Technologies

Sharpest images of living bacteria reveal unexpected membrane structure

The images are so clear that scientists can see proteins on a bacterium’s outer membrane.

Using a microscopy technique that pulls back the curtain on the nanoscale world, researchers have generated the sharpest images of live bacteria ever taken. The high-resolution snaps reveal a patchwork of proteins that make up the outer membrane and, potentially, give scientists a new way to attack the organisms.

In a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the US and UK provide images of the rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia Coli, which is commonly found in our gastrointestinal tracts and helps digest food. It’s a mostly harmless citizen of our guts, but certain E. Coli strains can cause severe illness. In recent years, scientists have shown that these strains are becoming more resistant to antibiotics.

The bacteria are, of course, incredibly tiny. About 150 to 300 individual bacteria could probably fit head-to-toe across the period at the end of this sentence. While regular microscopes can see the bacteria as clumps of rods scattered all across a glass slide, they don’t give us a good idea of the structure of a bacterium’s body and the outer membrane that protects it from our drugs.

«The outer membrane is a formidable barrier against antibiotics and is an important factor in making infectious bacteria resistant to medical treatment,» Bart Hoogenboom, a nanotechnologist at University College London and co-author on the paper, said in a press release. Hoogenboom and his team wanted to take a much closer look and turned to «atomic force microscopy» to study the membrane in greater detail.

Atomic Force Microscopy, or AFM, is a powerful technique to study objects that are just nanometers in length. (A nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter.) Hooked up to a computer, the device can study the surface of tiny, tiny objects by running a fine-tipped probe, just a few nanometers wide, across the surface. The probe moves along the object — whether it’s a microbe, a piece of bone or another nanomaterial — and can sense the undulations present. You can imagine it kind of like a turntable stylus, moving along the grooves of a vinyl record. Totally different process but similar concept.

When the team ran the AFM probe over the surface of a living E. Coli bacterium, they discovered it was a mosaic of proteins. Most areas of the outer membrane were covered in mostly immobile proteins, but there were also islands that lacked any protein at all and were instead full of sugary lipid molecules.

«This suggests that the barrier may not be equally hard to breach or stretch all over the bacterium, but may have stronger and weaker spots that can also be targeted by antibiotics,» Hoogenboom said.

Outer membranes are present on what’s known as «gram-negative» bacteria, like E coli, and not gram-positive bacteria, like Staphylococcus. The «gram» doesn’t refer to weight, but a specific test designed to quickly differentiate bacteria based on their cell walls. Notably, gram-negative bacteria have a more impenetrable cell wall, which makes it hard for antibiotics to get in and work to destroy the microbes.

Antibiotic resistance makes infectious diseases harder to treat and can turn common infections into life-threatening scourges. Many antibiotic resistant infections are picked up in hospitals, and the World Health Organization has consistently listed antibiotic resistance as a global health threat over the past few years because it has the potential to upend health care systems.

How the protein patchwork of the outer membrane might affect the strength of a bacteria’s protective covering or how it could help combat antibiotic resistance is not yet known. But with advanced microscopy techniques, scientists can shine a light on a previously unseen realm.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know