Scientists at Stanford find a biomarker for flu susceptibility, enabling predictions of if someone is going to fall ill to the virus after being exposed.
Tag: immunology
Third-hand smoke increases asthma severity in mice
Exposure to 'third-hand smoke' — that is, the chemicals left behind on household surfaces after smoke has dissipated — increases the severity of asthma symptoms in mice. Stanford researchers are working to learn how this happens, and whether it might be possible to protect people with asthma from this exposure.
Older people’s immune cells get fuzzier marching orders than those of younger people
Older people are more susceptible to infection, cancer, and autoimmunity than younger people. This may be the result of our immune cells' receiving increasingly random marching orders as we age.
A tale of the two-faced macrophage and cancer
When associated with tumors, immune cells known as macrophages can be both good and bad: they can help cancer spread and curb its growth.
Common link — a glucose-guzzling immune cell — involved in coronary artery disease and rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis and coronary artery disease share a common culprit: an important type of immune cell, called a macrophage, that has gone haywire. Stanford investigators have zeroed in on a molecular defect in macrophages' metabolic process that drives both disorders.
Researcher’s crazy contraptions can simplify scientific complexities, distill research findings
Many infectious diseases are marked by cyclical ups and downs. Stanford's David Schneider takes a creative approach to making sense of them.
Exercise elevates blood signature difference between people with, without chronic fatigue syndrome
A new study suggests that a blood test following exercise may be a good way to differentiate between people who have ME/CFS and people who don't.
Food allergy treatment can last years, Stanford study shows
People with food allergies can be gradually desensitized to foods that trigger reactions, clinical trials at Stanford’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research have shown.
Immunotherapy targets identified using new technology
Immune cells spot cancer cells by locating proteins called antigens. Now, researchers have developed a new tool that will help them identify those antigens.
Another “don’t eat me” signal discovered on cancer cells by Stanford researchers
No, it's not a plea from the leftover Thanksgiving turkey you may have just gobbled (see what I just did there?). A "don't eat me" …
Immune cells release “red flag” to activate muscle stem cells in response to damage
Muscle stem cells are wily beasts. As I've written about before, they nestle along our muscle fibers and quietly await the biological red flag that …
Current “humanized” mice not good models for studying stem cell transplants, say researchers
Laboratory mice have made valuable contributions to biological research for centuries, at first as a model to study broad questions such as blood circulation and …
Progress in search for vaccine providing broad immunity to scourge of developing-world infants
A vaccine is, in essence, a "virtual-reality mug shot" that spurs the immune system to (among other things) generate antibodies that gum up whatever pathogen …
Meet the glucose-guzzling immune cells behind coronary heart disease and, it turns out, shingles
As if they didn't have enough to worry about, people with coronary artery disease -- the industrialized world's number-one killer -- are more vulnerable to …
“Lifting the hood” on rare immune diseases can help patients get the treatment they need
Imagine you're driving and hear a worrisome noise coming from your vehicle. You pull over to the side of the road and add some oil. …
Autoimmunity and cancer: Flip sides of the same coin?
Many patients with cancer are now treated with "checkpoint inhibitors." These new drugs release molecular brakes that ordinarily keep immune cells from running amok and damaging healthy tissues. …