“Both inside and out, our bodies harbour a huge array of micro-organisms. While bacteria are the biggest players, we also host single-celled organisms known as archaea, as well as fungi, viruses and other microbes – including viruses that attack bacteria. Together these are dubbed the human microbiota. Your body’s microbiome is all the genes your […]
The immune system of the newborn is shaped by the environment that was present at the maternal/fetal interphase, by the conditions encountered during the transition from the protected maternal environment to the outside world, and by the conditions encountered during the first weeks of life. However, the understanding of the forces that shape the newborn’s […]
A few years ago, the Zika virus and related risk of microcephaly noticeably increased public awareness of the detrimental effects of maternal infection on the offspring. However, Zika is only one of a large number of stressors that, by causing immune activation in pregnant women, generates a significant global health hazard. Notably, maternal immune activation […]
The immunology of pregnancy is complex and, for many years, has been viewed according to “classical” concepts similar to those at the basis of organ transplantation. One of the classical concepts is that pregnancy is associated with immune suppression, or “immunological weakness” so to avoid rejection of the fetus—which is seen as a foreign entity. […]
The microbiome is made up of dynamic communities of trillion microbes, and consists of eukaryotes, archaea (primitive single-celled organisms), bacteria and viruses that reside on and in our bodies. These microbes complement each other and the human host, and play important roles in a variety of biological processes. Indeed, 0ur microbial partners carry out a […]
The world of autism is a diverse one—autism and autism spectrum disorder are general terms for a group of complex and extremely heterogenous life-long neurodevelopmental conditions. Autism is also one of medicine’s greatest challenges. The current general consensus is that autism has multiple causes, and these causes can be as varied as the types of […]