Mouth Bacteria Uncovered

A new technique for analyzing bacterial groups has been discovered. This method uses computational strategies to uncover the details of microbial communities living in the human mouth. The technique could allow scientists and researchers to resolve indistinguishable bacteria questions from years of research.

An important step in understanding the role of oral bacteria in health and disease is to discover how many different kinds live in the mouths of healthy people, and exactly where in the mouth they normally live. Using a novel computational method called oligotyping, developed by MBL Assistant Research Scientist A. Murat Eren, scientists analyzed gene sequence data from nine sites in the oral cavity. The data was provided by The Human Microbiome Project (HMP), an effort of the National Institutes of Health that produced a census of bacterial populations from 18 body sites in more than 200 healthy individuals. 

— Marine Biological Laboratory

Scientists Discover a Better Way to Identify Dental Infections

Scientists at the University of Nottingham are developing new techniques to locate the source of infections. They plan to use these advancements for the improvement of dental care in developing countries. This new research could greatly reduce the potential for infections to develop. The research uses fluorescent markers to tag the cells. Read more about the use of metabolic machinery to combat dental infections.

The research was led by Professor Cameron Alexander, Head of the Division of Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering and EPSRC Leadership Fellow in the University's School of Pharmacy, building on work by PhD student Peter Magennis. Professor Alexander said: "Essentially, we have hijacked some of the metabolic machinery which bacteria use to control their environment, and used it instead to grow polymers which bind strongly to the specific bacteria that produce them. "The neat thing about this is that the functionality of the polymers grown on the surface of the bacteria is programmed by the cells so that they can recognise their own 'kind'. We used fluorescent labels to light up the polymers and were able to capture this labeling using a mobile phone camera, so in principle it could be possible to use these materials as point-of-care diagnostics for pathogenic bacteria."

— University of Nottingham