Thematic Issues

This thematic issue from Pathogens and Disease titled, Diversity and Inclusion Matters focuses on making the invisible visible in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM). Throughout this issue, we highlight 11 manuscripts submitted to our research topic, which offer unique and innovative, evidence-backed solutions to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM. 

In this Thematic Issue, we compiled a collection of review and primary research articles covering diverse facets of the biology of obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens, as well as methodological aspects including disease modeling and advances in applying tractable genetic tools to the study of these fastidious and fascinating microbes.

Explore a new Thematic Issue on the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella.  This issue includes reviews and research on insect immune systems and the use of Galleria mellonella as a model organism for assessing the virulence of bacterial pathogens and the effectiveness of antimicrobial agents. 

Read a Thematic Issue on the latest research in virology, including studies on henipavirus, herd immunity, and Zika virus. 

This issue has a particular focus on host-pathogen dynamics and population health applications, as well as the future of biomathematical modelling in terms of big data analytics.

This issue is a culmination of the 2017 European Workshop on Bacterial Protein Toxins. The papers  describe emerging issues in the field, reviews surprising discoveries, and look at new issues to be tackled.

As recently as 2015, Mycobacterium tuberculosis caused 1.8 million deaths, and initiated approximately 10.4million new cases of tuberculosis worldwide (WHO, 2016). Understanding the host-pathogen interactions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on a molecular level is vital to decreasing the global burden of tuberculosis disease.

This FEMS Microbiology Ecology and Pathogens and Disease joint Thematic Issue explores a mix of basic, clinical and environmental biofilm related topics. 

In the last year alone, over 1 million new cases of Chlamydia infection were reported - and this is believed to be less than 1 quarter of the actual number of new cases. New developments are taking place all the time, and Pathogens and Disease authors and editors are at the forefront of some of this research.

The articles below cover various new areas in Neisseria research including genomics, transcriptomics, and glycomics of disease-causing species, CRISPR-Case9 in Neisseria, animal models of Neisseria colonization and pathogenesis, and more. 

The health of humans is inextricably linked to the health of other living creatures and to the health of the environment. One Health Day takes place on November 3rd every year, to raise awareness and foster collaborations between the animal, human, and environmental health communities.

This Thematic Issue is a representative sampling of the research performed in 2016 at the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) in the area of infection and immunity

This thematic issue explores how host and bacterial factors contribute to bacterial infection outcomes. The articles focus on how host factors and the microbiota influence resistance to the infection, tolerance to the infection, and host damage. 

The mini-reviews and the original papers presented in this thematic issue show that the field of bacterial toxins is more alive than ever and many years of exciting research await in front of us.

The papers below cover a range of topics currently under investigation within this subject, including how to control pertussis through vaccination, immune responses to pertussis in humans, animal models, and specific cell types, and the role of specific virulence factors.

The Chlamydiales are a bacterial order of the phylum Chlamydiae. Not only have humans and many animals their own adapted chlamydial species, there is a plethora of “environmental chlamydiae”, more recently recognized bacteria that live in symbiotic association with protozoan hosts, especially amoebae. 

It is clear that the field of microbial biofilms has come a long way since the early studies of the 1920s and 1930s. This thematic issue contains 27 papers (including seven MiniReviews) that highlight some of the trends in biofilm research

The NIH issued an initiative in 2002 to construct new laboratories designed to safely handle high containment pathogens at biosafety level 3 (BSL-3)/animal biosafety level 3 (ABSL-3) and BSL-4/ABSL-4. This Thematic Issue explores the technologies, pathogens, and scope of work in these high containment laboratories

This Thematic Issue provides insight into the state-of-the-art coinfection research in 2013, in appreciation of the rapid progress that has recently been made, also yielding a number of open questions and opportunities for future research.