A team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has introduced a virtual Gram staining technique that could transform how microbiologists stain and classify bacteria.

The cell wall of most bacteria has an overall net negative charge and thus can be stained directly with a single basic (positively charged) stain or dye. This type of stain allows us to observe the ...

In contrast to direct stains that bind to bacteria directly, a negative stain colors the background of a smear rather than the bacteria. These stains have negatively charged functional groups so they ...

Bacterial vaginosis is confined to an asymptomatic ... As an alternative, Gram-stain-based microbiological diagnosis of BV has been proposed. To perform a Gram stain, vaginal fluid or discharge ...

and to a less extent in the motility of bacteria, and their ability to retain Gram's stain. Differences in ability to grow at low surface tensions offer a valuable and simple means of differentiation ...

Developed by CarbGeM Inc., a spin-off company of Japanese bioventure NextGeM Inc., the technology uses deep learning to identify bacteria from Gram stains, a common test used to classify bacteria ...

This stain makes it possible to select the protists ... After separating out the individual protists, the researchers then identify the bacteria within or attached to them using genetic sequencing.