population dynamics in a vancomycin-induced murine model of gastrointestinal carriage.

is a common nosocomial pathogen and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Multiple reports highlight that gastrointestinal colonization may precede systemic infections by this pathogen. Gaining a deeper insight into the dynamics of gastrointestinal carriage is an essential step in managing gastrointestinal colonization and could contribute to preventing bacterial transmission and progression to systemic infection.

Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates with features of both multidrug-resistance and hypervirulence have unexpectedly low virulence.

Klebsiella pneumoniae has been classified into two types, classical K. pneumoniae (cKP) and hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKP).

Genome-wide screens reveal shared and strain-specific genes that facilitate enteric colonization by .

is a common cause of difficult-to-treat infections due to its propensity to express resistance to many antibiotics. For example, carbapenem-resistant has been named an urgent threat by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gastrointestinal colonization in patients with has been linked to subsequent infection, making it a key process to control in the prevention of multidrug-resistant infections.

Taxonomic characterization of sp. nov., a novel species discovered from a commercially purchased antibiotic.

In an attempt to identify novel bacterial species, microbiologists have examined a wide range of environmental niches. We describe the serendipitous discovery of a novel gram-negative bacterial species from a different type of extreme niche: a purchased vial of antibiotic. The vial of antibiotic hygromycin B was found to be factory contaminated with a bacterial species, which we designate sp.

Genome-wide screens reveal shared and strain-specific genes that facilitate enteric colonization by .

Unlabelled: Gastrointestinal (GI) colonization by is a risk factor for subsequent infection as well as transmission to other patients. Additionally, colonization is achieved by many strain types that exhibit high diversity in genetic content. Thus, we aimed to study strain-specific requirements for GI colonization by applying transposon insertion sequencing to three classical clinical strains: a carbapenem-resistant strain, an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing strain, and a non-epidemic antibiotic-susceptible strain.

Genomic surveillance for multidrug-resistant or hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae among United States bloodstream isolates.

Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae strains have been divided into two major categories: classical K. pneumoniae, which are frequently multidrug-resistant and cause hospital-acquired infections in patients with impaired defenses, and hypervirulent K. pneumoniae, which cause severe community-acquired and disseminated infections in normal hosts.

Systemic infection facilitates transmission of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in mice.

Health care-associated infections such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia pose a major clinical risk for hospitalized patients. However, these systemic infections are presumed to be a "dead-end" for P. aeruginosa and to have no impact on transmission.

Nanopatterned bulk metallic glass-based biomaterials modulate macrophage polarization.

Unlabelled: Polarization of macrophages by chemical, topographical and mechanical cues presents a robust strategy for designing immunomodulatory biomaterials. Here, we studied the ability of nanopatterned bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), a new class of metallic biomaterials, to modulate murine macrophage polarization. Cytokine/chemokine analysis of IL-4 or IFNγ/LPS-stimulated macrophages showed that the secretion of TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-12, CCL-2 and CXCL1 was significantly reduced after 24-hour culture on BMGs with 55 nm nanorod arrays (BMG-55).

A Survey of Patient Attitudes Toward Participation in Biopsy-Based Kidney Research.

Introduction: As part of the precision medicine initiative, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases has proposed collecting human kidney tissue to discover novel therapeutic targets from patients with kidney diseases. Patient attitudes on participating in kidney biopsy-based research are largely unknown.

Methods: We evaluated attitudes toward donating kidney tissue to research among participants who had experienced a clinically indicated kidney biopsy, through a survey conducted 9 months (interquartile range, 5-13 months) after their biopsy.

Regulation of cell-cell fusion by nanotopography.

Cell-cell fusion is fundamental to a multitude of biological processes ranging from cell differentiation and embryogenesis to cancer metastasis and biomaterial-tissue interactions. Fusogenic cells are exposed to biochemical and biophysical factors, which could potentially alter cell behavior. While biochemical inducers of fusion such as cytokines and kinases have been identified, little is known about the biophysical regulation of cell-cell fusion.

Combinatorial development of antibacterial Zr-Cu-Al-Ag thin film metallic glasses.

Metallic alloys are normally composed of multiple constituent elements in order to achieve integration of a plurality of properties required in technological applications. However, conventional alloy development paradigm, by sequential trial-and-error approach, requires completely unrelated strategies to optimize compositions out of a vast phase space, making alloy development time consuming and labor intensive. Here, we challenge the conventional paradigm by proposing a combinatorial strategy that enables parallel screening of a multitude of alloys.