Thursday, July 30, 2026 Evidence-led medical research news
The First Cohort
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vaccines

10 stories tagged "vaccines"

Infectious Disease

The Same System Now Racing to Test a Bundibugyo Ebola Vaccine Had Nineteen Years to Build One

Bundibugyo Ebola was identified in 2007. By the time this year's outbreak passed 1,200 cases there was still no licensed vaccine and none in clinical development. Now roughly $75 million is moving to test three experimental shots on the people dying from it.

Infectious Disease

The Ebola Vaccine We Celebrated Doesn't Touch the Strain Now Burning Through Congo

Congo's Ebola outbreak has passed 1,000 cases and is rising faster than any before it, but it is caused by Bundibugyo virus, against which the licensed Ebola vaccine and antibody drugs were never designed to work.

Infectious Disease

Decades of Failed Diarrhea Vaccines Kept Hitting the Wrong Coat. A WashU Team Just Found the Scissors Underneath.

A WashU-led team identified a structurally conserved patch on three mucus-cleaving enzymes that ETEC, Shigella, and other gut pathogens all use to breach the intestinal barrier, offering a single antibody target the field has chased for decades.

Investigations

Aaron Siri Wrote a Book Made of Court Filings

A new book by attorney Aaron Siri assembles a decade of FOIA wins, court filings, and depositions into one record of what the federal vaccine docket does and does not say.

Brain & Aging

The Shingles Vaccine Keeps Cutting Dementia Risk. The Reason May Not Be the Shingles.

Four big studies now tie the shingles vaccine to lower dementia risk. The most useful finding is that the same effect shows up with an RSV vaccine that shares its adjuvant.

Infectious Disease

The textbook said B cells take turns. A new temporal map of a malaria infection says they don't.

A new Nature Immunology temporal map of B cell responses to malaria in mice catches class-switching, clonal expansion, and somatic hypermutation overlapping from the first week, scrambling the tidy stepwise story textbooks still teach.

Drugs & FDA

A DoD-Funded Fentanyl Vaccine Is Headed to Phase 1. Antibodies Don't Stop a Supply Chain.

A Pentagon-funded fentanyl vaccine licensed to startup ARMR Sciences will begin Phase 1 in the Netherlands in early 2026. Three decades of failed addiction vaccines, and a supply chain that runs through Chinese precursor labs, are the context the press release leaves out.

Drugs & FDA

A Fentanyl Vaccine for Mice. An Overdose Decline for Humans.

Scripps Research published a clever chemistry redesign that let mice's immune systems recognize an entire class of fentanyl analogues. The headlines called it an overdose blocker. The mice are doing fine. Humans are years away, and the overdose decline is already happening without it.

Infectious Disease

The AI Vaccine That 'Passed' Its First Trial Three Years Ago

Cambridge finished the Phase 1 trial in 2023. The press tour arrived in 2026. The paper, when you read it, said the immunogenicity was modest.

Investigations

Doctor Mike Plays 'Never Have I Ever' With a Firefighter. Watch What's Around the Bit.

Doctor Mike's lighthearted Never Have I Ever video sits at the top of a funnel that includes a $997 media academy, a UNICEF vaccine-ambassador title, and an ongoing pitch to pharmaceutical executives about social-media trust.