Immunology

Why Do We Have Allergies?

For me, it was hornets. One summer afternoon when I was 12, I ran into an overgrown field near a friend’s house and kicked a hornet nest the size of a football. An angry squadron of insects clamped onto my leg; their stings felt like scorching needles. I ...

Article - Carl Zimmer - May 1 2015 - 10:51am

Calcium Sensing Receptor: Asthma's Potential Root Cause And A Novel Treatment

Researchers have described the role of the calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) in causing asthma, a disease which affects 300 million people worldwide, by using mouse models of asthma and human airway tissue from asthmatic and non-asthmatic people. ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2015 - 4:00pm

PhyloSusceptibility Model: Spread Of Pathogens Between Species Is Predictable- And Now Online

A study of disease dynamics in a California grassland has shed light on fundamental principles underlying the spread of pathogens among species, according to researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz who measured the amount of disease on the ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2015 - 5:09pm

Mosquito Bites Have A Genetic Component, Finds Twins Study

The likelihood of being bitten by mosquitoes could be linked to our genes, according to a recent study. Previous papers have suggested that human attractiveness to insects is based on differences in body odor or diet but there has been no clear and consis ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 23 2015 - 11:00am

When Is Your Kid Too Sick For Daycare?

It's a dilemma many working parents: your child has a cough or a cold, do you send them to daycare? Researchers from the University of Bristol have investigated the process of decision-making that parents go through when faced with this situation and ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2015 - 10:00pm

Artificially Composed Virus Fragment Could Be Key To A Chikungunya Vaccine

The mosquito transmitted Chikungunya virus, which causes Chikungunya fever, is spreading continuously. No vaccine is so far available. Researchers of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut have experimentally recombined segments of the virus surface protein E2, thus c ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2015 - 8:00pm

Why A Small Drop In Whooping Cough Vaccines Leads To A Case Upsurge

In 2012 the US saw a resurgence of pertussis (whooping cough) cases. the highest since 1955. Like in engineering, the reason a small increase in anti-science beliefs can lead to a big change in the number of cases comes down to degrees of freedom and the ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 23 2015 - 2:15pm

Dry Eye And Spring Allegens Directly Correlated In Study

New ophthalmology research finds that dry eye- the little understood culprit behind red, watery, gritty feeling eyes- strikes most often in spring, just as airborne allergens are surging, the first direct correlation between seasonal allergens and dry eye ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2015 - 8:06am

Superbug Season Is Spring- And It's Most Prevalent In The Northeast US Region

Rates of infection with the deadly superbug Clostridium difficile were highest in the Northeast region of the country and in the spring season over the last 10 years, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Texas retrospectively analyz ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 29 2015 - 3:30pm

Sudden Oak Death Path Predicted By Citizen Scientists

Citizen science, where the public pitches in to make large-scale analyses of data possible, has successfully predicted the path of a deadly plant disease, Sudden Oak Death, over a six-year period.  The disease has killed millions of oak and tanoak trees i ...

Article - News Staff - May 1 2015 - 8:11am