Scent-sensing cells have a better way to fight influenza
In a paper appearing Sept. 1 in Cell Reports, a collaboration between the laboratories of Ashley Moseman and Nicholas Heaton reports on the remarkably robust immune response of olfactory sensory neurons, the smell receptors that line the nose, where a virus might first be encountered. Their finding reveals not only a successful strategy against infection, it points out the diversity of immune responses from one kind of cell to another.
Unusual immune response in bladder appears to drive repeat UTIs
Jianxuan Wu, a fifth year student doing research in Dr. Soman Abraham's laboratory, had a first author article published in Nature Immunology. The research found that an unusual immune response, TH2-coordinated tissue repair in the bladder, takes precedence over long-term protective immunity in urinary tract infections. Although this response is effective in the interim, it can lead to recurrent infections and bladder dysfunction and appears to drive repeat UTIs. Read more in the