The effort to identify new ways of fighting infections has taken a step forward now that scientists have identified a key protein involved in the host's response to strep infections. This protein, called "NFAT," appears to play a key role in the body's inflammatory response to an infection, which when uncontrolled, can be as bad, if not worse, than the infection itself. Furthermore, this discovery was made using streptococcal bacteria, which are responsible for a wide range of human illnesses, ranging from sore throat and pink eye to meningitis and bacterial pneumonia. This discovery was published in the June 2015 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology

Pennate (elongated) diatoms found in an ice core from the Quelccaya Summit Dome Glacier were among many samples identified by scientists. The remains of tiny creatures found deep inside a mountaintop glacier in Peru are clues to the local landscape more than a millennium ago, according to a new study by Rice University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Ohio State University.

A team at the Salk Institute mapped comprehensive epigenomes of several organs and tissue types from four different donors, which could help better understand health and disease. For more than a decade, scientists have had a working map of the human genome, a complete picture of the DNA sequence that encodes human life. But new pages are still being added to that atlas: maps of chemical markers called methyl groups that stud strands of DNA and influence which genes are repressed and when.

Maps of the lymphatic system: old (left) and updated to reflect UVA's discovery.

• Vessels directly connecting brain, lymphatic system exist despite decades of doctrine that they don't
• Finding may have substantial implications for major neurological diseases
• Game-changing discovery opens new areas of research, transforms existing ones
• Major gap in understanding of the human body revealed
• 'They'll have to change the textbooks'