Pathogen News and Research

RSS

Single Line T Cell Immunity Fails Maintaining Permanent Zika Protections

CA-Zika virus has been spreading for decades, but it first grabbed worldwide headlines in 2016. That February, with an outbreak sweeping the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the surge in Zika-linked birth defects a "public health emergency of international concern"-a designation which lasted until that November.

31 Aug 2026

Essential SNX5 Protein Alerts Human Immune Cells to Tuberculosis Infections

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a protein that helps the immune system respond to tuberculosis (TB), one of the world's leading infectious diseases.

31 Aug 2026

Bat DNA Offers Insights Into Longevity and Cancer Resistance

Bats are anomalies in the mammalian world-they fly, have long lifespans, and rarely get cancer. Scientists now suspect the bat immune system enables them to live longer without disease, according to a new study published today in Nature.

27 Aug 2026

Study Shows How Zombie Cells Drive Chronic Inflammaging-and Age-Related Diseases

When our immune system detects a pathogen or injury, it sets off biological alarm bells. This alert brings in a variety of immune and other cells to deal with the threat and heal any harm done.

21 Aug 2026

Scientists Discover Cluster of Genetic Variants Resisting Common Malaria Treatments

Researchers searching for genetic clues to the growing problem of malaria drug resistance identified new mutations associated with the parasite's decreased susceptibility to current treatment.

18 Aug 2026

Research Reveals Supposedly Decoded Gene Has Hidden Cellular Function

The complete genome for the tuberculosis bacterium was sequenced and published in 1998. Since then, scientists have deciphered about two-thirds of TB's genes. Or have they?

18 Aug 2026

New Research Bypasses Rapid Fungicide Resistance Through Cell Wall Disruption

Powdery mildew is among the most widespread crop diseases, affecting cereals, grapes, cucurbits, tomatoes, fruit crops, and ornamentals in fields and greenhouses.

5 Aug 2026

Scientists Identify Lethal Columnaris Fish Disease in Brazil for the First Time

For the first time in Brazil, scientists have identified the presence of bacteria that cause columnaris disease, a serious disease in farmed fish intended for human consumption.

3 Aug 2026

Scientists Discover How Heart Muscle Cells Remodel Actin Filaments

Biophysicists unraveled a mystery of how muscles form at the molecular level and how they maintain their function.

30 Jul 2026

3D Mapping of Tonsil Genetic Structures Unlocks Antibody Optimization

About 2 meters worth of genetic material must fit into the nucleus of each and every one of most of our trillions of cells, coiling and winding to form what looks like a tangled mess.

28 Jul 2026

Molecular Insights Into Fungal Effectors Disabling Host Immune Transcription Factors

Plants defend themselves through a layered innate immune system: pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI), mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors, respectively.

28 Jul 2026

Uncovering Plant Discrimination and Dose Responses to Beneficial Soil Microbes

For years, beneficial Bacillus bacteria have been used to promote plant growth and protect crops, yet most studies treat these microbes as functionally interchangeable.

28 Jul 2026

AI-Assisted Protein Tools Guide Design of Synthetic Plant Immune Receptors

Crop production faces threats from plant pathogens. Traditional disease-resistance breeding relies heavily on natural plant resistance genes that encode immune receptors adapted to particular pathogens.

24 Jul 2026

New Research Explains How Toxoplasma Parasite Bookmarks Its Genes

A parasite carried by billions of people worldwide often causes harmful infections during pregnancy, in immunocompromised individuals, and is the cause of a leading infectious blindness in South America.

22 Jul 2026

Study Identifies Immune Cell Failures as Aging Drivers

We may age at different rates, but none of us escapes aging.

17 Jul 2026

Fungal Resistance Requires Healthy Genetic Traits and Intact Natural Landscapes

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that a frog's resistance to a fungus that has decimated hundreds of amphibian species worldwide is due not only to its genes, but also to the beneficial bacteria living on its skin and to the organization of its surrounding landscape.

16 Jul 2026