Research Focus: From European flat oysters to therapeutic strategies in prion disease

Molluscs are ecologically and economically important, yet progress in understanding their cellular biology has been limited by the lack of reliable cell culture systems.

Researchers from the the Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies established reproducible long-term in vitro and ex vivo cultures from multiple tissues of the European flat oyster.

Cultures revealed cellular plasticity, including haemocyte granule turnover, auricular epithelial remodelling with novel ciliation, and the emergence of multicellular microtissues.

These systems provide a tractable platform for future molluscan studies, while establishing a foundation for comparative invertebrate cell biology and the future development of immortalised molluscan cell lines.

Citation: Sullivan KR, Steketee PC, Maxwell S, Morrison LJ, Regan T, Bean TP. Biochem Biophys Rep. 2026 Sep 7;48:102775. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2026.102775. PMID: 42750842; PMCID: PMC13578407.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries reported a surge in invasive group A streptococcal (iGAS) infections. Possible explanations included reduced population immunity, increased co-infection with respiratory viruses, and the emergence of more virulent group A streptococcus (GAS) strains. To investigate the relative importance of these factors, researchers from Department of Child Life and Health analysed epidemiological and genomic data from iGAS cases in Scotland.

They found that iGAS incidence increased markedly in late 2022 and early 2023, with children and older adults disproportionately affected. Although the number of iGAS cases increased, there was not a corresponding rise in bloodstream infections. The surge did, however, coincide with increased circulation of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Genomic analyses showed that GAS strains circulating after the pandemic were not substantially different from those circulating beforehand.

Overall, the findings suggest that the post-pandemic increase in iGAS infections in Scotland was not driven by the emergence of a new hypervirulent bacterial strain. Instead, the results are consistent with increased host susceptibility following reduced exposure to pathogens during the pandemic, together with higher levels of respiratory virus co-infection, as the main contributing factors.

Citation: Stephen B. Beres, Davide Pagnossin, Randall J. Olsen, S. Wesley Long, Edward A. Graviss, Thomas Williams, Ross Langley, Andrew Smith, James M. Musser, 2014-2024, Journal of Infection, Volume 93, Issue 4, 2026, 106860, ISSN 0163-4453, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2026.106860.

Researchers from the Centre for Inflammation Research address a central unresolved problem in respiratory vaccinology, that is the failure to extend systemic vaccine-induced immunity to the primary infection site, the upper respiratory tract (URT). The URT, particularly the nasal mucosa, represents an anatomically compartmentalised site that is not readily accessed by systemic vaccination. 

Consequently, respiratory vaccines cannot effectively block acquisition of infection or its onward transmission. Decades of efforts to overcome this limitation have largely focused on intranasal antigen delivery (e.g. intranasal vaccines or intranasal antigen boosting in conjunction with systemic antigen priming), which have demonstrated limited success in humans. Researchers have developed a novel systemic-to-nasal routing strategy that combines systemic vaccination with non-antigenic immunomodulatory conditioning of the nasal mucosa. 

They demonstrate that an exogenous nasal IFN-α signal, delivered as an adjunct to systemic vaccination, can direct vaccine-specific T-cell responses to the URT without reliance on local antigen encounter.  

Citation: Fraser R, Schwarze J and Dockrell DH (2026), Front. Immunol. 17:1924673. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1924673

Canine vector-borne pathogens (CVBPs) cause a wide range of diseases including Leishmaniasis, Heartworm Disease and Babesiosis. No studies have been performed on the prevalence of CVBPs in shelter dogs in Cyprus, despite the regular exporting of dogs from Cypriot shelters for rehoming.

From August 2017 to August 2019, researchers from the Roslin Institute conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study in dogs from three shelters in Cyprus. Quantitative PCRs and conventional PCRs and sequencing were performed on DNA extracted from blood samples.

Researchers founds that the overall prevalence of CVBPs is high in Cypriot shelter dogs, including some with zoonotic potential.

Citation: Attipa C, Mazeri S, Yiapanis M, Evangelou G, Choclios T, Barker EN, Tasker S. Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports. 2026 Aug;73:101536. doi: 10.1016/j.vprsr.2026.101536. Epub 2026 Jul 8. PMID: 42575614.

Parasites can impose substantial fitness costs on hosts, yet infection intensity varies markedly among individuals and across life stages.

Age at first reproduction (AFR) is a fundamental life-history trait that shapes lifelong infection dynamics through various trade-offs.

Using 10 years of monitoring in European shags, researchers from the School of Biological Sciences tested whether age at first reproduction predicts within-individual changes in gastrointestinal nematode burden across adulthood and whether these trajectories differ between sexes.

Age at first reproduction predicted sex-specific infection trajectories in male but not female shags.

These findings provide the first evidence that age at first reproduction is associated with sex-specific parasite infection trajectories in a long-lived bird.

Citation: Ruiz-Raya F, Burthe SJ, Ravenswater H, Greco F, Hicks O, Newell M, Gunn C, Daunt F, Cunningham EJA. Ecol Evol. 2026 Aug 13;16(8):e74092. doi: 10.1002/ece3.74092. PMID: 42601878; PMCID: PMC13472769.

Diplonemids are tiny, single-celled organisms that live in oceans all over the world. They are very common and eat other small particles. To eat, they use a complicated internal structure made of tiny tubes (microtubules) called a "feeding apparatus.

Researchers from the Institute for Cell Biology studied a specific type of diplonemid called Diplonema papillatum. They wanted to find out exactly which proteins make up their feeding and movement structures. They identified 17 specific proteins and mapped where they sit inside the cell.

Researchers found that proteins used for movement in related species are repurposed for feeding in diplonemids. 

By mapping exactly where these protein parts fit together, this work provides a good foundation for understanding how these important marine creatures eat and survive.

Citiation: Clifford G, Taylor SJP, Ishii M, Cisneros-Soberanis F, Akiyoshi B. J Cell Sci. 2026 Nov 1;139(21):jcs264933. doi: 10.1242/jcs.264933. Epub 2026 Sep 18. PMID: 42565280; PMCID: PMC13615690.

Prion diseases are rare, devastating brain diseases that are currently incurable and always fatal. This review from the Mabbott lab at the Roslin Institute examines current and emerging approaches to treatment, including medicines designed to target prion proteins, gene-based therapies, antibodies and treatments that influence the brain’s immune response.

While some new approaches show promise in laboratory and animal studies, most are still at an early stage and have not yet been shown to benefit people with prion disease.

Why this matters: Understanding how prion diseases develop is helping researchers identify new ways to slow or prevent disease progression and develop treatments for the future.

Citation: Zhu Y, Bradford BM, Mabbott NA. Front Neurosci. 2026 Sep 3;20:1924347. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2026.1924347. PMID: 42756044; PMCID: PMC13581975.