We sought to determine whether pre-eclampsia, spontaneous preterm birth or the delivery of infants who are small for gestational age were associated with the presence of bacterial DNA in the human placenta. Here we show that there was no evidence for the presence of bacteria in the large majority of placental samples, from both complicated and uncomplicated pregnancies. Almost all signals were related either to the acquisition of bacteria during labour and delivery, or to contamination of laboratory reagents with bacterial DNA. The exception was Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus), for which non-contaminant signals were detected in approximately 5% of samples collected before the onset of labour. We conclude that bacterial infection of the placenta is not a common cause of adverse pregnancy outcome and that the human placenta does not have a microbiome, but it does represent a potential site of perinatal acquisition of S. agalactiae, a major cause of neonatal sepsis.

Candida auris, an invisible fungus, can live on surfaces for weeks. It affects people with weakened immune systems, often when they’re at hospitals.

Sciatic nerves isolated from untreated mice (left) show evidence of demyelination, which is improved upon treatment (right)

Researchers in Canada and Sweden have used a novel Crispr system to reverse harm caused by muscular dystrophy – usually thought to be permanent – in mice. Pre-clinical studies often treat animals early, before symptoms can be detected, says Ronald Cohn, senior scientist, president and chief executive officer of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

‘Our results now show that the therapeutic window may indeed be wider,’ Cohn tells Chemistry World. This is significant as all patients ‘are currently diagnosed at a time when symptoms are already presenting’, he adds. The researchers are now exploring partnerships with industry to work towards bringing the research into a clinical trial.

Physicists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, have devised a method to turn a non-magnetic metal into a magnet using laser light.

Magnets and their magnetic field are typically produced by circulating currents, like those found in everyday electromagnetic coils. The ‘handedness’ of these coils—whether they are wound in clockwise or anticlockwise fashion—determines the direction of the magnetic field produced.

The scientists theorise that when non-magnetic metallic disks are illuminated by linearly polarised light—light that does not possess any handedness of its own—circulating electric currents and hence magnetism can spontaneously emerge in the disk.