed yeast chromosome and incorporated into their creation a new system that lets scientists intentionally rearrange the yeast's genetic material.

A team of researchers from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Xiao-Liang Wang and Yi-Jian Yao), summarized all the available information on the insect species associated with the Tibetan medicinal fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis through an extensive literature survey and analyzed their relationships with the fungus.

Researchers are a step closer towards creating a new class of medicines and vaccines to combat drug-resistant and deadly strains of fungal infections, following a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

With the increasing availability of sophisticated technologies to rapidly diagnose and treat infectious diseases, the duties and the role of clinical laboratory microbiologists, who traditionally perform these tests, could see significant changes in the next few years.

A protective delivery vehicle that shuttles friendly bacteria safely through the stomach to the intestines could provide a major boost for the probiotics industry.

The stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori is one of the biggest risk factors for the development of gastric cancer, the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the world.

Biologists have long known that organisms from bacteria to humans use the 24 hour cycle of light and darkness to set their biological clocks.

A novel technique to "tame" the malaria parasite, by forcing it to depend on an external supply of a vital chemical, has been developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-San Francisco.

A new tick-borne bacterium infecting humans with ehrlichiosis has been discovered in Wisconsin and Minnesota.