Babies are normally vaccinated against measles at 12 months old. But doctors are now suggesting having the shot as early as six months might be worthwhile for youngsters traveling overseas.
The cornerstone of our adaptive immune system is the ability to remember the various infections we have encountered. Quite literally, if it doesn’t kill you, it makes your immune system stronger.
Immunotherapy drugs work by increasing the patient’s own immune response. The most successful examples of immunotherapies are drugs that act as antibodies, of which Keytruda is one.
Flu virus mutates so quickly that one year’s vaccine won’t work on the next year’s common strains. But rational design – a new way to create vaccines – might pave the way for more lasting solutions.
Flu virus mutates so quickly that one year’s vaccine won’t work on the next year’s common strains. But a new way to create vaccines, called ‘rational design,’ might pave the way for more lasting solutions.
Public health experts enlist the molecular biology tools that create genetically modified organisms – as well as the GMOs themselves – in the fight against emerging infectious diseases.
The immune system does such a good job most of the time that we only really think about it when things go wrong. But to provide such excellent protection, it must constantly learn.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming a major problem. Calls to action on increasing rates of resistance have been made by the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC…
Dr Seuss’ book Green Eggs and Ham is built around the urgings of a weird creature, Sam I Am, who insists the narrator eat the food of its title. When the narrator refuses, Sam issues an ever-widening range…
Research published in this month’s BioEssays confirms something many of us have always known: women have stronger immune systems than men. We fight off infections more readily, are less likely to develop…
The world’s largest virus has been found in seawater off the coast of Chile, measuring around 10 to 20 times the length of most viruses. Named Megavirus chilensis, the giant virus infects single-cell marine…
Every year at the beginning of October, a frisson runs through the global medical research community. Who will win the greatest lottery of them all, the Nobel Prize for Medicine? In a cynical and sceptical…