Beyond genetics — that’s the call Oliver McDonald, M.D., Ph.D., heard during the year between college and medical school he spent in a lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

A fungus that is killing frogs and other amphibians around the world releases a toxic factor that disables the amphibian immune response, Vanderbilt University investigators report Oct. 18 in the journal Science.

D. Borden Lacy, Ph.D., associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry, will receive the 2014 Margaret Etter Award from the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) for outstanding achievement and exceptional potential in crystallographic research demonstrated by a scientist at an early stage of their independent career.

Nobel laureate Bruce Beutler, M.D., will discuss his research on innate immunity during a noon seminar Monday, Sept. 23, in 208 Light Hall.

A coronavirus protein is required for replication of the viral genome and may be a good treatment target for SARS and other diseases caused by coronaviruses.

A new in vitro system will allow investigators to explore how immune system T cells develop specialized functions.