But the country's glaciers melted, and as they did, it revealed huge numbers of pathogens in the melting ice.

Tucked away on an industrial estate in Essex is a building that could one day house some of the world's deadliest pathogens.

An insidious but lesser-known consequence of even a mild measles infection is that it kills the very cells that remember which pathogens the patient has previously fought and how those battles were won.

Programs that offer clean syringes to intravenous drug users have been shown to prevent the spread of hepatitis and other blood-borne pathogens.

For Cole, that meant walking away from her work on a Centers for Disease Control system to track dangerous illnesses and pathogens and prevent their spread.