The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has awarded $2.18 million to two researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center for a project focused on a new drug treatment to protect the brain after a stroke.

A new role has been uncovered for a cell’s own RNA in fending off attacks by RNA viruses. Some of the cell’s RNA molecules, researchers found, help regulate antiviral signaling. These signals are part of the intricate coordination of immune responses against virus invasion. With RNA increasingly seen as both a drug and a druggable target, the new findings open the potential for RNA-based therapeutics for combating both infection and autoimmunity.

A recent study led by researchers at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and Northern Arizona University found that Native American women were disproportionately affected by vaginal dysbiosis, a disruption in the balance of bacterial that increases the risk of human papillomavirus infection, which can cause cervical cancer.