The microbiome influences ageing

Bacteria produce fewer vital substances that the body needs: Can a microbial rejuvenation cure slow down the ageing process?

08-Apr-2025 - The intestine is home to a complex ecosystem of microorganisms. This so-called gut microbiome plays an important role in health, disease and ageing. Various studies suggest that the microbiome “ages” and drives the host's ageing processes. It was previously unclear which mechanisms the microbiome ...

How buildings influence the microbiome and thus human health

Previously little-studied effects of modern buildings on microbial colonisation

30-Apr-2024 - Over the last 20 years, the life sciences have come to realise that all living beings - from the simplest animal and plant organisms to humans - live in close association with a multitude of microorganisms. Together with the multicellular host organism, these symbiotic bacteria, viruses and ...

Novel electrochemical sensor detects dangerous bacteria

Novel sensor for the detection of bacteriawith an innovative surface coating

27-Mar-2024 - Each year, bacterial infections claim several million lives worldwide. That is why detecting harmful microorganisms is crucial – not only in the diagnosis of diseases but also, for example, in food production. However, the methods available so far are often time-consuming, require expensive ...

When it is good to be wrinkly: bacteria with a wrinkly look are best adapted to a host organism

04-Sep-2023 - All multicellular organisms - from the simplest animal and plant organisms to humans - live in close association with a variety of microorganisms that colonise their tissues and form symbiotic relationships with the host. Many life functions such as nutrient uptake, regulation of the immune ...

New insights into the bacterial immune system

Proteins for DNA organisation can also defend against plasmids

10-Mar-2023 - Research team from Kiel University describes unknown defence mechanism in bacteria that selectively wards off foreign and potentially harmful genetic information. Since the coronavirus pandemic, the particularly rapid evolutionary adaptability of microorganisms such as bacteria or viruses has ...

Novel way to identify still unknown pathogens

Evolutionary trade-offs: Balancing genetic disease risks and pathogen protection

02-Feb-2023 - Certain genes can exist in different, functionally divergent variants in the individuals of a species. If they lead to clear differences, for example in a phenotype or susceptibility to disease, this is known in biology as a polymorphism. Typical examples are a number of genes whose variants are ...

Previously unknown mode of bacterial growth discovered

Research teams use imaging and modelling to explain why single bacterial cells do not always grow exponentially

18-Nov-2021 - Bacteria as unicellular organisms reproduce by dividing their entire organism. In this way, they can multiply particularly quickly, which allows the exponential growth of bacterial populations, also known from pathogens. The population growth is based on the growth of the individual bacterial ...

Apparently, opposites attract in bacteria as well

Ecologists identify a new rule on how bacterial communities form

04-Nov-2021 - The fact that different bacterial strains interact with each other and exchange substances is essential, for example, for the production of yogurt or in maintaining our healthy intestinal flora. But how do bacteria choose their interaction partners? The research group of ecologist Prof. Dr. ...

Blood group co-determines composition of the intestinal microbiome

In a large genome study, a research team demonstrates correlations between certain gene variants and the composition of bacterial colonization in the human body

21-Jan-2021 - For several years, scientists worldwide have been investigating the extent to which microorganisms living in and on the human body influence central life processes and thus health and disease. Today they assume that there is a connection between the totality of the microbial colonization in the ...

Genetics and intestinal microbiome determine susceptibility to multiple sclerosis

Study shows the link between genetics, intestinal microbiome and multiple sclerosis in mice for the first time

29-Oct-2020 - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the nervous system which affects more than two million people worldwide. In the course of the disease, the immune system attacks the insulation layer of nerve cells, and centers of inflammation develop in the brain and spinal cord, which over ...