ニューヨーク・タイムズさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ニューヨーク・タイムズInstagram)「When it comes to finding a vaccine for chlamydia, the world’s most common sexually transmitted infection, koalas may prove a key ally. Humans don’t have a monopoly on sexually transmitted infections. And chlamydia — a pared-down, single-celled bacterium that acts like a virus — has been especially successful, infecting everything from frogs to fish to parakeets. Around one in 10 sexually active teenagers in the U.S. is already infected. This shared susceptibility has led some scientists to argue that studying, and saving, koalas may be the key to developing a long-lasting cure for humans. In koalas, chlamydia’s ravages are extreme, leading to severe inflammation, massive cysts and scarring of the reproductive tract. But the bacteria responsible is still remarkably similar to the human one, thanks to chlamydia’s tiny, highly conserved genome. “They’re out there, they’ve got chlamydia, and we can give them a vaccine, we can observe what the vaccine does under real conditions,” said Peter Timms, a microbiologist at the University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He has spent the past decade developing a chlamydia vaccine for koalas, and is now conducting trials on wild koalas, in the hope that his formula will soon be ready for wider release. “We can do something in koalas you could never do in humans,” Dr. Timms said. Tap the link in our bio for more. Photo by @rustypostcards.」7月14日 2時31分