Maybe fat gets a bad rap. Immune responses matter but when it comes to skin infections, those response may depend greatly upon what lies beneath, according to a paper published in Science. Fat cells…

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection has gotten a lot of attention. It is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that's become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to…

Cholera is characterized by acute watery diarrhea resulting in severe dehydration and occurs  when the bacterium Vibrio cholerae infects the small intestine. How does it happen? …

Elderly patients admitted to intensive care units are about 35 percent more likely to die within five years of leaving the hospital if they develop an infection during their stay. The upside to this…

Folk wisdom has long held that people are more likely to catch a cold in cool-weather or damp conditions but some recent claims have disputed that and found the virus transmits just as often…

Cold and damp is bad, no matter what you may have heard recently about it making no difference. The common cold virus reproduces itself more efficiently in the cooler temperatures found inside the…

The enzyme signal peptide peptidase-like 3 (SPPL3) is known to 'cut' proteins - they cleave the peptide bonds in the polypeptides that make up proteins - but it turns out that it works to activate T-…

The most recent outbreak of the Ebola virus disease occurring in West Africa may have originated from contact between humans and virus-infected bats, according to a new study in EMBO Molecular…

Binge drinking in young, healthy adults significantly disrupts the immune system, according to a new epidemiology paper. Depending on their weight, study participants drank four or five shots of…

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is a genetic condition in children that is characterized by dramatic, rapid appearance of aging. Affected children typically look normal at birth and in early…