Congratulations to Gary, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and MSI Steering Committe member, who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Read more here...

“Scientists Discover Antibiotic-Eating Bacteria”

George Church, Gautam Dantes and Morten Sommer (Harvard Medical School) can be heard on NPR (links below) to partly chat about the paper "Bacteria subsisting on Antibiotics" (click here) coming out of the Church lab (first authors: Dantes and Sommer).

NPR Talk of the Nation -Science Friday, April 4, 2008 - Click here to listen to George Church talking with Ira Flatow. [8 min 13 sec] "Researchers have found several hundred species of bacteria that have antibiotic-eating ability, some of which are related to bacteria capable of causing disease in humans and animals."

"Study Finds Soil Bacteria Can Live on Antibiotic Diet"

NPR Morning Edition, April 4, 2008 - Click here to listen to Gautam Dantes talking with Nell Greenfieldboyce. [3 min 13 sec] "Antibiotics normally kill bacteria. But scientists have discovered that hundreds of bacteria living in dirt not only resist being killed by antibiotics — they use the antibiotics as food."

Morten and Gautam sent MSI these photos of bacteria from their recent paper in Science (contrast and false-color enhanced images) are Burkholderia and Achromobacter species capable of subsisting on the blockbuster antibiotic Levofloxacin. Click here to read their paper.

Morten Sommer and Gautam Dantes (Postdoctoral Researches in George Church's Lab at HMS/MGH) collect bacteria in soil samples in the field along with GPS data (geographical coordinates) for their research.

For more on their astounding results, click here for their paper in Science.

"Of Microbes and Men: Bacteria Disappearing from Our Bodies May Harm Human Health"

"Not feeling quite yourself? No wonder. In a sense, you aren't really you." In an article writtenby Boston Globe staff writer Colin Nickerson on 25 February 2008, Roberto Kolter (HMS) was quoted along with other leading mircobiologists in the field.

"...Without these microbes, human beings would be in trouble." - R. Kolter

Click here to read more of the article on boston.com website.

Click here to download a printable pdf (140 Kb)

Prof. Roberto Kolter: New President Elect of ASM

Congratulations to Roberto, Co-Director of MSI and Professor of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School, has been chosen as the new president-elect of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for a one-year term beginning 1 July 2008.

Katie Rose Clapham (MSI Undergrad Fellow) wins Sarber Award

...from the American Society of Microbiology. The Raymond W. Sarber Awards recognize students at the undergraduate and predoctoral levels for research excellence and potential. Last summer, Katie Rose worked with Dr. Kumaran Ramamurthi and Prof. Rich Losick in MCB on sporulation of the Gram positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis.

recent publications from msi-associated faculty

* listed by order of publication dates *

Fischbach MA, Walsh CT, Clardy J.
The evolution of gene collectives: How natural selection drives chemical
innovation.
PNAS 2008 Mar 25; 105(12): 4601-8.
PMID: 18216259

Borner GV, Barot A, Kleckner N.
Yeast Pch2 promotes domainal axis organization, timely recombination progression,
and arrest of defective recombinosomes during meiosis.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Mar 4;105(9):3327-32.
PMID: 18305165

Sun J, Lang AE, Aktories K, Collier RJ.
Phenylalanine-427 of anthrax protective antigen functions in both pore formation
and protein translocation.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Mar 18;105(11):4346-51.
PMID: 18334631

Wakeley J.
Complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees.
Nature. 2008 Mar 13; 452(7184): E3-4; discussion E4.
PMID: 18337768

Duan J, Avci FY, Kasper DL.
Microbial carbohydrate depolymerization by antigen-presenting cells: deamination
prior to presentation by the MHCII pathway.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Apr 1;105(13):5183-8.
PMID: 18381820 [PubMed - in process]

Losick R, Desplan C.
Stochasticity and cell fate.
Science. 2008 Apr 4; 320(5872): 65-8. Review.
PMID: 18388284

Dantas G, Sommer MO, Oluwasegun RD, Church GM.
Bacteria subsisting on antibiotics.
Science. 2008 Apr 4; 320(5872): 100-3.
PMID: 18388292

Walsh CT, Nolan EM.
Morphing peptide backbones into heterocycles.
PNAS 2008 Apr 15; 105(15): 5655-6.
PMID: 18398003

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