Trojan horses for hospital bugs

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that is frequently found on the human skin and in the nose where it usually behaves inconspicuously. However, once inside the body, it can have life-threatening consequences such as abscesses, sepsis, pneumonia or myocarditis. How the pathogen manages to perform its disastrous work is still largely in the dark despite intensive research. Scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Würzburg have now unravelled an equally puzzling phenomenon. They prese