According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders.

When a new mother counts her newborn's fingers and toes, she probably doesn't realize that cholesterol may be to thank for baby's complete set of 20 digits.

The first gene chip ever to be developed for detecting SCID (primary immunodeficiency) in newborns will be presented to researchers for the first time at the New York Academy of Sciences' and Jeffrey Modell Foundation's one-day conference, Primary Immunodeficiencies: Past, Present, Future. The meeting will take place on April 25 at Rockefeller University, Caspary Auditorium, 1230 York Avenue, NY, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thirty of the world's leading immunology investigators will present their findings and more than 350 scientists and physicians are expected to attend.