Newsletters

[UC Irvine News] University of California (UC), Irvine immunologist Lbachir BenMohamed has been awarded a $3.93 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop and test a novel therapeutic vaccine designed to prevent recurrent genital herpes.

[Cornell Chronicle] A Cornell researcher is seeking to develop a vaccine against the hepatitis C virus by harnessing the body’s natural ability to clear the infection on its own, thanks to a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Andrew Flyak has been named a 2026 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.

[Nature Nanotechnology] In mice, intranasal co-administration of NanoCF501 with an antigen comprising multivalent fragments derived from different coronaviruses induces robust mucosal and systemic immunity, conferring protection against homologous/heterologous pan-β-coronaviruses.

[BMJ-British Medical Journal] The authors explore recent advances and future directions in malaria vaccine development, highlighting the need for new approaches to achieve sustainable protection against Plasmodium species.

[Cell] Investigators developed a systematic in vivo screening platform for influenza A virus. Using this resource, they identified 17 host factors whose genetic ablation conferred resistance to influenza A virus infection.

[Science Translational Medicine] Researchers analyzed memory B cell responses in the COVAIL vaccine trial, where participants previously vaccinated with SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-1 spike immunogen were boosted with Wuhan-1, variant, or bivalent spike immunogens.

[JAMA] The US FDA approved the first treatment for chronic hepatitis delta virus infection, a liver disease that only occurs in people who have hepatitis B virus infection.

[Nature Immunology] Scientists designed and preclinically tested two mRNA–lipid-nanoparticle-based vaccine candidates to protect against tuberculosis. The candidates demonstrated favorable safety profiles in a rat toxicity study and significantly reduced bacterial burdens of two M. tuberculosis strains in murine aerosol challenge models.

[Nature Immunology] Investigators assessed B cell responses in an observational study of cohorts of healthy young adults receiving a licensed, split-virion or investigative mRNA-based quadrivalent seasonal influenza virus vaccine over two consecutive seasons.

[Nature Communications] Researchers showed that apoptotic bodies (ApoBDs) from SARS-CoV-2-infected cells carries infectious virions. Macrophages efferocytose these ApoBDs, enabling SARS-CoV-2 entry and pro-inflammatory responses including inflammasome and NF-κB signaling.

[Molecular Cell] Scientists reported that antibodies and TRIM21 trigger selective macroautophagy of adenovirus in a process they termed “antibody-directed xenophagy” (ADX). They defined the molecular pathway of ADX in high spatial and temporal resolution.

[Cell] Investigators successfully generate primate organogenetic embryoids from cynomolgus totipotent blastomere-like stem cells (cTBLCs). cTBLCs, reprogrammed from PSCs and stably maintained, can display key totipotent-like molecular and functional features resembling zygotes/2–4-cell blastomeres.