Pathogen News and Research

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Scientists discover new intracellular immune defense against infections

When we think of the immune system, most people imagine white blood cells putting up a fight against invading germs within our bloodstream.

4 Jun 2026

Cross-reactive T cells target measles and dangerous Nipah viruses

T cells are some of the immune system's most important warriors. They can stop tumor growth and even fight off severe infections.

2 Jun 2026

Antibiotic-free therapy seeks to prevent newborn meningitis by blocking E. coli

Newborn meningitis is one of the most dangerous childhood infections. It is often life-threatening and can cause serious and lasting damage, including developmental problems, in the children who survive.

1 Jun 2026

Tick protein discovery could help prevent disease transmission

Few creatures inspire as much universal dislike as ticks. Though small, these parasites have an enormous impact on human and animal health. Each year, ticks spread viruses and bacteria that infect people, livestock, wildlife and pets around the world.

29 May 2026

Structural insights reveal unique bacterial β-1,2-glucan transport system

Even though sugars are often framed as simple sources of energy, they also serve as structurally complex and functionally diverse molecules that mediate interactions between organisms.

29 May 2026

Gut microbiota may determine severity of life-threatening sepsis infections

Why do some people recover easily from bacterial infections while others rapidly deteriorate into life-threatening sepsis? According to a new study, the answer may lie not only in the invading pathogen itself, but also in the microorganisms already living inside the gut.

28 May 2026

Study reveals inequities in wastewater-based disease outbreak detection systems

Wastewater surveillance was hailed during the COVID-19 pandemic as a more equitable way to track disease.

27 May 2026

Rattlesnakes show higher vulnerability to fungal and parasitic infections

Snakes are threatened with extinction in many places around the globe. Disease, often caused by parasites or fungi, is thought to be one of the key factors alongside habitat destruction.

26 May 2026

New AI model detects hidden antibiotic resistance genes beyond standard databases

resLens uses genomic language models to detect antibiotic resistance genes from DNA sequences, performing especially well on long-read data and on some ARGs poorly represented in reference databases.

25 May 2026

New computational pipeline improves effectiveness of pan-Ebola neutralizing antibodies

A team led by Professor Wei Yang at the National Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, has developed a computational-experimental pipeline that synergistically optimizes antibody framework regions (FR) and complementarity-determining regions (CDR).

24 May 2026

Gum disease pathogen may drive Alzheimer’s through microglial ferroptosis pathway

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, is projected to affect 152 million individuals worldwide by 2050; yet its pathogenesis remains poorly understood and effective treatments are lacking.

24 May 2026

Bioinformatics accelerates discovery of marine-derived bioactive therapeutic peptides

Marine organisms have evolved a remarkable arsenal of host-defense peptides under conditions of extreme variability and constant pathogen exposure. Generally defined as short chains of 2 to 20 amino acid residues, these molecules have become a focal point for biomedicine, food science, and materials science.

22 May 2026

What medicine-exposed rats reveal about the next urban zoonotic threat

Researchers found that more than half of urban rats sampled from low-income communities in Salvador, Brazil, carried active pharmaceutical ingredients in their brain tissue. These pollutants were associated with altered zoonotic infection patterns, including lower Leptospira infection probability in rats carrying azithromycin and higher Capillaria infection probability in rats carrying citalopram.

22 May 2026

New vaccine approach targets broad protection against arenavirus infections

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have discovered that combining key vaccine ingredients could give the body the tools it needs to fight the entire family of arenaviruses with a single vaccine.

21 May 2026

Wastewater tracking catches hospital fungus before patients show symptoms

A new UNLV-led wastewater surveillance study brings scientists one step closer in the global race to detect and deter skyrocketing cases of a potentially deadly drug-resistant fungus that puts hospital patients at risk of serious blood, heart, or brain infections.

20 May 2026

Researchers track genetic changes in Brazil's rare Sabiá virus

The Sabiá virus causes an acute hemorrhagic and neurological syndrome. Four fatal cases have been recorded in the state of São Paulo since 1990.

20 May 2026

Click chemistry advances precision oncology by merging imaging and therapyly

Conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy often struggle with poor targeting, leading to severe systemic toxicity and drug resistance.

19 May 2026

Genetic mapping in wastewater sets a new standard for pathogen surveillance

Tracking the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, rather than just viral abundance, dramatically improves the ability to monitor and predict COVID-19 outbreaks, researchers report. Their study suggests that the new approach to wastewater pathogen surveillance could serve as a powerful predictive tool for public health, providing earlier and more accurate insight into emerging waves of infection.

15 May 2026

How Andes virus super-spreaders reveal the risk behind the MV Hondius hantavirus cluster

A 2020 NEJM study of the 2018 to 2019 Epuyén outbreak showed that Andes virus spread from one zoonotic introduction into four generations of human infection, causing 34 cases and 11 deaths. The findings are newly relevant after WHO reported an ANDV cluster linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship, where close indoor exposure may have enabled onboard human-to-human transmission.

14 May 2026

Stanford scientists map the molecular diversity of different global populations

Researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine have found that ethnicity and geography may influence human molecular makeup - from metabolism and immunity to gut microbiota and biological aging.

14 May 2026