What about attempts to test their virulence in humans? The approach in the Stanford lab sure sounds like a new form of gain-of-function research to me.

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After his wife’s death while doing fieldwork, he rejected writing as a detached observer, setting off a profound shift in cultural anthropology.

Scientists studying the remarkable regenerative abilities of planarian flatworms have uncovered a previously unknown type of immune cell with an unusually destructive defense strategy. What if an immune cell could wipe out nearby threats by detonating itself? That is exactly what Stanford researchers have discovered in one of nature’s most unlikely creatures: the planarian flatworm. [...]

Stanford researchers have developed a microscope that can show how nanostructures interact inside living cells at the highest resolution achieved so far. The view into living cells just got better. Stanford researchers have merged two microscopy methods to build a unique instrument that can capture cell structures interacting in real time at an unprecedented resolution [...]