Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have families, too, according to a study that uses the detailed genetic relationships of bacterial strains to map out how certain infections spread within hospitals and countries. The genomic-sequencing technology that made the study possible could one day enable hospital administrators to track infections back to the individuals and objects that transmit them, say the study authors.
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A fully equipped laboratory for studying pathogen-resistant transgenic plants will close its doors by the year’s end. The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) Biosafety Outstation in Ca’Tron di Roncade, Treviso, Italy, was set up to study potential risks concerning genetically modified crops and plant pathogens of importance to the developing world. The outstation’s facilities, part of the ICGEB, were refurbished with financing from Treviso-based Cassamarca Foundation, supported by banking group Unicredit. But the bank’s financial woes have prevented the foundation from renewing the €4-million ($5.7 million), 5-year contract, says Mark Tepfer, leader of the outstation’s Plant Virology group. Continue reading GM crop biosafety lab folds
A recently discovered fly, Endaphis fugitiva, may be the first known parasitic insect that is able to escape a host that is under attack from predators. When researchers injured the fly’s host — called the banana aphid — or let brown lacewings attack the aphids, the fly larvae broke out of the aphid’s body (see video).
Read the rest of this news story at Nature.com [html] or here [pdf]
When Swedish neuroscientist Jens Hjerling-Leffler moved to New York University (NYU) in New York City for a postdoc in 2007, he found life so exciting in the city that never sleeps that he never wanted to shut his eyes. “I actually didn’t sleep very much my first year,” he says. “There’s this idea that you’re going to work a lot, and then when you’re done you’ve got the whole city at your doorstep.”
Continue reading Coming to America: Doing a postdoc in the U.S.