The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Congo has surged past 8,000 as the country struggles with a shortage of health workers. The new statistics were released Sunday.

Scientists have found a human gene lurking in a virus that causes skin infections. It may be using our own DNA to infect us.

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 28 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02491-4Two independent studies identified host species-specific aminopeptidase N as the entry receptor for hedgehog merbecoviruses, revealing convergent receptor use with alphacoronaviruses, but through a distinct binding site. Defining barriers to receptor use across species could help predict future host jumps and emerging transmission risks at the wildlife–veterinary–human interface.

An estimated 38 trillion bacteria live in the human body—and only a small fraction are harmful to our health. However, the harmful ones can cause serious illness, especially when they develop…

Newly recovered sheeppox sequences reveal when and how the virus emerged

It’s been barely three years since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, yet many world leaders appear to have little appetite for pandemic-proofing. Ahead of the UN

Duet with: https://www.tiktok.com/@truth.teller843 Original video: ...

The spooky UFO mythology of The X-Files meet the political intrigue of The Diplomat in a sci-fi masterwork that pays off its premise like few others.

Communications Biology - Two coinfecting archaeal viruses provide insights into virus-virus interactions

This review aims to provide an overview of dengue–COVID–19 co-infection, emphasizing recently described immunological, genomic, and eco-epidemiological inter...

Ancient viral warfare could be at the root of modern class 1 CRISPR bacterial defense systems

Transposable elements mobilize within and occasionally between genomes, including from host to virus. We identified two insertions of the human BC200 noncoding RNA gene in the poxvirus molluscum conta...

Some viruses appear to vanish when outbreaks dissipate, only to emerge again. Scientists don’t always know which animals they lurk in — and how to stop them from spilling back over.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the major global public health threats. In recent decades, Acinetobacter baumannii has become one of the most significant multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in hospital settings (1, 2). Since 2017, the World Health Organization has classified carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii as a critical-priority pathogen, a status that remains in the most recent update in 2024, which reflects the urgent need for new antibiotics against this bacterium (3, 4). A. baumannii is a frequent cause of nosocomial infections, primarily affecting patients in intensive care units (ICUs), immunocompromised individuals, patients using medical devices (such as catheters), and those with underlying diseases (5).

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 25 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02455-8HIDEN-SEQ (hidden Acr-enabled transposon-insertion sequencing) is a transposon-insertion sequencing method for phages that systematically links their genes to selectable phenotypes.

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 25 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02486-1Phage Tn-seq uses Tn5 transposon mutagenesis with anti-CRISPR-based selection and deep sequencing as a method to generate unbiased, genome-wide mutations across diverse phages

A battle of forces, driven by the motion of Earth’s core, can explain small variations in the planet’s rotation, study finds.

The official adaptation of the international bestselling multi-award-winning ALL SYSTEMS RED, part of The Murderbot Diaries series.

In early results from our new life sciences research lab, Claude agents found an enzyme system whose function is still unknown.

Retrotransposons can infect neighboring cells using a mechanism that relies on a small fusogen-like protein rather than on the envelope protein that is typically required for infection.

Emerging infectious disease outbreak risks are ubiquitous worldwide, and highest in landscapes where people, livestock and fragmented natural ecosystems coexist, but detection and data ...