A close up shot of a thumb pointing to a pimple on a patch of bare skin
Skin Cells Can Transform To Help Fight Acne
A new study reveals that the fibroblasts in tissue surrounding acne infections play an active role in the body’s immune response—and that existing treatments help trigger them to do so.
ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, KURAPY11
Skin Cells Can Transform To Help Fight Acne
Skin Cells Can Transform To Help Fight Acne

A new study reveals that the fibroblasts in tissue surrounding acne infections play an active role in the body’s immune response—and that existing treatments help trigger them to do so.

A new study reveals that the fibroblasts in tissue surrounding acne infections play an active role in the body’s immune response—and that existing treatments help trigger them to do so.

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, KURAPY11
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antimicrobial peptide

Lipid Droplets Are Intracellular Bacteria-Fighting Machines
Ruth Williams | Oct 15, 2020
Far from being inert fat-storage depots within cells, these lipid-loaded organelles recruit immune proteins and block bacterial growth.
Ants Produce Antibiotics that May Protect Plants
Emily Makowski | Mar 1, 2020
The antimicrobial compounds ants excrete to defend themselves from pathogens may protect plants as well.
Will Komodo Dragons Yield the Next Blockbuster Antibiotic?
Jef Akst | May 1, 2017
The giant lizards have numerous microbicidal compounds in their blood.
Commensal Defense
Kate Yandell | Jan 8, 2015
Beneficial gut bacteria have evolved resistance to antimicrobial peptides that hosts release to fight pathogens.
Scorpion Venom Kills MRSA
Jef Akst | Jul 12, 2012
Peptides extracted from scorpion venom fights off drug-resistant bacterial infections in mice.
Reading Tea Leaves
Jef Akst | Feb 1, 2012
Cyclic peptides, discovered in an African tea used to speed labor and delivery, may hold potential as drug-stabilizing scaffolds, antibiotics, and anticancer drugs.
Antimicrobial Cross-Resistance Risk
Sabrina Richards | Jan 24, 2012
Bacteria that evolve resistance to antimicrobial therapies may be able to evade natural immune peptides.