May 1 - 5, 2011 8th International Conference on Cryptococcus and Cryptococcosis (ICCC) Charleston, SC, USA Further information The goal of this conference is to bring together the world’s leading researchers on Cryptococcus and cryptococcosis to foster cross-disciplinary discussions, research, and clinical collaborations to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of pathogenicity of Cryptococcus neoformans. Cryptococcus neoformans is an environmental microorganism that has become a major threat to a growing number of immunocompromised read more ...

from Theron et al. in Nanotechnology in Water Treatment Applications Since their discovery, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great attention as nanoscale building blocks for micro- and nanodevices. CNTs can be divided essentially into single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) based on the principle of hybridized carbon atom layers in the walls of CNTs. Whereas SWCNTs have diameters ranging from 0.3 to 3 nm, the MWCNTs are composed of a concentric arrangement of many cylinders and can reach read more ...

from Wittwer CT and Farrar JS (2011) in PCR Troubleshooting and Optimization Before thermostable polymerases were used in PCR, thermal cyclers were unwieldy instruments with integrated fluidics to add fresh enzyme after each denaturation. Taq polymerase greatly reduced the engineering complexity of thermal cyclers, requiring only temperature cycling but not liquid handling. It did not take long before a variety of thermal cycling solutions appeared. Instruments progressed rapidly from laboratory oddities to mainstream commodities. Some early read more ...

from Theron et al. in Nanotechnology in Water Treatment Applications In addition to QDs, luminescent dye-doped silica nanoparticles (FloDots), which consist of luminescent organic or inorganic dye molecules dispersed inside a silica matrix, have also been developed for ultra-sensitive bioanalysis and diagnostics. Owing to the silica matrix shielding effect, the doped dye molecules are protected from environmental oxygen, enabling the fluorescence to be constant and thus providing an accurate measurement for bioanalysis. Moreover, the silica read more ...

from Luo et al (2011) in Microbial Population Genetics The rapid accumulation of bacterial genome sequences has opened up a new field of research, that of comparative genomics. Interpretation of raw DNA sequence data involves the identification and annotation of genes, proteins, and regulatory and/or metabolic pathways. Therefore, there is a natural shift towards the creation of tools for viewing and manipulating data in a comparative genomics context. In addition, genome annotations need to be reprocessed on a regular basis to take into read more ...

The Pharmaceutical microbiology blog provides overviews, news and opinions on subjects related to pharmaceutical microbiology, contamination control, cleanrooms, as well as more general quality control, quality assurance, pharmaceutical, medical devices, cosmetic, food and healthcare read more ...

I am pleased to provide the following excerpt from a book review of Caliciviruses: Molecular and Cellular Virology : "Major progress has been made in the study of the molecular biology of these viruses over the past 10-15 years, and the most important findings are reviewed here by experts in the field ... All chapters are carefully and clearly written, and supported by references reaching well into 2009 ... This book is a splendid example of how fast a research field which has been beset by many difficulties for a long time can move and read more ...

The new book Vaccine Design: Innovative Approaches and Novel Strategies edited by Rino Rappuoli and Fabio Bagnoli has been delivered to our distributors and is available for immediate read more ...

The new book PCR Troubleshooting and Optimization: The Essential Guide edited by Suzanne Kennedy and Nick Oswald has been delivered to our distributors and is available for immediate read more ...

April 10 - 15, 2011 Molecular Bioenergetics of Cyanobacteria: From Cell to Community Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain Further information ESF-EMBO Symposium. Among all groups of prokaryotes, few have played a bigger role than cyanobacteria on the global scale. The appearance of cyanobacteria, about 3 billion years ago, brought a radical transition of the Earth's environment as the oxygen they produced from their photosynthetic activity turned the anoxic world into an oxic one. Their tremendous diversity in terms of activity and structure make read more ...

November 9 - 9, 2010 Symposium of the Danish Microbiological Society Copenhagen, Denmark Further information Topice include Biofilms; Microbial stewards; Functional genomics; E.coli: Activity and interactions; Extremophiles and Food Microbiology. Besides the oral and poster presentations, the meeting will give scientists the possibility of getting acquainted with the newest laboratory equipment and consumables presented by the companies in a technical exhibition of suppliers and distributors in the field. Suggested reading: Microbiology read more ...