Tag Archives: system

How the immune system deals with the gut’s plethora of microbes

The gut is an unusually noisy place, where hundreds of species of bacteria live alongside whatever microbes happen to have hitched a ride in on your lunch. Scientists have long suspected that the gut’s immune system, in the face of so many stimuli, takes an uncharacteristically blunt approach to population control and protection from foreign… Read More »

Concerns rise that the system for diagnosing epidemics is failing

Bloomberg—How big is the coronavirus outbreak? A lot bigger than we were initially told, it turns out. On Thursday, confirmed cases of Covid-19 in China’s Hubei Province—the epidemic’s epicenter—jumped by almost 15,000. It’s not that there was a sudden wave of new infections. Rather, the increase reflects a change in how China counts patients; it… Read More »

VA payments system hit by hackers, breaching data of 46,000 vets

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs notified its beneficiaries on Monday that a data breach has exposed the personal information of approximately 46,000 veterans. According to the VA’s Office of Management, an online application used by the agency’s Financial Services Center was accessed by unauthorized users in an attempt to divert payments to community care… Read More »

Protein produced by the nervous system may help treatments for inflammatory diseases

A Rutgers-led team may have found the key to treating inflammatory diseases like asthma, allergies, chronic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a study published in the journal Nature Immunology, researchers discovered that neuromedin B (NMB), a protein produced by the nervous system, was responsible for preventing overactive immune responses and damaging inflammation.… Read More »