In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, an ideal vision of family life would have shown that parents are continuing to share in caregiving responsibilities and spending quality time with their children — dads, in particular. Many people hoped that the behavioral changes caused by lockdowns would persist, allowing dads more time and flexibility in the long term and ultimately reshaping how we view fatherhood in general. However, according to new research from University of Notre Dame anthropologist and fatherhood expert Lee Gettler, those fathering benefits have not outlasted the pandemic itself.

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have discovered that the influenza vaccine FluMist can stimulate immunity in the upper airways of adults. This is the first time researchers have tracked how immune cells in the upper airways respond to an intranasal vaccine (given via a spray in the nose). The new study gives scientists a guide for measuring the effectiveness of new intranasal vaccines against RSV, COVID-19, and other respiratory diseases.

An international team led by Dr. Adolfo Poma (IPPT PAN, Poland) shows that antibody effectiveness depends not only on binding strength but also on their stability under mechanical forces. The findings provide a new framework for designing more robust antiviral therapeutics.