Since immunometabolism was first defined in the literature in 2011, this research area has illuminated the importance of metabolic regulation of immune function and how the regulation of metabolism by the immune system impacts human health. In recent years, the influence of immunometabolism as an upstream regulator, not just a downstream consequence of aging, infection and disease, has emphasized the importance and opportunities of this field for human health. This collection of articles aims to shine a light on the many facets of immunometabolism, highlighting how molecular and cellular mechanisms impact diverse tissue and organismal functions and the exciting potential for leveraging immunometabolism for therapeutic interventions. Articles cover topics including the role of immunometabolites in bacterial infections, how immunometabolism affects obesity and targeting immunometabolism therapeutically. The image shows the 3D reconstruction of mitochondria (white), lamellar cristae (yellow), and tubular cristae (cyan) in an NIH3T3 cell.
Image Credit: Shogo Suga and Koki Nakamura
Editorial
The many facets of immunometabolism
PLOS Biology: published January 27, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003641
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Essays
How do immunometabolites shape bacterial infections?
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003585
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Targeting immunometabolism in cancer through pharmacological and lifestyle interventions
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003617
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Immunometabolism in obesity: Understanding the beneficial and detrimental roles of inflammation
PLOS Biology: published January 21, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003620
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Perspective
Multi-omics and perturbation screens as discovery tools in immunometabolism
PLOS Biology: published January 9, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003570
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Primer
An emerging clock mechanism in a hydrozoan jellyfish
PLOS Biology: published January 7, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003558
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Research Articles
Experimental evidence that penis size, height, and body shape influence assessment of male sexual attractiveness and fighting ability in humans
PLOS Biology: published January 22, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003595
Comparative transcriptomics reveal the common anteroposterior molecular blueprint of adult bilaterian guts
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003571
Pangenome graph analysis reveals evolution of resistance breaking in spinach downy mildew
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003596
Bottleneck size drives the evolution of cooperative traits in an aggregative multicellular myxobacterium
PLOS Biology: published January 6, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003499
Microgravity reshapes bacteriophage–host coevolution aboard the International Space Station
PLOS Biology: published January 13, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003568
Temperate phage evolve to integrate host stress and quorum signals in lysis–lysogeny decisions
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003567
Sensory sharpening and semantic prediction errors unify competing models of predictive processing in human speech comprehension
PLOS Biology: published January 9, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003588
Characterization of the spatiotemporal representations of visual, semantic, and memorability features in the human brain
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003614
Neural traces of composite tasks in complex task representation in the human brain reflects learning performance
PLOS Biology: published January 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003613
Five energy metabolism pathways show distinct regional distributions and lifespan trajectories in the human brain
PLOS Biology: published January 30, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003619
Microstructural profiles of the human superficial white matter and their associations to cortical geometry and connectivity
PLOS Biology: published January 30, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003629
Microglial activity during postnatal development is required for infantile amnesia in mice
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003538
Synaptic input variation enhances rate coding at the expense of temporal precision in cochlear nucleus neurons
PLOS Biology: published January 12, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003587
VASCilia is an open-source, deep learning-based tool for 3D analysis of cochlear hair cell stereocilia bundles
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003591
A gut-activated NHR-86–CYP pathway mediates the neuroprotective effects of Enterococcus faecium probiotics in a nematode model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
PLOS Biology: published January 30, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003627
Foxi1 regulates multipotent mucociliary progenitors and ionocyte specification through transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003583
The Rho GTPase regulator ARHGEF3 orchestrates hair placode budding by coordinating cell fate and P-cadherin patterning in mice
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003572
Dynamic auxin maxima regulate male-to-hermaphrodite conversion and de novo meristem formation in the fern Ceratopteris gametophytes
PLOS Biology: published January 23, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003592
Overexpression of the pioneer transcription factor Nr5a2 promotes the development of mouse somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos
PLOS Biology: published January 23, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003611
A light-entrained clock mechanism in a hydrozoan jellyfish synchronizes evening gamete release
PLOS Biology: published January 6, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003502
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A deep learning-based computational pipeline predicts developmental outcome in retinal organoids
PLOS Biology: published January 27, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003597
Calcium signaling regulates apoptosis-induced proliferation in Drosophila
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003607
Rapid gain and loss of a chromosome drives key morphology and virulence phenotypes in the fungal pathogen Histoplasma
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003224
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Periodic fasting and refeeding re-shapes lipid saturation, storage, and distribution in brown adipose tissue
PLOS Biology: published January 12, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003593
Optineurin binding to the novel interacting partner Junction plakoglobin prevents muscle atrophy in mice
PLOS Biology: published January 22, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003581
Dose-dependent activation of the Hippo pathway by Type I and Type III interferons suppresses tissue repair by human bronchial epithelial cells
PLOS Biology: published January 26, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003615
The lipid-metabolic enzyme HSD17B12 drives lysosomal degradation of PD-L1 potentiating anti-tumor immunity in a mouse model
PLOS Biology: published January 27, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003603
Short Reports
Modeling of H5N1 influenza virus kinetics during dairy cattle infection suggests the timing of infectiousness
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003586
TDP-43-mediated alternative polyadenylation is associated with a reduction in VPS35 and VPS29 expression in frontotemporal dementia
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003573
The conserved outer mitochondrial membrane protein Mtch regulates mitophagy during Drosophila intestinal development
PLOS Biology: published January 23, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003616
A male-transmitted B chromosome undergoes strong meiotic drag in females of the jewel wasp Nasonia vitripennis
PLOS Biology: published January 16, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003599
Methods and Resources
A single-cell spatiotemporal transcriptomic atlas of mouse prefrontal cortex maps dynamics of intratelencephalic neurons during postnatal development
PLOS Biology: published January 12, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003594
MMSpa is a deep learning-based tool that enhances the identification of spatial domains in spatial transcriptomics studies
PLOS Biology: published January 5, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003580
Meta-Research Article
Biomedical and life science articles by female researchers spend longer under review
PLOS Biology: published January 20, 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003574