One of the oldest recipients, David Botstein, 70, a doyen of genomics on sabbatical from Princeton, expressed some unease about the amount of money and said he would give some of it away. He thanked the sponsors but lamented that such a payout was needed to shine media and public attention the life sciences. "Over the past 30 or 40 years there has been very rapid progress but you just don't hear about it." Read more...   

The incidence of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, has spiked in developed countries in recent decades. In three studies published recently in Nature, researchers describe the molecular pathways that can lead to autoimmune disease  and identify one possible culprit that has been right under our noses - and on our tables - the entire time: salt .

To stay healthy, the human body relies on a careful balance: too little immune function and we succumb to infection, too much activity and the immune system begins to attack healthy tissue, a condition known as autoimmunity. Some forms of autoimmunity have been linked to overproduction of TH17 cells, a type of helper T cell that produces an inflammatory protein called interleukin-17. Read more...