Link between pollinators and diverse landscapes is a two-way street

Iowa State University

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Nathan Soley, left, and Brian Wilsey adjusting the bag covering flowering plants in a prairie space near Ames, Iowa. Wilsey and Soley covered tens of thousands of flowering plants to study the impact pollination has on plant diversity.

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Credit: Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa – Ecologists have long seen a strong connection between biodiversity and pollinators – the butterflies, birds, bats, bees and other insects that help the flowers they snack on fertilize by transferring pollen from male anthers to female stigma.

Previous research has shown diverse landscapes draw more pollinators, as a wider variety of pollen and nectar attracts attention from a wider variety of animals – some which only feed on certain plants. Essentially, pollinators go where the food is, said Brian Wilsey, a professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology at Iowa State University.

A recent study by Wilsey and doctoral graduate Nathan Soley showed the converse is also true: Pollinators support diversity in plant communities. In an article published this month in Ecology, Wilsey and Soley described a four-year experiment they conducted in plots of restored prairie that examined how plant diversity was affected by purposely protecting wildflowers from pollinators. Among animal-pollinated plants, viable seed production fell by 50% and the diversity of species fell by 27%, they found.

“Our study is the first we are aware of to show that plant biodiversity at the community level can be limited by a lack of pollinators,” Wilsey said.

Handling 68,000 flowers

The study was inspired by a familiar dynamic in prairie restoration areas, said Wilsey, a grassland ecologist. When first planted, restorations usually feature a varied assortment of species that includes wildflowers. However, wind-pollinated grasses will often dominate within a few years, crowding out other types of plants. A lack of pollinators could help explain those rapid shifts, if they play a role in maintaining biodiversity.

Ecologists have assumed pollinators support biodiversity, but the relatively scant amount of research quantifying the effect has focused on individual species, Soley said. 

“Things get a lot more complicated at a community level,” he said. “I think it’s important to test our assumptions if we’re going to be all in on pollinators.”

Wilsey and Soley’s experiment was conducted on about 50 acres of university land south of Ames. In 54 circular plots 2 meters wide, the researchers covered flowers with sheer fabric bags that let light in but kept pollinators out. They also augmented pollination in the flowers of another set of plots by transferring pollen by hand, using Q-tips and small paint brushes. Over four growing seasons, they either bagged or hand-pollinated about 68,000 flowers during their weekly trips to the study site, Soley said.

Wilsey and Soley measured seed production and biodiversity within each of the plots, comparing data from areas where pollination was enhanced or prohibited to undisturbed control plots. While the effects became more dramatic over time, it was clear in the first year that the exclusion treatments would have an impact because pollen visibly piled up inside the flower bags, Soley said.

The study’s results suggest significant declines in pollinators could cause biodiversity losses that further reduce pollinator populations, causing a self-reinforcing downward trend in both that the researchers call a “plant-pollinator extinction vortex.”

“Before this study, I would have never thought that pollinators were this important to maintaining biodiversity. It really opened my eyes,” Wilsey said. 

Implications for restorations

Pollinators are essential because of their role in food production. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 35% of global food crops depend on animal pollination to reproduce, making the seeds and fruits that humans harvest.

In addition to providing critical support for pollinators and other wildlife, diverse landscapes improve water and soil quality. In prairies, which used to cover most of Iowa, a variety of life makes ecosystems more resilient to droughts, floods and invasive species. Beyond pollinators, the known pro-biodiversity factors include low nutrient availability, proximity to other quality habitat and a lack of human degradation, Wilsey said.

One major implication of knowing pollinators help maintain plant biodiversity is the need to consider the presence of pollinator habitat when establishing prairie restoration areas. That’s especially true for urban projects, Wilsey said. The human-enhanced pollination plots in the study showed no change in biodiversity when compared to the control plots, an indication that there were sufficient bees and other pollinators in the area. But that’s less likely to be the case in more human-impacted environments.

Future experiments could use the same methods in different settings to see how much of a difference pollinators make for biodiversity when there are other complicating factors, Wilsey said.

The experiment, now entering its seventh year, is continuing at the study plots near Ames. It’s time-intensive work, but it’s worth it to better understand how pollinators and plant communities affect each other, Soley said.

“These mutualisms are important to preserve,” he said.

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Journal

Ecology

DOI

10.1002/ecy.70369 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Pollinators maintain biodiversity in assembling plant communities

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2026

 

Shorter antibiotic courses show similar outcomes to longer use for some pneumonia patients

American College of Physicians

Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.   
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1. Shorter antibiotic courses show similar outcomes to longer use for some pneumonia patients

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-03538

Editorial: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-26-00795  

Summary for Patients: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-03538-PS

URL goes live when the embargo lifts             

A multicenter target trial emulation found that for eligible patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), health outcomes were similar whether they received a three- to four-day course of antibiotics or a course lasting five days or more. The findings suggest that for a selected subset of patients with early clinical stability, shorter treatment durations may be just as safe and effective as traditional longer regimens. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

 

Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern, University of Michigan Medical School, University of Utah School of Medicine, and colleagues sought to evaluate whether short antibiotic courses are safe for adults hospitalized with CAP who show early clinical stability. Researchers analyzed data from patients across 67 Michigan hospitals between 2017 and 2024 to compare outcomes for patients who received three to four days of antibiotics with those treated for five days or longer. Only 10% of patients met the strict criteria for short-course therapy, and among them, the study found no meaningful differences in mortality, readmissions, urgent care visits, or C. difficile infections. These findings suggest that shorter treatment may be appropriate for clinically stable patients. However, the small number of short-course cases warrants further study.

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Gabby Macrina at gmacrina@acponline.org. To contact corresponding author Valerie M. Vaughn, MD, MSc, please email Sophia Friesen at sophia.friesen@hsc.utah.edu.

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2. Experts debate the management of a patient with frequent migraine headaches

This “Beyond the Guidelines” feature is based on a Grand Rounds discussion held on 31 October 2025 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-26-00527    

URL goes live when the embargo lifts             

In a new Annals “Beyond the Guidelines” feature, a primary care physician and a neurologist discuss the management of a young woman with frequent migraine headaches. Their discussion is framed within the context of the 2025 International Headache Society (IHS) and American College of Physicians (ACP) guidelines for migraine pharmacotherapy, which differ in their recommendations for first‑line and escalation therapies.

 

The experts reviewed the case of Ms. D, a 27‑year‑old woman who has had migraine headaches since childhood. Her headaches occur 2 to 15 days per month, are often accompanied by nausea, photophobia, and phonophobia, and are triggered by sleep disruption, exercise, atmospheric pressure changes, and certain foods. Over the years, she has tried multiple acute treatments with only ubrogepant providing reliable benefit. Preventive therapies including propranolol, amitriptyline, nortriptyline, and monoclonal antibodies have yielded inconsistent or diminishing results. Botox previously helped but was interrupted when she moved. Her medical history includes irritable bowel syndrome, esophageal reflux disease, seasonal allergies, and hypercholesterolemia, and she uses estrogen-containing oral contraceptives.

 

The first discussant, Gerald W. Smetana, MD, is a Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Smetana emphasizes a structured, evidence-based approach to both acute and preventive treatment choices. He notes triptans remain highly effective for more severe episodes, while gepants offer an option for those who do not tolerate or respond to triptans. For Ms. D, he would continue ibuprofen and ubrogepant for acute management. For prevention, he favors topiramate, acknowledging its teratogenic risk and the need for contraception counseling. He views calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies as an important tool but agrees with ACP guidance to reserve them for patients who have not responded to traditional oral preventives. He underscores that lifestyle modification remains crucial. 

 

The second discussant, Alexandra E. Hovaguimian, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Hovaguimian stresses that rapid and effective acute treatment is essential to prevent progression to chronic migraine. She notes that triptans are more effective than gepants for rapid pain relief, but gepants uniquely avoid medication overuse headache (MOH) and can be used during the prodrome phase. For prevention, she supports early use of CGRP monoclonal antibodies or atogepant, citing their rapid onset and superior tolerability compared to older oral preventives. For Ms. D, she recommends continuing ubrogepant acutely and initiating monthly erenumab for prevention, with counseling on reproductive planning and cardiovascular considerations related to migraines with aura and the use of estrogen-based contraceptives.

 

Both experts agree that migraine management should be individualized and informed by headache frequency, functional impairment, comorbidities, reproductive goals, and patient preference. They also note the growing role of multidisciplinary education, including headache diaries, behavioral modification, and recognition of MOH, in improving outcomes. 

 

All “Beyond the Guidelines” features are based on selected clinical conferences at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and include multimedia components published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

 

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Gabby Macrina at gmacrina@acponline.org. To contact one of the discussants, please email Kendra McKinnon at kmckinn1@bidmc.harvard.edu.

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Also new this issue:

Inpatient Management of Patients With Cirrhosis

Shari Rogal, MD, MPH

In the Clinic

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-26-00527   

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Journal

Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI

10.7326/ANNALS-25-03538 

Method of Research

News article

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Short Versus Longer Antibiotic Duration for Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Multicenter Target Trial Emulation

Article Publication Date

14-Apr-2026

 

How neighborhood amenities and infrastructure may slow cognitive decline among older immigrants

A Rutgers Health study highlights the role of community environments in reducing the risk of dementia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rutgers University

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Older Chinese immigrants living in neighborhoods with greater access to community amenities, services and supportive infrastructure experienced slower cognitive decline over time, according to Rutgers Health researchers.

 

Their study, published in Social Science & Medicine, examined data from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly, one of the largest studies of older Chinese immigrants in the United States. Researchers examined how neighborhood resources, such as museums, libraries, health services and internet access, were associated with changes in cognitive function among 2,763 Chinese immigrants ages 60 or older living in the Greater Chicago area.

 

While neighborhood conditions weren’t linked to cognitive performance at the beginning of the study, researchers found that individuals living in more “cognitively supportive” neighborhoods declined more slowly with age.

 

“Our findings suggest that where people live can play an important role in preserving cognitive health later in life,” said Yanping Jiang, a core member of the Rutgers Center for Population Behavioral Health at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and lead author of the study. “Neighborhoods that offer access to cultural, social and health-related resources may help reduce dementia risk by supporting mental stimulation, physical activity, and social engagement over time.”

 

Jiang, an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, added that “older immigrants, like Chinese Americans, often face cultural and language barriers and limited mobility, which can make them especially reliant on local resources. This means community investments in culturally accessible amenities and services may be particularly meaningful for supporting healthy aging in immigrant populations.”

To capture the effects of neighborhood environments, the researchers developed a “Cognability Neighborhood Index” that reflects the availability of amenities, services and infrastructure that may support cognitive health. These features included numbers of museums, recreational centers, education and civic organizations, parks, public transit stops, health care services, road networks and internet access in specific communities.

The researchers found that participants living in neighborhoods with higher “Cognability” scores experienced significantly slower rates of cognitive decline, even after accounting for age, sex, education, marital status, neighborhood socioeconomic status and the amount of time living in a neighborhood and other individual factors.

Not all amenities were equally beneficial, however. Researchers identified specific neighborhood features that were particularly beneficial for better cognitive trajectories, including greater access to museums and libraries and more nearby health services.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias affect 55 million people worldwide. Researchers have identified several modifiable risk factors for these incurable diseases, including factors shaped by an individual’s neighborhood environment.

Rutgers researchers said initiatives that expand access to local cultural institutions, health services and supportive infrastructure have the potential to foster environments that protect the cognitive health of underserved populations, as well as the general population.

Coauthors of the study include Wendi Da and Leslie Zhen of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Jessica Finlay and Zhe Lin of the University of Colorado Boulder and Fengyan Tang of the University of Pittsburgh.

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Journal

Social Science & Medicine

DOI

10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119223 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Effects of neighborhood amenities, services, and built infrastructure on cognitive health: A longitudinal study of older Chinese immigrants in Chicago, United States

 

Sunbirds suck their nectar, in dramatic contrast to hummingbirds, which sop it up

Sunbirds employ tongue suctioning, which is unique among vertebrates.

University of California - Berkeley

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A sunbird sticks its tongue into an artificial flower (top) and uses tongue suctioning to draw out nectar (bottom).

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Credit: David Cuban, Brown University

While we often think of hummingbirds as sucking nectar from flowers, they’re not sucking the way we suction juice through a straw — they’re really sponging up nectar with their tongues and squeezing the juice into their mouths by compressing their tongues with their beaks.

Humans are naturally able from birth to use mouth suction to draw in liquid, but it’s not easy if you don’t have lips to create an air-tight seal, and few animals besides mammals have lips.

But a new study by current and former University of California, Berkeley biologists found that sunbirds, the African and Asian counterparts of the nectar-sipping hummingbirds of the Americas, do use suction to slurp nectar. They’re the first animals known to employ their tongues to suction up liquids.

The results highlight the fact that nature often finds different solutions to similar problems — in this case, how to use a long, tubular and often curved beak to extract sustenance from deep within a flower. It’s referred to as convergent evolution.

“It's just a really amazing example of the power and beauty of convergent evolution, where in nature we have two organisms filling the same ecological role, but when you look in detail, they're achieving that outcome in two completely different ways,” said Rauri Bowie, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and a study author. “In our case, we're seeing a mechanism that is completely novel in vertebrates and a remarkable example of innovation.”

The proof comes from experiments conducted in Africa and Indonesia using high-speed cameras installed adjacent to 3D printed artificial flowers, plus microCT scans of sunbirds obtained in UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ). The results were reported last month in the journal Current Biology, in a paper led by first author and Berkeley alum David Cuban, now a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University.

“I am fascinated by the phenomena of convergent evolution,” Cuban said. “Hummingbirds and sunbirds — and some other nectar-feeding birds — have similar morphology, coloration, behavior and ecological niches, but once we zoom in on something specific, in this case their feeding mechanism, we find that they use completely distinct mechanisms.”

Lapping, licking and sucking

Most vertebrates use lapping or licking to take in liquids with their tongues (think dogs and cats). But a few animals employ suction. Fish, for example, inflate their mouths to suction in food. Butterflies use a muscular pump to suction up nectar and pollen. Pigeons suction water from pools, though only by submerging their beaks in the liquid and using their tongue as a piston. These options are not available to nectar feeders, who stick their tongues into the sweet liquid.

For nectar-eating birds — nectarivores — it was thought until recently that they used capillary action to passively tap a pool of nectar. Surface tension was thought to pull liquid into their tube-like beaks or tongues.

But many biologists doubted this, because using capillary action is a slow way to take in calories. For frenetic fliers like hummingbirds and sunbirds, this would not provide sufficient energy.

“When you think about it, there's no way they would ingest enough nectar, given that sunbirds and hummingbirds have this incredibly beautiful ornamentation that they're very actively displaying, using a high calorie intake to fuel their lifestyles,” Bowie said.

Nearly 10 years ago, former UC Berkeley Miller Postdoctoral Fellow Alejandro Rico-Guevara demonstrated with high-speed video that hummingbirds don’t use capillary action. Instead, they compress their tongues before sticking them into a pool of nectar. As the tongue expands, nectar fills the pores as if it were a sponge. As the birds retract the tongue, they squeeze it between the upper and lower bill, wringing out the nectar like the mangle of an old-fashioned washing machine. Hummingbirds do this repeatedly, and it’s about 10 times faster than using capillary action.

Cuban, a former UC Berkeley undergraduate and then master’s student in mechanical engineering, doubted that sunbirds used capillary action either, and set out to prove it. He had become fascinated by the convergent evolution of nectar-feeding birds during an ornithology class taught by Bowie and teaching assistant Cynthia Wang-Claypool, then a Berkeley graduate student. Seeing hummingbird and sunbird specimens laid out next to one another in the MVZ, he said, “I knew I had to look into the convergent evolution of nectar-feeding birds, and I wanted to use my background in mechanical engineering to do so.”

One tip-off that sunbirds were not feeding by capillary action came from early high-speed video analyses. Cuban saw bubbles around the tongue, which would interfere with surface tension, though not suction. Sunbirds also keep their beaks slightly open when drinking nectar, whereas hummingbirds do not.

3D-printed flowers

Working as a doctoral student with Rico-Guevara at the University of Washington in Seattle, he traveled to South Africa and Sulawesi in Indonesia to conduct experiments with seven sunbird species, using high-speed cameras to film birds visiting 3D-printed fake flowers filled with sugar water. He modified techniques that Rico-Guevara had originated to study hummingbird feeding, initially in his native Colombia.

Cuban discovered that sunbirds in Asia, where they originated, and in Africa, which they subsequently colonized, use the same tongue technique to draw in nectar. Their tongues have a V-shaped trough at its base. As the bird sticks its tongue into a pool of nectar, it presses its base against the top beak, creating an air-tight seal. As the bird gradually pulls its tongue back in, this creates suction that draws in liquid via the tongue groove. When the seal breaks, the bird swallows the nectar.

“Pushing the base of the tongue against the top of the beak — that's what is really creating that hermetic seal,” Bowie said. “It's the interaction between the tongue and the beak that creates that negative pressure.”

MicroCT scans by Wang-Claypool, now with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, provided anatomical confirmation.

“They provided the evidence we needed that the structure of the tongue differs from hummingbirds, with sunbirds having special flexible flaps at the base of the tongue so that when the tongue pushes up against the top of the beak, it generates a tight seal,” Bowie said.

The researchers continue to explore the differences between sunbirds and hummingbirds and convergent evolution among nectar eaters — a lifestyle that evolved at least 30 times among animals, Bowie said. A native of South Africa, Bowie started working on sunbirds as part of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Cape Town and has continued to explore the diversification and evolutionary ecology of these remarkable birds over the 20 years he has been a member of the Berkeley faculty.

“I'm interested in nectarivory as a lifestyle, looking at it from the point of view of the diversification of these species, how they've adapted to different kinds of habitats, including the extensive radiation by both sunbirds and hummingbirds into mountains,” he said.

“By studying the physical interactions, or biomechanics, of organisms we can better understand how the immutable laws of physics are shaping the many diverse adaptations found across the tree of life,” Cuban said.

The work was funded in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (DEB 1457845). Co-authors with Cuban, Bowie, Rico-Guevera and Wang-Claypool are Yohanna Yohanna of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia, Colleen Downs and Steven Johnson of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and Fabian Brau of the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.

A greater double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris afer), one of the South African sunbirds studied.

Credit

Keith Barnes

 

CT scans reveal striking bill and tongue differences between the olive sunbird (Cyanomitra olivacea, top) and Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna, bottom). Cross sections at several places along the bill show that, from base to tip, the sunbird tongue shifts from a U-shaped trough to a closed tube, while the hummingbird tongue transforms from two solid rods into twin hollow tubes. The U-shaped base of the sunbird tongue interacts with the upper bill to create the suction the birds use to sip nectar from flowers.

Credit

Cynthia Wang-Claypool/UC Berkeley

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2026.02.067 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Divergent nectar-feeding mechanisms evidenced by intralingual suction in sunbirds

 

UCF expert plays key role in international research to combat dengue fever, zika

As a mosquito-borne virus expert, UCF Assistant Professor Dr. James Earnest is leveraging his knowledge to lead two research projects studying immune responses to the dengue and Zika viruses.

UCF College of Medicine

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From left to right: UCF research associate Daniel Limonta,UCF Assistant Professor James Earnest and biomedical sciences doctoral student Bruno Pinheiro ’25.

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Credit: Photo by UCF College of Medicine.

Nearly half of the world’s citizens live in areas with a risk of catching dengue fever, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the mosquito-borne illness rapidly spreads, especially in the Americas and Caribbean, a UCF College of Medicine researcher is playing a crucial role in finding solutions.

Dr. James Earnest, an assistant professor at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, is leading two new research projects to examine how humans build an immune response to dengue and the Zika virus over time, in pursuit of creating better preventative measures.

Tackling a Global Problem

Both dengue and Zika are carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has expanded its habitat from Africa to tropical, subtropical and even temperate areas worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, dengue infections in humans climbed from 505,430 in 2000 to 14.6 million in 2024, an increase of more than 2,700%.

Dengue can be asymptomatic or cause severe pain, fatigue and high fever. Repeated infections can be fatal.

Since 2017, there have been few cases of Zika recorded in the U.S., but the disease persists sporadically in Africa, the Americas and Asia. The virus’ biggest health concern is for pregnant women because contracting Zika can increase risks for serious congenital birth defects.

While people in Mexico and Uganda may benefit from this research, Florida’s location as a worldwide travel destination adds to the growing need for solutions. U.S. dengue cases are on the rise and have been reported in Florida, California, Texas and Hawaii. Most are related to travel. Dengue is also prevalent in Puerto Rico.

“With more favorable temperatures and with people traveling around the globe these days, the threat to the U.S. is growing over time,” Dr. Earnest said. “I think, especially here in Florida, the potential for these mosquitoes to live in these areas and start transmitting these diseases in the very near future is high. UCF recognizes that this is an important avenue of research for this region, and so we want to be the leaders at looking at these viruses.”

How the UCF Research Works

Dr. Earnest’s lab is focused on how the immune system responds to mosquito-borne viruses. Before arriving at UCF in 2024, he tracked dengue via longitudinal sampling in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Dr. Earnest is collaborating with the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) through a five-year $970,813 subcontract, part of a larger grant awarded to UVRI from Wellcome, a London-based charitable organization that supports science to solve urgent health challenges. The project aims to study immune system and antibody responses to dengue and Zika in large cohorts of people in Uganda and in Mexico.

UCF will also collaborate with Emory University on a $578,157 grant from the National Institutes of Health, with Dr. Earnest subcontracted to Emory to study whether combining two current dengue inoculations used in Brazil gives humans better protection against repeat infections.

“It's important that we understand what good and bad immune responses look like to these viruses,” Dr. Earnest said. “When we know those factors, then we can try to steer people in the right direction so that their antibodies will protect them from disease.”

Dr. Earnest will coordinate with teams in other countries to regularly collect blood samples and measure antibody production to get a comprehensive look at how different people’s bodies react to dengue and Zika over time. The samples will be collected and processed in Mexico and Uganda, and Earnest will analyze the results in his lab.

“I think what's unique about this work is that we’re following people over time and not necessarily just when they get sick,” Dr. Earnest said.

His research focuses on B cells, which are white blood cells that make antibodies and help the body remember how to fight infections. By tracking how people’s B cells change over time, his team aims to understand how immune responses differ across regions.

In a related project with Emory, the lab will identify the most effective memory B cells and antibodies induced by two existing methods of inoculation for dengue, then test whether combining those methods in Brazilian trial participants produces a stronger immune response.

Students Aim to Save Lives Through Lab Work

With this new research, Dr. Earnest’s lab has welcomed two new UCF students who have personal experience with dengue and Zika.

Maiesha Mahmood, a second-year biotechnology master’s student, is from Bangladesh, where the threat of dengue looms.

“I have been around dengue a lot growing up,” Mahmood said. “I know people who have been in hospital with severe forms of dengue, and people who've passed away suddenly. People become scared of mosquitos and dengue.”

She said she hopes UCF’s research will someday save lives.

“Back in Bangladesh, we don't really have a lot of facilities that can support virology research,” she said. “It was a huge opportunity to be able to come here and be able to work with Dr. Earnest. I want to continue looking into these kinds of viruses and find a way to help people who keep suffering from these diseases.”

Bruno Pinheiro ’25, a first-year Ph.D. candidate, joined Dr. Earnest’s lab to further his education and hopes research will help people close to him.

“My family is from Brazil and so Zika was a very big thing for them,” said Pinheiro, who earned his bachelor’s degree in biotechnology “It’s great to work on something that you can feel will impact the community that you're a part of.”

Researcher Credentials:

Dr. Earnest joined UCF’s College of Medicine in 2024 as an assistant professor in the Immunity and Pathogenesis Division. He earned his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Loyola University Chicago in 2017. He performed postdoctoral research at Washington University in St. Louis studying antibody responses to mosquito-borne viruses and Emory University where he managed clinical field trials in Latin America.

Funding and Disclosure:

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01AI186860. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.