One thing that makes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, elusive to the immune system is that it is covered in sugars called glycans. Once SARS-CoV-2 infects someone's body, it becomes covered in that person's unique ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 25, 2021
0
53
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to prevent COVID-19 have made headlines around the world recently, but scientists have also been working on mRNA vaccines to treat or prevent other diseases, including some forms of cancer. Now, ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 17, 2021
1
1286
There are many mechanisms by which the body responds to foreign invaders. One of these involves the T-cells of the immune system, which have a number of different proteins on their surface called 'checkpoint proteins.' These ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 2, 2021
0
153
Editor's note: In this interview, Nathan Ahlgren, assistant professor of biology at Clark University, uses 3-D-printed models to explain what proteins do in viruses, how they interact with human cells, how the vaccine delivers ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 26, 2021
0
4
For about one in 13 children in the U.S., normally harmless foodstuffs such as milk, eggs and peanuts can send the body's natural defenses into overdrive.
Bio & Medicine
Jan 15, 2021
0
551
Understanding the immune systems of oysters and clams is important in monitoring the effects of pollution and climate change on the health of molluscan species and the potential impacts on the aquaculture industry. Their ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 12, 2021
0
14
An LMU research team led by Nicolai Siegel has uncovered a mechanism that enables the parasite that causes sleeping sickness in humans to escape the attention of the immune system. The finding may also be relevant to other ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 12, 2021
0
17
A shapeshifting immune system protein called XCL1 evolved from a single-shape ancestor hundreds of millions of years ago. Now, researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) discovered the molecular basis for how this ...
Biochemistry
Jan 11, 2021
0
29
Ticks live dangerous lives, spending most of their time questing for a host across wildly different habitats and seasons. Once they encounter a reptile, bird, or a mammal like us, they become intimately connected with it—and ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 10, 2020
1
160
Nanoparticles are promising drug delivery tools, offering the ability to administer drugs directly to a specific part of the body and avoid the awful side effects so often seen with chemotherapeutics.
Bio & Medicine
Nov 25, 2020
0
400
