Our immune systems contain three fundamentally different types of cell: B-cells, T-cells and the mysteriously named Natural Killer cells (NK cells), which are known to be involved in killing tumour cells and other infected cells. Experiments to in…
The presence of introns in genes requires cells to process “messenger RNA” molecules before synthesizing proteins, a process that is costly and often error-prone. It was long believed that this was simply part of the price organisms paid for the fl…
Animals react to infections in a number of ways. Among the first is the production of cell factors such as interferons and IL-1beta. Interferons have several functions, including activating a series of intracellular signals such as Tyk2 (Tyrosine ki…
Mycoplasmas are responsible for a variety of important diseases, including atypical pneumonia in humans and mastitis in cows, sheep and goats, which results in loss of milk production. Mycoplasmal mastitis represents a particular problem in the dai…
On receiving an honour, the American entertainer Jack Benny once said, “I don’t deserve this award but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.” Unfortunately, Benny was not alone in suffering from arthritis as he grew older. Arthritis is…