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After learning about efforts to reopen Zion Cares, a community ministry of Zion Baptist Church, eight medical students from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine partnered with Zion Cares leaders to provide much-needed support in the form of COVID-19 protection kits, meals, groceries and medical information.

In new research, scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) show that at least in the case of systemic lupus erythematosus, biofilms also have the potential to aggravate autoimmunity. The research, published in the November print edition of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology, is the first to show that components of biofilms that form in the urinary tract can serve as an autoimmune trigger, inciting flare ups of lupus symptoms. Such flare ups, or flares, are a major cause of illness, hospitalization, and death among lupus patients.

In new work from Temple scientists, they show that the spike proteins that extrude from SARS-CoV-2 promote inflammatory responses on the endothelial cells that form the blood-brain barrier. The study, published in the December print issue of the journal Neurobiology of Disease, is the first to show that SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins can cause this barrier to become “leaky,” potentially disrupting the delicate neural networks within the brain.