Nearly six months after the Trump administration froze $790 million in federal funding for Northwestern, faculty continue to confront a new academic research reality amid national changes. An uncertai...

Abstract. The presentation of peptides on HLA molecules is essential to CD8+ T cell responses. Here, we show that loss of uL14 significantly downregulates

Antimicrobial recalcitrance in pathogenic microbes is a growing problem around the world (1–3). In addition to struggling to keep up with the growing multitude of organisms evolving resistance mechanisms, we must also contend with a variety of other issues that hinder antibiotic effectiveness. For example, polymicrobial infections are now understood to be a major problem in the world of antimicrobial recalcitrance due to the ability of certain microbial communities to work together via polymicrobial synergism. In fact, many infections that are recalcitrant to antimicrobials have been determined to be polymicrobial (4). Polymicrobial infections have been shown to significantly increase the cost of patient treatment and hospital length of stay, costing thousands of dollars for the individual (5). Polymicrobial chronic wounds alone now cost more than 28 billion dollars a year and affect more than five to seven million Americans every year (6, 7). In addition to battling complex communities of microorganisms, we must also determine the best way to prescribe the same antibiotics across multiple body sites with minimal impact on patients. Antibiotic prescription can have negative impacts at sites across the body, including allergic reactions and inhibiting or killing the host microbiome (8, 9). As every patient is unique (different immune responses, hormone levels, and ages), and each body site is different (nutrient composition and stressors), we must adapt our antibiotic prescription methods to most effectively treat the individual and their illness. This minireview focuses on the challenges that hinder effective antimicrobial prescription across the body, emphasizing the importance of accounting for distinct polymicrobial communities and niche-specific stressors to the bacteria that differ at each body site.

Accurate protein synthesis depends on aminoacylated tRNAs, but their identities have been hard to measure. Here, authors present aa-tRNA-seq, a nanopore-based method that reveals the amino acid, seque...

Chang et al. discover anti-CBASS 4 (Acb4), a family of viral sponges that inhibits bacterial immunity by sequestering nucleotide immune signals. Acb4 homologs in phages that infect hosts across all ma...

Political attacks and other problems appear to be driving an exodus of Ph.D.s and faculty from higher education, threatening a diminished experience for undergraduates.

Archaea regularly interact with bacteria but reports of archaea killing bacteria are very rare. This study shows that many archaea encode peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target bacterial ...

Nature Communications - tRNAs contain many chemical modifications that regulate their function. Integrating smFRET and cryo-EM approaches, this work demonstrates that m1G37 in tRNAProL stabilizes...

Aging is a major risk factor for neurodegeneration and is characterized by diverse cellular and molecular hallmarks. To understand the origin of these hallmarks, we studied the effects of aging on the...

The Supreme Court is poised to allow Trump to illegally terminate NIH grants. Let's speak out. There is not much time.