In the news

“We are excited to bring to the market a portable quantitative-polymerase-chain-reaction (qPCR) device with performance that rivals the most expensive lab-based systems, at a fraction of the cost,” said Dr. Zhimin Ding, CEO of Anitoa Systems. “We strive to make our molecular testing systems rugged, accessible, and with battery operation and power-loss protection capability to facilitate their effective use in low resource settings.” The Maverick technology was shown to detect several types of pathogen DNA and RNA strands, such as Hepatitis B and C, HIV, E. coli and many of their drug-resistant variants. The system can reliably detect 4 copies pathogen molecule DNA per sample with over 9 orders of magnitude in dynamic range. @ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anitoa-unveils-ultra-portable-qpcr-system-at-molecular-med-tri-con-2018-300597348.html

Clemson University researchers are working to develop packages that would use communication between cells to detect food that’s beginning to spoil. Quorum sensing (cell to cell communications) uses signaling molecules called autoinducers. Dr. Kay Cooksey and Claudia Ionita are designing a sensor that would identify autoinducers present in packaged foods. Dr. Cooksey said, “The idea is to take what the microorganisms do naturally, put that with being able to sense that they are starting to create a food spoilage situation and build that into a sensor.” @ http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/clemson-researchers-look-to-biological-sensors-to-detect-food-thats-starting-to-spoil/

Scientist from the Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, discovered a new antibiotic agent that they named malacidin. In rats, malacidin worked against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The researchers applied independent Natural products discovery platform that involves sequencing, bioinformatic analysis and heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters captured on DNA extracted from environmental samples. Malacidins, a distinctive class of antibiotics that are commonly encoded in soil microbiomes but have never been reported in culture-based NP discovery efforts. @ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-018-0110-1

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