Parasite of the Day

Parasitic infections can severely debilitate the host in many ways, sometimes this manifests itself as the loss of some, or even all, of the...

Today's parasite is in the same genus as the famous and well-studied model lab nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans . Caenorhabditis bri...

Did you get a flu shot this year? Good. But, it's not going to protect you against this pathogen, Haemophilus influenzae. This gamma...

On Columbus Day, it seemed appropriate to feature Treponema pallidum , the bacterium that causes syphilis and other diseases such as bejel a...

When I was teaching microbiology, Bdellovibrio was always one of my favorite things to lecture about. These bacteria are essentially intra...

There are many reasons not to keep pet parrots. They're long-lived birds that require years, if not decades, of care. They can be mess...

On Memorial Day, we honor the many soldiers who fought for our country. While bullets and other forms of arms are certainly the primary con...

Previously we met Quahog Parasite Unknown or QPX . Today’s parasite also had a mystery name for a while. In the 1930’s slaughterhouse work...

Brucella abortus is a gram-negative bacterium that uses cattle and other ruminants as its primary host. It can however, also be transmitte...

In the days and weeks after September 11, 2001, panic and suspicion seemed to be everywhere. After the terrorist attacks with airplanes, ne...

So, according to the news, one of the big trends in fashion this year is that prints are back – especially paisley. And one cannot think of...

In 1976, the nation celebrated the American bicentennial. One event, a convention of members of the American Legion in Philadelphia, had tr...

Blame Borrelia burgdorferi for one of the most common vector-borne diseases in the United States: Lyme disease. Discovered in 1982 by NIAID...

Talk about manipulative little buggers - Wolbachia pipientis are alpha proteobacteria that infect a very wide variety of insects and other ...