immunology

After decades in the shadow of the reigning model for Alzheimer’s disease, alternative explanations are finally getting the attention they deserve.

Even though we’ve learned a lot about this relative of smallpox, some mysteries remain due to a lack of political will.

A new study reveals that bacteria can fight viruses in a surprisingly elegant way that has no known counterpart in more complex life.

Everybody gets older, but not everyone ages in the same way. In this episode, Steven Strogatz speaks with Judith Campisi and Dena Dubal, two biomedical researchers who study the aging process.

Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist who became a lifeline for the worried and the curious during the pandemic, thinks that nasal spray vaccines could be the next needed breakthrough in our fight against the coronavirus.

While it’s understandable to focus on the diseases affecting humans, it’s important to study how our illnesses may affect animals.

The immune system protects us from a full spectrum of pathogens, but without balance, it can end up hurting us over time, too. The immunologist Shruti Naik explains how our defenses can turn on us.

Studies that map the adaptive value of viral mutations hint at how the COVID-19 pandemic might progress next.

No matter how much we’d like to eradicate SARS-CoV-2, it may be better to settle for other forms of control.