A newly discovered virus hiding inside common gut bacteria may be linked to colorectal cancer, according to new research. Scientists in Denmark found that colorectal cancer patients were about twice ...

Cancer research has long looked at bacteria and viruses as separate tools for therapy. Now, researchers are showing that the two can actually work better together. A team of scientists has built a new ...

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have shown that giant viruses long thought to exist only as fleeting, free-living particles that can embed themselves permanently in the ...

Penn State scientists uncovered an ancient bacterial defense where dormant viral DNA helps bacteria fight new viral threats. The enzyme PinQ flips bacterial genes to create protective proteins that ...

Pseudomonas bacteria infected by different mutations of a jumbo phage. The dot in the middle is the shield created by the phage to protect its DNA after it has infected the bacterial cell. Image by ...

As antibiotic-resistant infections rise and are projected to cause up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, scientists are looking to bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, as an alternative.

The idea that a single-celled bacterium can defend itself against viruses in a similar way as the 1.8-trillion-cell human immune system is still “mind-blowing” for molecular biologist Joshua W. Modell ...

Jumbo phages belong to a group of viruses that attack bacteria. They inject their DNA and then reproduce by taking over the cell’s DNA-copying machinery. Eventually, a phage makes so many copies of ...