STAT3 and pneumococcal infection: Further investigation into the impaired recruitment of neutrophils to the alcoholic lung upon infection has revealed that alcohol enhances the phosphorylation of the transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in nucleated bone marrow cells, blunting hematopoietic precursor cell response (i.e., formation of immune cells) (Siggins et al. 2011) against pneumococcal infection in a mouse model of acute chronic alcohol intake.