News

Staphylococcal and streptococcal infections affect millions of individuals each year. They are a leading cause of sepsis and account for many cases of pneumonia and post-surgical infections. Despite the urgency of this situation, the antibiotic development pipeline is dwindling and multi-drug resistance is rampant, rendering the classical one-bug, one-drug approach obsolete.

Simon Fraser University researcher Lisa Craig is part of an international team that has uncovered new details about a microbe that invades the brain, sometimes with fatal results. The information is a critical piece of the meningitis puzzle, and could lead to new ways of treating meningococcal infection. The research was published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that the gut may be key to preventing Parkinson's disease. Cells located in the intestine spark an immune response that protects nerve cells, or neurons, against damage connected with Parkinson's disease. Acting like detectives, the immune intestinal cells identify damaged machinery within neurons and discard the defective parts. That action ultimately preserves neurons whose impairment or death is known to cause Parkinson's.