News by Subject Biology

A deadly amphibian disease called severe Perkinsea infections, or SPI, is the cause of many large-scale frog die-offs in the United States, according to a new study by the US Geological Survey.

Solitary weasel-like animals called tayra might look pretty harmless, but some may actually be incubators for a parasite that causes Chagas disease, a chronic, debilitating condition that is spread by insects called kissing bugs and affects more than 8 million people worldwide.

City College of New York biologist Shubha Govind and her research team have identified the composition of 'virus-like particles' (VLPs) found in the venom of a wasp that is a parasite of fruit flies. Invisible to the eye, wasp VLPs suppress the flies' immune responses by killing their blood cells.

An international research team has shown for the first time that carbohydrates on the surface of malaria parasites play a critical role in malaria's ability to infect mosquito and human hosts. The discovery also suggests steps that may improve the only malaria vaccine approved to protect people against Plasmodium falciparum malaria -- the most deadly form of the disease.

Boils the size of sand dollars, facial damage reminiscent of acid wounds, death by maiming of the liver and spleen. Leishmania parasites inflict suffering around the world that is the stuff of parables. They are the second-deadliest parasites after malaria, and global warming is slowly pushing them north toward the United States. Can a new experimental vaccine someday stop them? The vaccine has worked in humanized mice, as detailed in a new study.

The Earth's changing climate could cause the extinction of up to a third of its parasite species by 2070, according to a global analysis reported Sept. 6 in the journal Science Advances. Parasite loss could dramatically disrupt ecosystems, and the new study suggests that they are one of the most threatened groups of life on Earth.