organs

Non-Toxic Drug Could Increase Availability of Organ Transplants

Treatment Regimen Allows Genetically Mismatched Skin Grafts in Mice

surgeons performing an organ transplant

Thousands of patients who need an organ transplant die each year before a donor can be found. A new IRP study has identified a safer way to prevent a transplant recipient’s body from attacking a genetically dissimilar donor organ, which could dramatically expand the pool of potential organ donors.

Ebola Virus: Lessons from a Unique Survivor

Ebola virus (green) is shown on cell surface

There are new reports of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This news comes just two years after international control efforts eventually contained an Ebola outbreak in West Africa, though before control was achieved, more than 11,000 people died—the largest known Ebola outbreak in human history. Many questions remain about why some people die from Ebola and others survive. Now, some answers are beginning to emerge thanks to a new detailed analysis of the immune responses of a unique Ebola survivor, a 34-year-old American health-care worker who was critically ill and cared for at the NIH Special Clinical Studies Unit in 2015.

Cool Videos: Looking Inside Living Cells

ASCB Celldance 2016 — “Discovery Inside Living Cells in Multicellular Organisms” Roberto Weigert

Roberto Weigert is a cell biologist who specializes in intravital microscopy (IVM), an extremely high-resolution imaging tool that traces its origins to the 19th century. What’s unique about IVM is its phenomenal resolution can be used in living animals, allowing researchers to watch biological processes unfold in organs under real physiological conditions and in real time.