Identifying broadly neutralizing antibodies against infectious agents such as influenza A viruses, HIV, and Plasmodium falciparum that display impressive degrees of antigenic variation is a major focus of investigators developing therapeutics and vaccines for...
There is a mature literature on evolution and aging intended to explain how, despite selection for the morphological, metabolic, physiological, and behavioral prerequisites for survival and procreation, with the passage of time bodies deteriorate ultimately resulting...
Clinical organ transplantation is now a large medical enterprise, with more than 29,000 organ transplants performed in 2014 in the United States alone (https://www.unos.org/data/transplant-trends/#transplants_by_organ_type+year+2014). Nevertheless, the number of organ...
The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, is known for a number of ideas among which a particularly oft-quoted one is, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/30-that-which-does-not-kill-us-makes-us-stronger). A recent...
In a previous EMR post from December 30 of 2014 (see link below), I discussed a study (Science, 2014) that offered evidence for reciprocal selection of host and pathogen iron-binding proteins arising out the competition for their shared ligand, which is critical to...
