A fungus began spreading among bats in North America in 2007, causing a disease called white-nose syndrome. It has killed millions of bats.

In 2014, Dr. Giorgia Auteri, assistant professor of biology at Missouri State University, began studying the dead bats. A decade later, she and other researchers have made some crucial insights about how white-nose syndrome kills bats. This knowledge has inspired a campaign to stop the mass death. Now, scientists are attacking the fungus and finding ways to help bats survive infections.

Auteri shares about this effort with The New York Times.