In agriculture, fungicides are used to combat fungal infections, and in medicine, antimycotics – both of which have their drawbacks. The microbiologist Florentine Marx-Ladurner is working on a new, more natural active substance. The antifungal compounds she is developing in her laboratory in Innsbruck are based on proteins that originate from moulds. Continue reading “A new way of combating fungal infections”
Over the last 25 years, the microbiologist Michael Wagner has developed methods that make it possible to examine bacteria and archaea directly in medical or environmental samples without growing them. Today he watches them eat, sorts them by function, and in 2015 discovered “Comammox”, a new bacterial species that can help reduce the production of […] Continue reading “Exploring the miracle of life”
Supported by funding from the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a team from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories deciphered the mechanism of the TTP protein as a time-switch for the programmed cell death of white blood cells. A targeted death of these cells prevents an excessive immune reaction, but could also be used as a therapeutic […] Continue reading “Time-switch for immune cells”
In a project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the microbiologist Andreas Farnleitner is looking at new methods for analysing faecal pollution in water. Using DNA analytics, the scientist aims to develop comprehensive and simple methods to determine the extent and origin of faecal pollution. Continue reading “Tracking microbial faecal pollution in water”
With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, an international group of researchers is investigating to what extent the forest floor serves as a carbon sink and how bacteria and fungi interact in this context. The researchers have found deadwood to be populated by a great diversity of life. Continue reading “Bacteria, deadwood and climate change”
Highly resistant to stresses, black fungi are real champions among microorganisms. With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a research team in Vienna discovered that the fungi owe their qualities to hitherto unknown proteins and special processes at cellular level. Continue reading “Small and extremely resilient: the secrets of black fungi”
A feedback mechanism in the body is responsible for keeping immune responses from getting out of hand. It works at the level of certain genes, linking the inactivation of those genes to the progress made in transcribing them: This clever mechanism was discovered as part of an Austrian Science Fund FWF project and was recently […] Continue reading “Clever feedback system regulates immune responses”