The News
Bacteria Can Hide Out In Cells For Weeks
Science Daily — A major cause of human and animal infections, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria may evade the immune system's defences and dodge antibiotics by climbing into our cells and then lying low to avoid detection. New research shows how S. aureus makes itself at home in human lung cells for up to two weeks.
A team of 12 researchers from University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland and the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK set out to uncover what S. aureus (6850) did inside human lung epithelial cells (A549) using an in vitro model. They found that shortly after S. aureus entered the lung cells, the bacteria's gene expression profile dramatically changed: gene expression for bacterial metabolic functions and transport shut down, putting the bacteria in a dormant state.

The Research
Read the research behind this story in the journal BMC:Genomics.