University of Missouri

July 6, 2016

Anthrax: villain or misunderstood?

Stewart holds a different colony of anthrax in his lab. Stewart’s work with anthrax and other similar organisms focuses on understanding the tough protein shell of the bacteria’s spores that enable the pathogen to survive in soil for extended periods of time, even hundreds of years. | photo by Phillip Sitter, Bond LSC By Phillip Sitter | MU Bond Life Sciences Center For a tiny spore, anthrax holds a lot of danger and promise. If you found yourself wondering about more than its safety in the lab, we have a answers to a few persistent…

June 29, 2016

Under the hood

The safety behind studying deadly disease By Phillip Sitter | MU Bond Life Sciences Center George Stewart, McKee Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and Chair of Veterinary Pathobiology holds up a colony of Bacillus anthracis in his lab. The strain of anthrax he holds is non-virulent, and is therefore safe to handle under BSL-2 precautions as opposed to BSL-3 for virulent strains that cause disease in humans. | photo by Phillip Sitter, Bond LSC You’ve seen it before in the movies. Sweaty scientists put on their full-body, spacesuit-like get-ups to stave off a potentially extinction-level…

Feb. 7, 2014

Quicker anthrax detection could save millions of dollars, speed bioterror response

Anthrax bacteria is a rod-shaped culture. Most common forms of transmission are through abrasions in the skin and inhalation.   Imagine researchers in hazmat suits moving slowly and deliberately through a lab. One of them holds up a beaker. It’s glowing. This light — or the absence of it — could save millions of dollars for governments and save the lives of anthrax victims. Scientists at the University of Missouri Laboratory of Infectious Disease Research proved a new method for anthrax detection can identify anthrax quicker than any existing approach. When the “bioluminescent reporter phage” —…