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Topics: Medicine, Pharmaceuticals

  • A certain protein in listeria bacteria helps them survive in food production, putting them at risk of food poisoning. Photo: Johnér Bildbyrå AB

    Research on calcium transport can fight bacteria and provide safer food

    Researchers at Umeå University have revealed details on how bacteria use calcium to regulate vital processes, in a way that differs from human cells. This breakthrough is significant in the fight against antibiotic resistance and for increasing safety in food production.

  • Rachel Feeney, PhD Student, and Björn Schröder, Docent in infection biology, the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University. Photo: Anna Shevtsova

    Antibiotic usage can damage the protective mucus layer in the gut

    Researchers at Umeå University and Tartu University have found that a history of repeated antibiotic use causes defects in the normally protective mucus barrier of the gut, due to antibiotic-driven alterations in the microbiota. In a further study in a different collaboration, the researchers found a bacteria-independent mechanism through which antibiotics can damage the mucus barrier directly.

  • Protein identified that can lengthen our life?

    Protein identified that can lengthen our life?

    Cells use various methods to break down and recycle worn-out components – autophagy is one of them. In the dissertation she will be defending at Umeå University in Sweden, Karin Håberg shows that the protein SNX18 is required for cells to be able to perform autophagy.

  • Cannabis – the good, the evil, the ugly

    Cannabis – the good, the evil, the ugly

    Cannabis-like substances that are produced by the body have both therapeutic and harmful properties, besides their well-known intoxicating effects, and the body’s cannabinoid system may be a target for new strategies in cancer treatment. This is what Sofia Gustafsson finds in the dissertation she will be defending at Umeå University in Sweden.