It takes a village: how Monash researchers built their own microscope to decipher superbugs

Press/Media: Research

Description

Co-first author Dilshan Gunasinghe and Professor Trevor Lithgow.

A hand-made super-microscope – capable of seeing the actual building blocks of a bacterial cell wall – has helped Monash researchers decipher how bacteria are able to literally build a wall against the immune system, leading to often deadly disease.

One of the keys to understanding antimicrobial-resistant "superbugs" is to see in great detail the outer surface that they present to the human immune system. A  team led by Professor Trevor Lithgow, from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, has accomplished the first nanoscale interrogation of the wall of the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), discovering highly-organised precincts of ”beta-barrel assembly machines”, that build the bacterial cell surface.

The work, published today in Cell Reports , is, according to Professor Lithgow, “a big step in knowing how these bacteria form a wall against the immune system – and also a big step towards stopping the superbugs in their tracks.”

Super-resolution microscopy, which won its developers the Nobel Prize in 2014, is a technique that can "see" beyond the diffraction of light, providing unprecedented views of cells and their interior structures and organelles.

Period29 May 2018 → 6 Jun 2018

Media coverage

4

Media coverage

  • TitleMonash researchers built own microscope to decipher superbugs
    Media name/outletlabonline
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date6/06/18
    DescriptionA hand-made super-microscope has enabled Monash researchers to decipher how bacteria are able to build a wall against the immune system.

    It is “a big step in knowing how these bacteria form a wall against the immune system — and also a big step towards stopping the superbugs in their tracks,” according to Professor Trevor Lithgow from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute.
    URLhttps://www.labonline.com.au/content/analytical-instrumentation/news/monash-researchers-built-own-microscope-to-decipher-superbugs-352022078
    PersonsSachith Dilshan Gunasinghe
  • TitleScientists built own microscope to decipher 'superbugs'
    Media name/outletScienceDaily
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date29/05/18
    DescriptionA handmade super-microscope -- capable of seeing the actual building blocks of a bacterial cell wall -- has helped researchers decipher how bacteria are able to literally build a wall against the immune system, leading to often deadly disease. This will provide researchers with key knowledge to disarm 'superbug' resistance to the immune system.
    URLhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180529132104.htm
    PersonsSachith Dilshan Gunasinghe
  • TitleIt takes a village- HOw researchers built their own microscope to decipher 'superbugs'
    Media name/outletpythom
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date29/05/18
    URLhttps://pythom.com/It-takes-a-villageHow-researchers-built-their-own-microscope-to-decipher-superbugs-2018-05-29-35718
    PersonsSachith Dilshan Gunasinghe
  • TitleIt takes a village�How researchers built their own microscope to decipher 'superbugs
    Degree of recognitionInternational
    Media name/outletPhys.org
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date29/05/18
    DescriptionA handmade super-microscope -- capable of seeing the actual building blocks of a bacterial cell wall -- has helped Monash researchers decipher how bacteria are able to literally build a wall ..
    URLwww.physnews.com/bio-medicine-news/cluster1799963604/
    PersonsSachith Dilshan Gunasinghe

Media contributions

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Media contributions