Anyone who has dabbled into molecular biology knows that Escherichia coli has been the go-to model organism for quite some time. As an organism that is easy to grow and easy to genetically manipulate in the lab, E. coli has become one of the most commonly used microorganisms in labs that study a variety of…
“Life has evolved to thrive in environments that are extreme only by our limited human standards: in the boiling battery acid of Yellowstone hot springs, in the cracks of permanent ice sheets, in the cooling waters of nuclear reactors, miles beneath the Earth’s crust, in pure salt crystals, and inside the rocks of the dry…
The first Microbe of the Month is Helicobacter pylori, my favorite bacterium during my graduate school years. Discovery of Helicobacter pylori Stomach ulcers were traditionally thought to be caused by stress. However, in 1982 Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori for short) is actually the cause of these…