Updates from the Chair | Microbiology and Immunology

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Research Reveals How a Common Bacterium May Spread from the Intestine

November 10, 2022

A typical gut bacterium that can spread through the body and cause a serious infection resists natural immune defenses and antibiotics by enhancing its protective outer layer, known as the cell envelope, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The finding suggests possible new ways to target these bacterial infections.

The research, published Nov. 10 in mBio, illuminates some of the underlying...

colocalization of extracellular DNA and CXCL4

Study Reveals New Mode of Triggering Immune Responses

July 13, 2022

Small proteins, called chemokines, that direct immune cells toward sites of infection can also form DNA-bound nanoparticles that can induce chronic, dysfunctional immune responses, according to a new study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). The surprising discovery of this new activity for this well-studied class of immune signaling molecules could shed light on some types of immune...

T Cell Behavior Determines Which Tumors Respond to Treatment

May 9, 2022

Immunotherapy unleashes the power of the immune system to fight cancer. However, for some patients, immunotherapy doesn’t work, and new research may help explain why. When immune cells called T lymphocytes infiltrate malignant tumors, the genetic program of those T cells and the developmental path they then follow, may affect their response to immunotherapy and predict overall patient survival, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The results overturn the...

illustration of microscopic tuberculosis bacteria

CinA Protein Contributes to Drug Tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

May 4, 2022

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have identified a protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that contributes to drug tolerance, a phenomenon that allows bacteria to survive treatment with drugs that would normally kill them.

The study, published April 22 in Nature Communications, found that an Mtb protein called CinA reduces the efficacy of isoniazid and other antibiotics used to treat tuberculosis.

“This...

Scientists Identify Key Regulator of Malaria Parasite Transmission

February 25, 2022

A finding from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers sheds new light on the transmission of malaria, one of the biggest global public health challenges, which kills a young child every two minutes – more than any other infectious disease.

Malaria parasites, of which Plasmodium falciparum is the most widespread and lethal, are transmitted by mosquitoes and have a complex life cycle. Malaria symptoms occur once the parasite's asexual stages begin replicating inside red blood cells....