Studies are underway to test whether giving a shot of BCG vaccine could protect doctors and nurses against COVID-19.

This previously unknown mechanism for spotting foreign genetic material in the cytoplasm launches antiviral defenses even when the well-known immune mediator STING is absent.

In CRISPRed fruit flies that lack certain antimicrobial peptides, bacterial infections flourish, as revealed by fluorescent markers.

Immune cells in the mouse gut help recognize damaging compounds and prompt intestinal stem cells to repair DNA.

Limiting food intake leads to the conversion of white fat cells into more metabolically active brown fat cells through an immune response, a mouse study shows.

Three therapeutic doses administered during early life disturb the animals’ microbiomes and lead to enduring changes in the immune systems of non-obese diabetic mice, researchers report.

Alzheimer’s disease–associated amyloid-β peptides trap microbes in the brains of mice and in the guts of nematodes, a study shows. 

B and T cells may be the memory masters of the immune system, but research reveals that other cells can be primed by pathogens, too.

Alan Aderem earned his PhD while under house arrest for protesting apartheid in South Africa. His early political involvement has guided his scientific focus, encouraging fellow systems biologists to study immunology and infectious diseases.