Creative Bios

  R ecent research conducted by researchers from Yale University is published in  Applied and Environmental Microbiology , suggesting  that natural bacteriophage, or phage, can kill dysentery-causing bacteria and reduce virulence in surviving bacteria. It's a piece   of  inspiring news as  treating dysentery has become a challenge with the rising antibiotic resistance.   Background   Shigella flexneri , the culprit causing contagious infection marked by inflammatory diarrhea and dysentery in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, kills about 160,000 people globally every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) takes priority to this pathogen in terms of increasing cases, antimicrobial resistance, and limited treatment options.   S. flexneri  is active primarily in low-income countries, like southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In these places, dirty drinking water is a concern causing dysentery, while antibiotics are expensive and unav...

  I t's  widely accepted that  HIV, Hepatitis C, Ebola, and the ongoing coronavirus have acquired a bad reputation for viruses due to their aggressive and infectious nature. But actually, there are nice guys in the virology world, microscopic bacteriophages . Different from dreadful bad viruses that will invade the host cell to tak e  over the cellular machinery, release more infectious viral particles, and finally cause illness, phages are protective viruses that can attack and destroy bacteria.   About Phages   Bacteriophage, or known as phage, whose name is derived from the Greek word phagein , indicating the eater of bacteria. These spidery-looking viruses have  a population of over 10 31 , larger than the total number of all other organisms, including bacteria, remaining the most abundant life-form on the planet. They could be found almost everywhere bacteria exist , including water, air, soil, the mucous membrane lining of digestive, respiratory,...