A joint team of researchers at Bar-Ilan University and the Weizmann Institute has used advanced computational design methods to enhance the ability of genetically engineered immune cells to recognize and attack cancer and viral targets.

A new Keck Medicine of USC study found that alcohol use among U.S. adults has fallen for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, though rates remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The study, based on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that stress, anxiety, and depression are the factors that most weaken psychological resilience.

Researchers at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered how a SARS-CoV-2 protein called ORF8 is responsible for hijacking the immune system’s macrophages and causing this dangerous cycle. The work, published in Science Advances, also shows that blocking ORF8 reduces lung inflammation and damage in mice infected with SARS-CoV-2.

The research could have an impact on pandemic prevention and the development of strategies against various coronaviruses.

When public health researchers want to know whether diseases such as COVID-19 or polio are circulating in a community, they can look for genetic evidence in wastewater.

Entomologist Dana Price wondered whether the same principle could be applied to mosquitoes. The question led to an unconventional experiment.

“What we did, colloquially, was build a mosquito toilet,” said Price, an associate professor at the Center for Vector Biology, Department of Entomology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and a lead author of a study published in Microbiology Spectrum.