In a remarkable series of experiments on a fungus that causes cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly infection of the membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain, investigators have isolated a protein that appears to be responsible for the fungus' ability to cross from the bloodstream into the brain.

In a remarkable series of experiments on a fungus that causes cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly infection of the membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain, investigators have isolated a protein that appears to be responsible for the fungus' ability to cross from the bloodstream into the brain.