Two-dose vaccines provide protection against lung disease in rhesus macaques one year after they were vaccinated as infants, a recent study shows. The work, published in Science Translational Medicine, is a follow-up to a 2021 studying showing that the Moderna mRNA vaccine and a protein-based vaccine candidate containing an adjuvant, a substance that enhances immune responses, elicited durable neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 during infancy in preclinical research.

“This study emphasizes the need to get human infants immunized against SARS-CoV-2 as much as possible, as the benefits are clear and long-lasting. It also highlights the value of animal models in infectious disease research,” Dr. Koen Van Rompay of the CNPRC said. “The lessons we learned and the resources and tools that were developed in the current study will be very valuable for future pandemic preparedness, to more effectively combat outbreaks with novel coronaviruses or other respiratory viruses in pediatric populations.”

We sat down with CNPRC Director Dr. John H. Morrison and Investigator Dr. Danielle Beckman to discuss their latest study on COVID-19. Their research revealed that SARS-CoV-2 caused significant neuron damage and inflammation within a week of infection. This research brings us closer to understanding the long-term impacts of COVID-19.

"This is direct virus accessing the brain very fast and spreading through memory-relevant regions," said Beckman.

A recent University of California, Davis, study analyzing romantic first impressions shows that compatibility and popularity among the dating pool are influential in shaping who people pursue as potential romantic partners.

Although popularity and compatibility have been studied in established romantic relationships, in one of the first studies of its kind, UC Davis researchers explored whether these and other types of romantic first impressions affected later romantic outcomes. Researchers found that first impressions tend to linger, shaping whether people desired further contact with potential romantic partners after an initial meeting.

Mirroring the all-hands-on-deck collaborative approach that accelerated the development of a variety of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, the National Institutes of Health is seeking to spark similar innovation for a longstanding, intractable disease: tuberculosis. As part of this national push, NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) and The Access to Advanced Health Institute (AAHI) in Seattle, Washington, a $3.5 million, five-year Innovation for Tuberculosis Vaccine Discovery grant.

Researchers suspect that the way cells use nutrients in the presence of a virus can determine disease outcome and severity in the earliest stages of infection or even long after the pathogen leaves the body. 

The immune system has long been touted as the body’s primary defense against invading viruses, with the understanding that a strong immune response swiftly knocks out an infection while a weak one allows it to linger, leading to prolonged disease or even death.

Now, researchers at Tulane University are looking at an entirely different system—the body’s ability to use nutrients at a cellular level — to predict disease response and severity.