Since COVID-19 vaccines first became available to protect against infection and severe illness, there has been much uncertainty about how long the protection lasts, and when it might be necessary for individuals to get an additional booster shot.

Now, a team of scientists led by faculty at the Yale School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has an answer: strong protection following vaccination is short-lived.

A new study by Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Health, has found that the fourth COVID-19 vaccine is effective in protecting the elderly population in long-term care facilities from the Omicron variant. The groundbreaking study included approximately 40,000 elderly Israelis living in institutions supervised by the

Scientists from the University of Birmingham have shown that a brain-penetrating candidate drug currently in development as a cancer therapy can foster regeneration of damaged nerves after spinal trauma.

The research, published in Clinical and Translational Medicine, used cell and animal models to demonstrate that when taken orally the candidate drug, known as AZD1390, can block the response to DNA damage in nerve cells and promote regeneration of damaged nerves, so restoring sensory and motor function after spinal injury.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched an early-stage clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine to prevent infection with Nipah virus. The experimental vaccine is manufactured by Moderna, Inc., (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and was developed in collaboration with NIAID's Vaccine Research Center. It is based on a messenger RNA (mRNA) platform - a technology used in several approved COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance increased 3.7% between 2020 and 2021, according to a new study from researchers at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Dalhousie University and the University of Calgary.

Researchers have created an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine that is shelf stable at room temperature for up to three months, targets the lungs specifically and effectively, and allows for self-administration via an inhaler. The researchers also found that the delivery mechanism for this vaccine - a lung-derived exosome called LSC-Exo - is more effective at evading the lung's mucosal lining than the lipid-based nanoparticles currently in use, and can be used effectively with protein-based vaccines.

Researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered potential new drugs that work in concert with other drugs to deliver a deadly one-two punch to leukemia.

The potential drugs are still years away from being tested in cancer patients, but a recently published study in the journal Leukemia highlights their promise and the innovative methods that led to their discovery.