Carnivorous plants look like they run on instinct: catch an insect, digest it and absorb nutrients. But for scientists, a core question has remained difficult to answer: how does a plant “know” it has caught prey, and how does it decide which chemical tools to deploy next?

Many of today’s most serious diseases are driven by harmful proteins inside the body. These proteins can fuel cancer, chronic inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders, yet scientists still do not have good ways to target many of them.

A team of scientists from UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and collaborating institutions has uncovered a striking new way that harmful bacteria gain a foothold in the body: They deliver a protein into human cells that helps them move through the dense, beating barrier of airway cilia and settle into a safer place to grow.