disease & medicine

Investigators from underrepresented groups have borne the brunt of the disruption to science from the pandemic, according to an opinion piece that outlines ways in which institutions can lessen the damage.

Mix-and-match shots could simplify vaccine rollout and stimulate more-robust immune responses. Ongoing clinical trials will soon give answers.

A trio of papers shows that specialized antibodies can direct T cells to destroy cells that display portions of mutant cancer-related proteins, as well as T cells that have become cancerous themselves.

Instead, the full report will be available in mid-March.

Clinics are popping up around the US to study the sometimes long-lasting effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and teens.

Sam Wilson discusses a user-friendly set of resources that he and his collaborators developed to aid labs pivoting to study COVID-19.

A review article containing contested claims about the tropical medicine drug as a COVID-19 treatment was listed as “provisionally accepted” on the journal’s website before being removed this week.

The P.1 variant, which has also been detected in five US states, could be responsible for cases of reinfection, according to a preprint.

A treatment of two monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 is ninefold less effective in the lab against the B.1.351 variant than against the dominant version of the virus.

Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot immunization could reach people’s arms as early as March 2.

Researchers find different distributions of the immune cells in young, older, and diseased eyes.

Males and females show differences in gene expression, cell activation, and antibody production in response to some viral infections, but whether these influence COVID-19 outcomes is still unclear.

Imaged in real time in living people, immune cells at the surface of the retina could serve as biomarkers to detect retinal and possibly neurological diseases and track their progression.

Two preliminary reports from the UK provide real-world evidence in support of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

Researchers determined that when introduced into damaged mouse or donated human livers, these lab-grown tissues could integrate into bile ducts and function normally.

Engineered viruses that don’t replicate provide a tractable model for scientists to safely study SARS-CoV-2, including research into vaccine efficacy and emerging variants.

B.1.525 shares a mutation with the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa that seems to allow the virus to dodge the immune system.

Researchers identify deletions in the N-terminal domain of the spike protein that allow the coronavirus to avoid antibody neutralization and that may contribute to the emergence of new variants.

A study proposes that habitat for bats—and their accompanying coronaviruses—has increased in southern Asia over the last century, but experts debate the reliability of the analysis.