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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread worldwide. To date, over 177.13 million cases have been reported, and over 3.8 million have lost their lives. Finding effective treatments that can mitigate severe disease remains a crucial area of scientific research. Drug repurposing for COVID-19 helps scientists identify potential drugs to treat COVID-19 without going through the rigorous process of formulation, clinical trials, and gaining regulatory body approval. Many of the drugs used for COVID-19 today were initially developed for other pathogens. Early-stage trials from scientists at the University of Pennsylvania,...

Researchers at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) have genetically engineered a fungus to produce a cocktail of enzymes that break down the carbohydrates in biomass, such as sugarcane trash (tops and leaves) and bagasse, into fermentable sugar for industrially efficient conversion into biofuel. The development of low-cost enzyme cocktails is one of the main challenges in producing second-generation ethanol. Second-generation biofuels are manufactured from various kinds of nonfood biomass, including agricultural residues, wood chips and waste cooking oil. The CNPEM research group's process paves the way for optimized use of sugarcane residues to produce biofuels....

A fungus observed inside Chernobyl is a radiation extremophile that could inspire new technology. Removing radiation and even turning it into energy could help clean disaster sites and enable spaceflight. The fungi use high amounts of melanin to both resist radiation and turn it into energy.

West Virginia University researchers have discovered that a cicada fungus called Massopora contains chemicals similar to those found in hallucinogenic mushrooms. The fungus causes cicadas to lose their limbs and eccentric behavior sets in: Males try to mate with everything they encounter, although the fungus has consumed their genitals and butts. Despite the horrid physical state of infected cicadas, they continue to roam around freely as if nothing's wrong, dousing other cicadas with a dose of their disease. Kasson and his team are buzzing along on additional cicada research. They recently collected cicadas from this year's emergence in Pennsylvania and...

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests. Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. The next stage was to enhance the fungus. They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web...

Fungus that draws gold from its surroundings has been discovered in Western Australia, stunning scientists who say it could signal new deposits. Found near Boddington, south of Perth, the strain of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus attaches gold to its strands by dissolving and precipitating particles from the environment. There may be a biological advantage in doing so, as the gold-coated fungus was found to grow larger and spread faster than those that don’t interact with the precious metal. “Fungi are well-known for playing an essential role in the degradation and recycling of organic material, such as leaves and bark, as...

Scientists have unearthed fossilized fungi in the remote Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic dating back to one billion years, in a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how life first arrived on land from the oceans. Fungi, the “Hidden Kingdom,” are not plants. Living things are organized for study into large, basic groups called kingdoms. Fungi were listed in the Plant Kingdom for many years. Then scientists learned that fungi show a closer relation to animals, but are unique and separate life forms. Most fungi build their cell walls out of chitin. This is the same material as...

Since March 31, 2019 the CDC has confirmed more than 600 cases of the Candida auris fungus across the U.S. Over half of those cases occurred in New York. The fungus has been found in hospitals and nursing homes, and may be deadly for those with weakened immune systems such as the elderly, newborns and the chronically ill.

A killer germ is raging through some New York hospitals and nursing homes. But public health officials are deliberately keeping the public in the dark about it. New York state is ground zero for this germ, called Candida auris. Over half the nearly 600 cases nationwide are right here, mostly in New York City. New Jersey hospitals are also hard hit, with more than 100 cases so far. A staggering 45 percent of patients who get it die within 90 days. It’s especially dangerous because once it gets inside a hospital, it spreads. Patients with Candida auris shed it from...

Last May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed that he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious. Doctors swiftly isolated him in the intensive care unit. The germ, a fungus called Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit,...

Last May, a elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed he was infected with a newly discovered germ. Doctors isolated him in ICU. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a British medical center to shut down its ICU, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa. Recently C. auris reached New York, NJ and Illinois, leading the federal CDC and Prevention to add it to a list of germs deemed “urgent threats.” The man at...

A doomsday fungus known as Bd has condemned more species to extinction than any other pathogen. A century ago, a strain of pandemic flu killed up to 100 million people—5 percent of the world’s population. In 2013, a new mystery illness swept the western coast of North America, causing starfish to disintegrate. In 2015, a big-nosed Asian antelope known as the saiga lost two-thirds of its population—some 200,000 individuals—to what now looks to be a bacterial infection. But none of these devastating infections comes close to the destructive power of Bd—a singularly apocalyptic fungus that’s unrivaled in its ability not...

I never post, but this is noteworthy. Brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is responsible for five percent of our gross domestic product. From bread to beer and beyond, this fungus has an incredible impact on our lives. Fungi are important!

Hospitals across the UK have been hit by a drug-resistant Japanese fungus which has so far infected more than 200 patients. The potentially deadly superbug has spread to at least 55 hospitals and is particularly dangerous for anyone with a weakened immune system. Most worryingly, the fungus is resistant to the most commonly prescribed fungicidal drug, fluconazole, and the species has the ability to rapidly evolve to develop resistance. 'Candida auris' - which was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan - is able to live both on the skin and inside the body. "Large" outbreaks have...

A 'superbug' fungus is emerging as a new menace in U.S. hospitals, mostly in New York and New Jersey. First identified in Japan in 2009, the fungus has spread to more than a dozen countries around the globe. The oldest of the 66 cases reported in the U.S. dates back to 2013, but most were reported in the last year. The fungus called Candida auris is a harmful form of yeast. Scientists say it can be hard to identify with standard lab tests. U.S. health officials sounded alarms last year because two of the three kinds of commonly used antifungal...

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, where it was first found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains...

Three hours after Dr. Todd Mitchell’s Dec. 3 flight from Beijing landed in San Francisco, a call demanded his immediate attention. Mitchell, 59, had spent two-and-a-half weeks in China, which has the most mushroom poisoning deaths in the world, sharing the treatment method he developed at Dominican Hospital. The call concerned a Santa Rosa hospital patient believed to have eaten deadly mushrooms. Principal investigator of an amatoxin mushroom poisoning clinical trial that has treated nearly 100 patients across North America in the past 10 years, Mitchell arranged for the patient’s overnight transfer to Dominican Hospital. This patient was the first...

A delicious novelty food with an ugly name Sharon OosthoekGreat minds do not think alike, and thatÂ’s why universities and colleges are the mother of inventions. Click here for the rest of our Bright Ideas series. Click here for the rest of our Campus Food series.Barry Saville: Trent UniversityBarry Saville has spent much of his career figuring out how to stop fungi from infecting food crops. But for the past three years, the Trent University professor has been deliberately infecting corn with a fungus that produces large, whitish-grey kernels he believes have potential as a niche product for market farmers....

While we're taught that food that smells rotten should be thrown away, there are actually many foods that you eat whenever they've just started rotting. Of course, it's not pleasant to call these foods rotten, so we refer to them in different ways instead. Cheese Making cheese comes down to your ability to control rot. This is because milk is treated with bacteria and enzymes causing it to curdle. The curdles are then cut, formed and ripened into cheese. Stinkheads Another native Alaskan delicacy is what's known as stinkheads. These are King Salmon heads that have either been buried in...

Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said recently that she will propose a "Right to Try" bill in her state. But it's not the bill itself that gained national attention. Instead, it was Fiore's statement that she believes cancer is "a fungus" that can be cured by "flushing, let’s say, saltwater, sodium carbonate" through the body.