Immunology News and Research

Latest Immunology News and Research

UAB researchers identify biomarker for early beta cell death in Type 1 diabetes

Beta cells in the pancreas produce insulin. Their death is a key feature of Type 1 diabetes, and that loss starts long before diagnosis. However, there has been no straightforward way to measure that early loss.

8 Sep 2019

Serotonin and anti-depressants can have a major effect on the gut's microbiota

A new study in mice led by UCLA biologists strongly suggests that serotonin and drugs that target serotonin, such as anti-depressants, can have a major effect on the gut's microbiota -- the 100 trillion or so bacteria and other microbes that live in the human body's intestines.

6 Sep 2019

VUMC partners with Batavia to move promising Zika antibody therapy closer to the clinic

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are partnering with the Dutch biopharmaceutical firm Batavia Biosciences and Nashville-based IDBiologics to bring to the clinic a highly potent Zika virus neutralizing antibody they isolated three years ago.

6 Sep 2019

U of M researcher wins $3.9 million NIH grant to study CMV vaccine strategies

Nationally, about one baby in 100 is born with cytomegalovirus (CMV), the most common infection that causes birth defects and disabilities in babies in the United States.

4 Sep 2019

Novel approach could help prevent sepsis in burn patients

Immediately following severe burns, bacteria reach the wound from different sources, including the patient's skin, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tracts and health care-related human contact.

4 Sep 2019

Study highlights the need to better understand immunity against mumps virus

Immunity against mumps virus appears insufficient in a fraction of college-aged people who were vaccinated in childhood, research from Emory Vaccine Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates.

3 Sep 2019

Discovery may help identify signs of type 1 diabetes earlier

A new study showed that there are significant differences in the MHC class II antigens on the insulin peptide that is deficient in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). These determine the response of the T cells to the insulin peptide that causes destruction of insulin.

2 Sep 2019

New discovery may help identify type 1 diabetes earlier than is currently possible

Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that typically emerges before the age of 20, wipes out the body's ability to produce insulin--a hormone that's essential to life. Diagnosis often comes after symptoms arise, at which point the disease has taken hold.

30 Aug 2019

Danish-American researchers find new way to treat chronic inflammation

Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University in Denmark in collaboration with researchers from Colorado in the United States have found a new way to treat the inflammation involved in chronic diseases such as psoriasis, asthma and HIV.

30 Aug 2019

Pins and needles: Pinterest tackles spread of vaccine misinformation

Pinterest, the social media web and mobile application company which collates information on a variety of sites by topic, recognizes the critical role that social media plays in spreading health misinformation, and has taken several radical steps to correct this.

30 Aug 2019

Study opens up new ways to understand the cause of chronic viral arthritis

Since chikungunya virus emerged in the Americas in 2013, it has infected millions of people, causing fever, headache, rash, and muscle and joint pain.

29 Aug 2019

A detailed map to understand how viruses infect human cells

Biologists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have leveraged a computational method to map protein-protein interactions between all known human-infecting viruses and the cells they infect.

29 Aug 2019

The Kavli Foundation gifts $3 million to support neuroscience research at Salk

The Salk Institute announced today that The Kavli Foundation has committed $3 million to support ongoing neuroscience research at Salk as part of the joint UCSD-Salk Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind.

29 Aug 2019

Mount Sinai researchers discover drug resistance signature in Crohn's disease

By mapping out more than 100,000 immune cells in patients with Crohn's disease, Mount Sinai researchers have discovered a signature of cells that are involved in a type of the disease that does not respond to treatment, according to a study published in Cell in August.

29 Aug 2019

Scientists reveal cancer cells' immune weak spot

Scientists have found a vulnerability in cancer cells that could make them more susceptible to being destroyed by the immune system, according to a new report in eLife.

27 Aug 2019

New drug combination shows promise for treating non-small cell lung cancer patients

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer now have more improved treatment options compared to standard of care with the addition of several new agents called immune-checkpoint inhibitors.

27 Aug 2019

Researchers study biological risk potential of nanoparticles

Nanoparticles are smaller than five nanometres - a nanometre being one millionth of a millimetre - which corresponds approximately to the size of macromolecules. Such tiny particles are very easily absorbed in body cells.

27 Aug 2019

Early detection method for pinpointing molecular signatures of Lyme disease

When researchers examined the mitochondrial DNA of Ötzi, a man entombed in ice high in the Tyrolean Alps some 5,300 years ago, they made a startling discovery.

26 Aug 2019

Salk researchers develop new gene-editing tool to target broad range of mutations, cell types

The ability to edit genes in living organisms offers the opportunity to treat a plethora of inherited diseases. However, many types of gene-editing tools are unable to target critical areas of DNA, and creating such a technology has been difficult as living tissue contains diverse types of cells.

26 Aug 2019

Combination therapy for rheumatoid arthritis may lead to higher remission rates

Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, recently found that patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may see less disease activity and higher remission rates after biologic therapy plus methotrexate (MTX) rather than either treatment alone.

22 Aug 2019