COVID and SARS News

June 17, 2025

Top Headlines

Scientists Discover Llama Antibodies That Shut Down COVID — and Its Future Variants

June 16, 2025 — Powerful llama-derived antibodies could be the key to stopping not just current SARS viruses, but future ones too. Scientists have discovered a unique class of nanobodies that clamp the coronavirus ...

New mRNA Vaccine Is More Effective and Less Costly to Develop

June 3, 2025 — A new type of mRNA vaccine is more scalable and adaptable to continuously evolving viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and H5N1, according to a new ...

Evolution of a Single Gene Allowed the Plague to Adapt, Survive and Kill Much of Humanity Over Many Centuries

May 29, 2025 — Scientists have documented the way a single gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, allowed it to survive hundreds of years by adjusting its virulence and the length of ...

Tiny Genetic Switch Found to Control Brain Balance and Behavior

May 26, 2025 — Researchers have identified a remarkably small but critical piece of genetic code that helps determine how brain cells connect, communicate, and function. The discovery not only deepens our understanding of how the brain's wiring is built but may ...

Engineered Bacteria Can Deliver Antiviral Therapies, Vaccines

May 21, 2025 — New research demonstrates how specially engineered bacteria taken orally can operate as a delivery system for vaccines and antiviral ...

Two HIV Vaccine Trials Show Proof of Concept for Pathway to Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies

May 16, 2025 — A decades-long scientific challenge in HIV vaccine development has been finding a way to train the immune system to produce antibodies that can target many variants of the virus. Traditional ...

Particles Carrying Multiple Vaccine Doses Could Reduce the Need for Follow-Up Shots

May 16, 2025 — New polymer microparticles can be used to deliver vaccines at different times. The work could lead to childhood vaccines given just once, eliminating the need for booster ...

New Study Offers Insights Into Designing Safe, Effective Nasal Vaccines

May 15, 2025 — Most vaccines -- and boosters -- are injected directly into muscle tissue, usually in the upper arm, to kickstart the body's immune system in the fight against disease. But for respiratory diseases like COVID-19, it can be important to have ...

World's Largest Bat Organoid Platform Paves the Way for Pandemic Preparedness

May 15, 2025 — Until now, most research has used either generalized cell samples or organoids made from just one type of tropical fruit bat, and only from a single organ. But a breakthrough has arrived: a research ...

Building Vaccines for Future Versions of a Virus

May 8, 2025 — AI model EVE-Vax provides clues about how a virus may evolve and the immune response it could ...

Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of a Smallpox Vaccine for Preventing Mpox

May 8, 2025 — The recent global monkeypox (mpox) outbreak, with a new and aggressive variant, has underscored the dire need for safe, broadly effective, and accessible vaccines. The LC16m8 vaccine, an attenuated ...

Vaccines of the Future: Harnessing the Immune System for Long-Lasting Protection

May 8, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered a promising new way to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines by tapping into the potential of a specific type of immune cell, opening the door to long-lasting vaccines for ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:28am EDT

Scientists Warn of Bat Virus Just One Mutation from Infecting Humans

June 12, 2025 — Viruses closely related to the deadly MERS coronavirus are lurking in bats and one group, known as HKU5, may be just one mutation away from making the jump to humans. A new study reveals how these ...

Shingles Vaccine Lowers the Risk of Heart Disease for Up to Eight Years

May 6, 2025 — People who are given a vaccine for shingles have a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease, according to a recent study of more than a ...

Data Collection Changes Key to Understanding Maternal Mortality Trends in the US, New Study Shows

May 1, 2025 — A new study offers fresh insight into trends in maternal mortality in the United States. For the first time, the study disentangles genuine changes ...

Left or Right Arm? New Research Reveals Why Vaccination Site Matters for Immune Response

Apr. 29, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered why vaccines can elicit a stronger immune response if they are administered in the same ...

Experimental Bird Flu Vaccine Excels in Animal Models

Apr. 23, 2025 — A vaccine under development has demonstrated complete protection in mice against a deadly variant of the virus that causes bird flu. The work focuses on the H5N1 variant known as 2.3.4.4b, which has ...

Certain Nasal Bacteria May Boost the Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Study Finds

Apr. 10, 2025 — A new study has found that certain bacteria living in the nose may influence how likely someone is to get a COVID-19 infection. The research reveals ...

Researchers Identify Safer Pathway for Pain Relief

Apr. 9, 2025 — Scientists have helped identify a novel drug compound that selectively activates pain-altering receptors in the body, offering a potentially safer alternative to conventional pain ...

Nasal Spray H5N1 Avian Influenza Vaccine Developed

Apr. 8, 2025 — Scientists have pioneered an influenza virus vector-based nasal spray vaccine platform and developed a nasal spray H5N1 avian influenza vaccine. During the early COVID-19 pandemic, this platform ...

Viral 'Backbone' Underlies Variation in Rotavirus Vaccine Effectiveness

Apr. 8, 2025 — Researchers have shown that differences in the entire rotavirus genome -- not just its two surface proteins -- affect how well vaccines work, helping to explain why some strains are more likely to ...

New Research Boosts Future Whooping Cough Vaccines

Apr. 4, 2025 — New research could aid in improving whooping cough vaccines to once again push this disease toward eradication by targeting two key weaknesses in the ...

An Antiviral Chewing Gum to Reduce Influenza and Herpes Simplex Virus Transmission

Apr. 4, 2025 — Low vaccination rates for influenza viruses and the lack of an HSV vaccine underscore the need for a new approach to reduce viral transmission. Researchers have now used a clinical-grade antiviral ...

Cellular Regulator of mRNA Vaccine Revealed... Offering New Therapeutic Options

Apr. 3, 2025 — A team of researchers has uncovered a key cellular mechanism that affects the function of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. Their study provides the first comprehensive understanding of how mRNA ...

Study Strengthens Link Between Shingles Vaccine and Lower Dementia Risk

Apr. 2, 2025 — A new analysis of a vaccination program in Wales found that the shingles vaccine appeared to lower new dementia diagnoses by 20% -- more than any other known ...

Research Finds Potential 'Molecular Mimics' Behind COVID-Induced Autoimmune Disease

Mar. 26, 2025 — Scientists used advanced data analysis and machine learning to identify the viral proteins that may trigger autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid ...

mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccines Train the 'Long-Term Memory' of the Immune System

Mar. 26, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines have a persistent effect on the innate immune system. These mechanisms may help the human body to better protect itself against potential ...

'Low-Sugar' Vaccine Can Provide Broad Immunity Against Coronavirus Variants

Mar. 25, 2025 — Early animal studies show that a single vaccine could protect the recipient from different variants of the coronaviruses that cause COVID-19, the flu and the common cold. In addition to creating ...

Cellular Mechanisms That May Lead to Onset of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Mar. 21, 2025 — New study shows that dysfunction of protective immune cells in GI tract may contribute to onset of inflammation in Crohn's ...

New Data on Mpox Vaccine Effectiveness

Mar. 19, 2025 — A study has found that a single dose of the Imvanex vaccine provides protection against Mpox with 84% effectiveness. For people with HIV, however, a single dose of the vaccine fails to offer ...

New Understanding of B Cell Mutation Strategies Could Have Implications for Vaccines

Mar. 19, 2025 — New study demonstrates how high-affinity B cells 'bank' their best traits instead of rolling the dice and risking deleterious mutations, with implications for better vaccine ...

Cause of Post-COVID Inflammatory Shock in Children Identified

Mar. 12, 2025 — MIS-C is a serious inflammatory shock that affects children. It can occur several weeks after a COVID infection and can be life-threatening. Until now, however, the precise cause of the condition was ...

Meningococcal Vaccine Found to Be Safe and Effective for Infants in Sub-Saharan Africa, Study Suggests

Mar. 12, 2025 — Researchers helped conduct an important new global health study that found a vaccine that protects against five strains of meningitis prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa is safe and effective for use in ...

Study Quantifies Loss of Disability-Free Years of Life from COVID-19 Pandemic

Mar. 11, 2025 — Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new ...

Breakthrough in Next-Generation Polio Vaccines

Mar. 11, 2025 — A more affordable, lower-risk polio vaccine is on the horizon, research has ...

New Discovery to Accelerate Strep A Vaccine Efforts

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have discovered how antibodies help to protect against contagious bacterial infections caused by Strep A, including strep throat. And the findings are already contributing to efforts to ...

New Antibodies Show Potential to Defeat All SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Mar. 5, 2025 — A team has found two antibodies that can work together to neutralize the virus that causes COVID-19 in all its current known variations in a laboratory environment. More research is needed, but the ...

Research Identifies Key Antibodies for Development of Broadly Protective Norovirus Vaccine

Mar. 5, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a strategy to fight back against norovirus, a leading cause of gastroenteritis worldwide. Their new study identifies powerful antibodies capable of neutralizing a wide ...

TB Vaccine Candidate Provides 'Elite' Protection

Mar. 5, 2025 — A live-attenuated tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate in development elicits a much more balanced and effective immune response compared to the existing vaccine used across much of the world, ...

Smartwatches Could End the Next Pandemic

Mar. 4, 2025 — Everyday smartwatches are extremely accurate in detecting viral infection long before symptoms appear -- now, research shows how they could help stop a pandemic before it even ...

Immune 'Fingerprints' Aid Diagnosis of Complex Diseases

Feb. 24, 2025 — Receptors on B and T cells hint at what the immune system is targeting. An AI approach called Mal-ID developed increases diagnostic accuracy, particularly for autoimmune ...

Groundbreaking Study Shows Potential of New mRNA Vaccine to Help Fight Tuberculosis

Feb. 20, 2025 — A new vaccine that boosts immunity against tuberculosis (TB) has been shown to be effective in pioneering pre-clinical ...