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Chemists Grow Soil Fungus On Cheerios, Discover New Antifungal Compounds
MTorrice writes: Many drugs that treat bacterial and fungal infections were found in microbes growing in the dirt. These organisms synthesize the compounds to fend off other bacteria and fungi around them. To find possible new drugs, chemists try to coax newly discovered microbial species to start making their arsenal of antimicrobial chemicals in the lab. But fungi can be stubborn, producing just a small set of already-known compounds.
Now, one team of chemists has hit upon a curiously effective and consistent trick to prod the organisms to start synthesizing novel molecules: Cheerios inside bags. Scientists grew a soil fungus for four weeks in a bag full of Cheerios and discovered a new compound that can block biofilm formation by an infectious yeast. The chemists claim that Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi.
Now, one team of chemists has hit upon a curiously effective and consistent trick to prod the organisms to start synthesizing novel molecules: Cheerios inside bags. Scientists grew a soil fungus for four weeks in a bag full of Cheerios and discovered a new compound that can block biofilm formation by an infectious yeast. The chemists claim that Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi.
What did the clown say to the mycologist?
"I'm a fungi"
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
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Scientific Community
Cheerios are by far the best in the cereal aisle at growing chemically productive fungi
Blue Press
Cheerios discovered to harbor a wide range of funguses
The disease killing secrets the cereal manufacturers don't want you to know.
Biofilm is the scientific term that has been miss-used in the swamps of Louisiana referring to documentaries of the stagnant waterways locally known as, "bayou films."
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
... for eating Cheerios off the floor.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Someone called you out on having moldy bags of cereal, and you're pretending that it is cutting edge research. Like anyone's going to fall for that!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
No one takes a molecule from a bacterium or fungus and then starts giving it to patients. You have to find the specific compound that allows the fungus/bacterium to kill its neighbors--a very labor intensive process. Then you have to get its structure. Then you test it to see if is druggable--will it last long enough in the bloodstream to be effective, for example. It probably isn't, so then you need to synthesize analogs and test them. Then you have to test it for toxicity, maybe synthesize more analogs to get around toxicity problems. And then you can start clinical trials--three rounds of them usually. Somewhere along the way you need to devise a way to make the compound in large enough quantities to turn it into a pill or injection or whatever deliverable form you're picking. So there are a lot of steps between "hey this compound from this fungus killed that bacteria," and "take this pill once a day for 10 days."
Oats and Rye, typically. Yes.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Also, Cheerios overcame a common problem in growing fungi. Standard growth media varies in composition from batch to batch. These small variations can alter fungi growth, meaning researchers canâ(TM)t consistently produce the same set of metabolites with each experiment. However, one Cheerio is the same as another, box to box, batch to batch, today or years from now.
"Standard" media that isn't consistent sounds like a massive failure of quality control by the manufacturer.
Does no one make a quality growth media?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Usually the compound in your pill is not the compound someone fished out of a microbe. It's been modified to give it better pharmacological properties--last longer in your bloodstream--and to avoid toxicity issues. So there is a lot of intellectual work that goes into making the compound you ingest even if the initial inspiration came from a fungus.
"Silly Fungi - Trix are for kids!"
Which, I imagine, must make French people very sad.
Ezekiel 23:20
Eating a raw ear of corn is disgusting though. I prefer a raw nose of corn myself.
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Or it has preservatives that kill those organisms that would otherwise kill the fungi.
I see a large grant in your future.