Reboot your immune system with intermittent fasting. Help your 'good' bacteria to thrive with a plant-based diet. Move over morning coffee: mushroom tea could bolster your anticancer defences. Claims such as these, linking health, diet and immunity, bombard supermarket shoppers and pervade the news. Beyond the headlines and product labels, the scientific foundations of many such claims are often based on limited evidence. That's partly because conducting rigorous studies to track what people eat and the impact of diet is a huge challenge . In addition, the relevance to human health of results from studies of animals and cells isn't clear and has sometimes been exaggerated for commercial gain, feeding scepticism in nutrition science. In the past five or so years, however, researchers have developed innovative approaches to nutrition immunology that are helping to close this credibility gap. Whereas nutrition scientists have conventionally studied the long-term impacts of loosely defined Mediterranean or Western diets, for example, today they have access to tools that allow them to zoom in on the short-term effects ' both helpful and harmful ' of narrower food groups and specific dietary components, and to probe the molecular mechanisms underpinning the effects of foods on immunity....

'Professor Shalek's substantial contributions to the scientific community as a researcher and educator have been exemplary. His extensive network across MIT, Harvard, and Mass General Brigham will be a tremendous asset as director of IMES,' says Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of the School of Engineering, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. 'He will undoubtedly be an excellent leader, bringing his innovative approach and collaborative spirit to this new role.' Shalek is a core member of IMES, a professor of chemistry, and holds several leadership positions, including director of the Health Innovation Hub. He is also an extramural member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research; a member of the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard; an institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; an assistant in immunology at Mass General Brigham; and an instructor in health sciences and technology at Harvard Medical School....

A signalling molecule that helps to kick-start inflammation in the lungs could play a key part in aggravating some long COVID symptoms, finds a study that analysed lung samples from people with the condition. The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine on 17 July1, could help scientists to develop more effective treatments for long COVID, which causes symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, breathlessness and lung damage and can persist for months or years after infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. By inhibiting the molecule ' called interferon gamma (IFN-') ' in mice with COVID-19, 'we were able to dampen the chronic conditions after infection', says study co-author Jie Sun, an immunology researcher at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. 'In the future, we could target this pathway for potential treatment of long COVID'. IFN-' is one of many proteins that the body releases to fight infections. When released by white blood cells known as T cells, it sends signals to other immune cells and promotes inflammation. In the short term, this increases blood flow to the infected area to support the healing process ' but chronic inflammation can cause damage to cells and tissues....

Advent International is speaking to potential partners including sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority about teaming up for its own planned offer, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Bain and Cinven already jointly own German generic drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel AG and have been considering an '11 billion ($11.8 billion)-plus sale of that business, Bloomberg News has reported. Advent recently teamed up with ADIA on a deal for a minority stake in Fisher Investments. First-round bids for the Sanofi consumer health business are expected by mid-July, Bloomberg News has reported. A sale of the unit, which sells over-the-counter products including Phytoxil cough syrups and Icy Hot pain relief gels, could rank among one of the largest deals in Europe this year. Sanofi announced its plans to review all options to split the consumer health unit last October, as it looks to generate better long-term value from cutting-edge therapies, particularly in immunology or in vaccines. While the French pharmaceutical giant has called for initial bids, it's also simultaneously moving forward with preparations for a possible listing of the business....