The world is full of fascinating associations between insects and bacteria. Members of the bacterial phyla, actinomycetes, produce diverse chemical compounds that help protect insects from infection. Despite the fact that other secreted compounds can be toxic to insects, researchers had never identified a partnership where actinomycetes inflicted harm on an insect. That was until September 2020, when Dr. Justin Nodwell’s team published their fascinating discoveries on the toxic chemical interactions between Streptomyces and fruit flies.

COVID-19 is a worldwide health emergency. Digital disease surveillance, including social media-based technologies, represents an innovative approach that may allow us to better understand and contain its transmission. Here, Bisanzio et al. use geolocation data from Twitter as a proxy for human mobility in order to track the early global spread of COVID-19 cases.

While NOD2 mutations are linked to Crohn's disease occurrence, the exact mechanism by which loss of NOD leads to intestinal inflammation is unclear. Here, Prescott et al demonstrate a possible mechanism by which NOD induces an anti-inflammatory microenvironment with CD103+ Dendritic Cells, possibly opening a avenue for Crohn’s disease therapy.