http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Scientists at the Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence in Computational Inference Research have developed novel computational methods that have yielded essential knowledge of how hospital-acquired bacteria spread and develop. These new methods, based on randomised algorithms, make it possible to analyse extensive genomic data significantly faster and more efficiently than previously. By applying these results, it is possible to better follow hospital-acquired infections in the future, or even fight them in real time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-methods-reveal-hospital-acquired-bacteria.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:14:29 EST news277553501 (Medical Xpress)—Humans may have acquired enzymes that make blood groups from bacteria to hinder the spread of viruses in the population, suggests a study led by scientists at the University of Bath. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-blood-groups-infection.html Medical research Wed, 19 Dec 2012 05:58:04 EST news275119061 The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae – which can cause pneumonia, meningitis, bacteremia and sepsis – likes to share its antibiotic-defeating weaponry with its neighbors. Individual cells can pass resistance genes to one another through a process called horizontal gene transfer, or by "transformation," the uptake of DNA from the environment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-scientists-bacterial-resistance-genes.html Medical research Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:03:51 EST news270306204 National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their colleagues in China have described a rapidly emerging Staphylococcus aureus gene, called sasX, which plays a pivotal role in establishing methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) epidemics in most of Asia. Senior author Michael Otto, Ph.D., of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says these findings illustrate at the molecular level how MRSA epidemics may emerge and spread. Moreover, their study identifies a potential target for novel therapeutics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scientists-link-quickly-gene-asian.html Genetics Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:20:01 EST news254302264