Synchronized E. coli

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/video/0110geneticclock.mov

Neat experiment Showing bacterial coordination in a cool visual way. All done with E. coli modified to carry a green fluorescent protein

E. coli at the fair

Elon's student TV station did a bit on the E. coli outbreak and interviewed me for a few biological tidbits

http://phoenix14news.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/e-coli-outbreak-develops-following-nc-state-fair/

I thought they did a good job - remember that few people who haven't taken a microbiology course appreciate what you guys do. The typical person on the street sees bacteria as an invisible menace and only understands that there are bad ones, not the good side of the story. Heck, even microscopes seem pretty high tech to the general public...

next generation sequencing strikes again

A while back I noted a "proof-of-concept" study where researchers took a problematic strain of E. coli from an outbreak, pumped out the genomic sequence and analysis in a few days and were able to make great strides in understanding the nature of why this particular strain was a problem.

The same research group have now applied that to Klebsiella pneumoniae Oxa-48 - a bacterial strain responsible for hospital infections in the Netherlands. This really seems to support the importance of DNA technology advances and how genomic level information will be used in the future.

whole genome sequencing of E.coli in outbreak

Article in Genome Technology this month: (click to see it)

stresses the power of the genomics age. Check out this timeline:
- received sample on May 30
- completed genome sequencings on June 1
- Genomes assembled and submitted to NCBI by June 2

Findings
- that E. coli was a new strain
- that E. coli had many antibiotic resistance genes

concept of "Genomic epidemiology"discussed

Another part of this article looks at MRSA and genomic sequencing of 63 isolates - identifying 6700 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) that accounted for the variability seen and related to the microevolutionary changes being seen.

E. coli outbreak resources from NY Times

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/e_coli_bacteria/index.html