Immunology

Endocarditis is a dangerous and sometimes lethal infection of the heart sometimes caused after a dental procedure.     Streptococcus mutans is a bacterium best known for causing cavities.…

Henry VIII, King of England and founder of the Anglican Church, was basically the Brad Pitt of his day when he was younger.   Charming, attractive and even kind, for a member of the Royal family…

Bacteria attack with toxins designed to hijack or kill host cells but they have ways of protecting themselves from their own toxins.   Researchers have described one of these protective…

Avian influenza, bird flu, causes the unnecessary deaths of millions of chickens each year, preventing them from instead being killed for my dinner. Luckily, science is on the case, though irrational…

Humans have greater susceptibility than other primates to certain infectious diseases which could be explained by species-specific changes in immune signaling pathways, a University of Chicago study…

Writing in Blood, a group says that a 2007 adult stem cell transplant cured a patient of both his HIV and his leukemia.   Up to 33 million people worldwide have HIV/AIDS. How did it work and…

If you've been to a hospital to see a newborn you've likely been assaulted by a number of sprays and soaps before even getting near the little critter.   You'd have to wonder how you ever…

Haemoglobin S (HbS) is known to cause sickle cell disease and it is usually fatal if untreated so shouldn't natural selection have eliminated it?     Instead, the sickle cell gene is common…

The number of times the common cold has been cured, or prevented, is far too long a list for this site - though recently those claims have been overtaken by the kookier segments of homeopathy. But…

As a result of a global health campaign, polioviruses have almost been eradicated in many areas of the world but enterovirus 71 is closely related to poliovirus and was first detected in California…