Penicillin News and Research

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Penicillin (sometimes abbreviated PCN or pen) is a group of antibiotics derived from ''Penicillium'' fungi. Penicillin antibiotics are historically significant because they are the first drugs that were effective against many previously serious diseases such as syphilis and Staphylococcus infections.

Electronic communication unlikely to be widely adopted by physician practices

Patients like it and so do health organizations, but electronic communications in clinical care will likely not be widely adopted by primary care physicians unless patient workloads are reduced or they are paid for the time they spend phoning and emailing patients, both during and after office hours.

6 Aug 2013

Obese white Americans are twice as likely as blacks to have bariatric surgery

White Americans who are obese are twice as likely as black Americans to have surgery to tackle the problem, a study has found.

5 Aug 2013

Microbiologists identify staph-killing compound that may be effective for osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis, a debilitating bone infection most frequently caused by Staphylococcus aureus ("staph") bacteria, is particularly challenging to treat.

2 Aug 2013

Research: Reducing antibiotics consumption does not necessarily reduce resistance

Antibiotic use-and misuse-is the main driver for selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria. This has led many countries to implement interventions designed to reduce overall antibiotic consumption. Now, using methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as an example, Laura Temime of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris, and collaborators warn that simply reducing antibiotics consumption does not necessarily reduce resistance.

30 Jul 2013

Structural properties have changed across bacterial families without putting limits on antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been emerging at an alarming rate. In some of the scariest of these pathogens, the mechanism responsible for the bacteria's ability to defeat antibiotics is a complex protein molecule embedded in the bacterial cell wall -- the enzyme β-lactamase.

20 Jul 2013

C. difficile bacteriophage provides new weapon to battle against superbugs

IFR microbiologists are reinvigorating a way of battling C. difficile infections that they hope will help overcome the growing problem of antibiotic resistant superbugs in hospitals.

19 Jul 2013

Smokers who seem healthy have damaged airway cells similar to cells found in aggressive lung cancer

Smokers who've received a clean bill of health from their doctor may believe cigarettes haven't harmed their lungs. However, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have found that even smokers who seem healthy have damaged airway cells, with characteristics similar to cells found in aggressive lung cancer.

17 Jul 2013

Weill Cornell reports new findings from IVIG Phase 3 trial in Alzheimer's disease at AAIC 2013

Weill Cornell Medical College neurologist Dr. Norman Relkin reported new findings today from the Phase 3 clinical trial of IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin) in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston, Mass.

16 Jul 2013

Lawson Farm of Irasburg shut down for selling animals with illegal drug residues for food

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that the United States District Court for the District of Vermont entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Lawson Farm of Irasburg, Vermont, its owner, Robert Lawson, and its manager, George R. Lawson, for selling cows and bull calves for human food that contain illegal drug residues in violation of federal law.

10 Jul 2013

3-gene signature test will improve care of kidney transplant patients

A breakthrough non-invasive test can detect whether transplanted kidneys are in the process of being rejected, as well as identify patients at risk for rejection weeks to months before they show symptoms, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

4 Jul 2013

Cannabis users appear to lack motivation

Researchers found that dopamine levels in a part of the brain called the striatum were lower in people who smoke more cannabis and those who began taking the drug at a younger age.

2 Jul 2013

Study: More people are being affected by drug-induced liver injury than ever before

More people are being affected by drug-induced liver injury (DILI) than ever before, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

27 Jun 2013

Weill Cornell researchers discover high burden of hypertension in sub-Saharan African country

Based on the experience of a large hospital in Tanzania, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have discovered a "startlingly" high burden of hypertension in this sub-Saharan African country.

26 Jun 2013

Weill Cornell public health study sheds light on hidden cost of terrorism

The 9/11 attacks on America appear to have caused about one million former smokers across the country to take up the habit again and maintain it, according to a Weill Cornell Medical College public health study.

21 Jun 2013

Treating bacteria with silver compounds boosts efficacy of old antibiotics

Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Medicine.

20 Jun 2013

Staph-killing compound may be effective against osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis - a debilitating bone infection most frequently caused by Staphylococcus aureus ("staph") bacteria - is particularly challenging to treat.

20 Jun 2013

New framework to improve safety and effectiveness of surgical procedures, implantable devices

An international team of investigators co-led by Weill Cornell Medical College is offering a new framework for evidence-based surgery and device research, similar to the kind of risk and benefit analysis used in evidence-based medicine.

19 Jun 2013

Drug targeting of phages could offer a potential new path to mitigate antibiotic resistance

Bacteria in the gut that are under attack by antibiotics have allies no one had anticipated, a team of Wyss Institute scientists has found. Gut viruses that usually commandeer the bacteria, it turns out, enable them to survive the antibiotic onslaught, most likely by handing them genes that help them withstand the drug.

11 Jun 2013

Stephen J. Lippard to receive 2014 Priestley Medal from American Chemical Society

Stephen J. Lippard, Ph.D., Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, will receive the 2014 Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society.