How a pregnant mouse's microbes influence offspring's brain development – new study offers clues

Microbes in the gut aren't just important for digesting your food. In pregnant women, these gut microbes are producing chemicals that are essential for proper brain development of the fetus.

Helen Vuong, Postdoctoral Scholar of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles • conversation
Sept. 23, 2020 • ~8 min

COVID-19 vaccines: Open source licensing could keep Big Pharma from making huge profits off taxpayer-funded research

Governments must embrace policies that promote sharing and collective invention to create and distribute a vaccine quickly.

Timothy Ford, Professor and Chair of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell • conversation
Sept. 18, 2020 • ~9 min

What’s in your medicine may surprise you – a call for greater transparency about inactive ingredients

There are ingredients in your pills other than the one designed to treat your ailments. Those unnamed ingredients can alter how you respond to a medicine or even make you sick.

Yelena Ionova, Postdoctoral Fellow in Quality of Medical Products, University of California, San Francisco • conversation
Sept. 11, 2020 • ~7 min

Live bacteria spray is showing promise in treating childhood eczema

Can a naturally occurring skin microbe help millions who suffer from eczema?

Ian Myles, Head, Epithelial Therapeutics Unit, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases • conversation
Sept. 10, 2020 • ~7 min

MIS-C is a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19 – here's what we know about it

Even kids who were asymptomatic when they had COVID-19 have developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a new review of hundreds of cases shows.

Ritu Banerjee, Associate Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University • conversation
Sept. 9, 2020 • ~7 min

More dengue fever and less malaria – mosquito control strategies may need to shift as Africa heats up

A warming climate may change the types of viruses that thrive. A new report suggests that the threat of malaria may be replaced by dengue, for which there is no treatment and no cure.

Jason Rasgon, Professor of Entomology and Disease Epidemiology, Pennsylvania State University • conversation
Sept. 9, 2020 • ~5 min

What we know about MIS-C, a rare but dangerous illness striking children weeks after they get COVID-19

Even kids who were asymptomatic when they had COVID-19 have developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a new review of hundreds of cases shows.

Ritu Banerjee, Associate Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University • conversation
Sept. 9, 2020 • ~7 min

Vaccines often degrade in the heat: here's how our new chemical 'casing' could save lives

A new way of getting functioning vaccines to where they are needed.

Aswin Doekhie, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Bath • conversation
Sept. 4, 2020 • ~6 min

Steroids cut COVID-19 death rates, but not for everyone – here’s who benefits and who doesn’t

Three new studies show corticosteroids can reduce deaths in critically ill COVID-19 patients. But what about other patients?

Bryan McVerry, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh • conversation
Sept. 4, 2020 • ~8 min

CRISPR can help combat the troubling immune response against gene therapy

The immune system is trained to destroy viruses, even when they carry therapeutic cargo as is the case in gene therapy. Now researchers have figured out how to dial down the immune response.

Samira Kiani, Associate Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh • conversation
Sept. 3, 2020 • ~7 min

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