Immunology

In the spirit of comparative immunology, Baker and her colleagues looked at how another mammal the black flying fox, a type of bat handles infections. They sequenced their immune genes and observed the immune response in normal bat cells. And they found that, unlike us the bats always have interferons on patrol. Meaning the proteins do not wait to be activated by invaders. The researchers say that this constant state of high alert may be why bats can carry Ebola, Nipahvirus, and a whole lot of other infections with no symptoms at all.