Micro(be)philosophy!!

Synergistic Effect of 14-Alpha-Lipoyl Andrographolide and Various Antibiotics on the Formation of Biofilms and Production of Exopolysaccharide and Pyocyanin by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (doi:10.1128/AAC.00575-10) Yet another related study on P. aerugenosa was presented by researchers from Jinan University College of Pharmacy and Chinese Academy of Sciences from china and University of Adelaide, Australia. The authors have synthesized a small molecule, 14-alpha-lipoyl andrographolide (AL-1) which is a derivative of a natural product andrographolide, a diterpenoid lactore from the herb Andrographis paniculata . The later is a traditional medicine used to treat symptoms of inflammation, fever and pain due to infections since 30 years in china. The authors write about the QS system, the Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS) system and the Type III secretion (T3SS) system which play role in biofilm formation and pathogenesis and quote that compounds that inhibit the above systems may of

The content of the June issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy is now available. Its the 6th issue of volume 55. There are quite some research articles published in relation to antimicrobials against biofilms. Antimicrobial Peptoids Are Effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms (doi:10.1128/AAC.01516-10) Bacteria in biofilms are known to be more resistant towards antimicrobials than their planktonic (free living) counterparts. A group of scientists from Stanford University, California and Northwestern University, Evanston have investigated the effects of peptoids, Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and conventional antibiotics against the formation and removal of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. AMPs are short aminoacid sequences are known for their nonspecific mechanism of bactericidal activity.

University of Copenhegan, Denmark is announcing an online course on Biofilms; Bacterial Biofilms and Their Role in Chronic Infections. PhD students and Masters students can attend the course. The course is scheduled for the Fall 2011 flanking 10 weeks. The dates are not yet announced, but the registration is open.  For the non-English speakers, they demand IELTS/TOFEL scores. Its understandable but if I think about India, its a kind of expensive to take the tests. I myself avoided to take the tests 'coz it was expensive when I was doing my Masters. But I think one could convince the course coordinator by some how prove his/her English competence, may be try communication to them over phone or providing evidence for being studied in schools and/or colleges through English as the medium of education etc,. To me it looks like they shall not be stubborn. Other than that the participant should have the basic computer skills, experience with MS-office, pdf, reaching out in internet  et

When they had to talk, they say 'me', then recognize 'you' and then also learn 'we'; yes, these are the words the bacteria speak among themselves. It was my turn to present an article in the journal club here in our department this week. This time, I choose to talk about 'quorum sensing'; the name in "our" language to address their (bacterial) language. Isn't an intresting topic to talk about? after-all, all we are fond of gossips and in this case the ‘bacterial gossips’! It was an 2009 article in ‘PloS biology’ journal from Bonnie L. Bassler's group who at the first place reported the quorum sensing in the bacteria, vibrio fischeri. It was an amazing experience to learn and share about this incredible system of these tiny little single celled bugs. This particular article is about vibrio harveyi and would like to write here a few things I learnt over reading the article (over a late working night infact :(! ). Quorum sensing, in short

NDM-1 (New Delhi Metallo-1) is the hard talk now in the global medicine industry. NDM-1 is a new MBL (metallo beta lactamase, enzyme that can help bacteria from being killed by beta lactum antibiotics like penicillin) which has been reported from India (ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY, Dec. 2009, p. 5046–5054). This new trait doesn’t show a lot of similarity with the already known MBLs. Some quote this as “super bug”, next to MRSA (Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus); am not convinced with terming it as a superbug rather it might infact make a bacteria, a super bug which will be resistant to ‘most’antibiotics’, as the media says.  Am sceptical too about the phrase “most antibiotics” as what includes the ‘most’? The article which reported the NDM-1 containing plasmids in two different organisms ( Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli ) present data for their susseptibility to fluoroquinolones and colistin. Chromosomally encoded MBL was first reported in 1991 in Japan

I introduce myself as a Philosophiser; who is not a 'philosopher' (I, certainly not), but love to see things in a philosophical point of view. I would argue that philosophy is a product of the processes involved in social living and so, can be applied to organisms adapting to a colonial living at any level. Ok, now what is microbphilosophy? The answer is, as a biologist, the very exiting thing I get to work with is the microbes and I would like to view microbial life in a philosophical prespective. I see the microbes as the philosophers. But, how? Nature 2007, 445 ,533 As I work with these little bugs, I got fascinated about how these single celled organisms organize themselves for a communal living, the so called biofilms. These are surface associated microbial communities enclosed in a self synthesised polymeric matrix. We encounter biofilms at every walk of our life starting from our very essential habit of brushing the teeth to remove the biofilm formed on the tooth sur