MICROBIOLOGY: Genetic Blueprint Drawn for Natural Antibiotic
With the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists are looking for novel antibiotics that target bacterial pathogens in new ways. Moenomycin is a natural product that is potent against pathogenic bacteria, but it does not work in humans as a drug. In a paper in the March 20 Chemistry and Biology, Suzanne Walker and Bohdan Ostash detail the genetic pathway one bacterium uses to produce moenomycin. With this set of instructions for manufacturing the product, scientists can now try to tweak the pathway to make similar molecules that could be effective as drugs.

METABOLISM: Obesity and Inflammation: The Relationship Heats Up
Scientists are starting to understand how obesity increases the risk of seemingly unrelated diseases ranging from type 2 diabetes to cancer: the quantity and quality of nutrients can incite inflammatory responses, and miscued immune molecules may interfere with normal metabolism. The connections are complicated and may be unpredictable and sometimes contradictory, but this relatively new way of framing research questions already has resulted in unexpected biological insights and potential new therapies, said presenters at the recent Postgraduate Nutrition Symposium on obesity and inflammation. Among the speakers were Gokhan Hotamisligil (left) and Allison Goldfine.

NEUROSCIENCE: Immune Scavengers Target Alzheimer’s Plaques
Microglia, the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, may help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease according to new research from the labs of Joseph El Khoury (right) and Andrew Luster. The scientists found that blocking microglial migration accelerates Alzheimer-like pathology in a mouse model of the disease. The study, published online March 11 in Nature Medicine, adds to the debate over the role of microglia in the brain. While these cells are involved in pro-inflammatory, neurotoxic responses, these latest findings show that they also can be neuroprotective, at least in the earliest stages of disease.