Gina Kolata
‘There is no sound I don’t like’ — In gene editing breakthrough, Lilly’s 30-day gene therapy restores hearing of 11-year old boy, with more deafness treatments on the way
The genetic treatment targeted a particular kind of congenital deafness and will soon be tried in children who are younger ...
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic are changing how we think about health — but we still don’t know how they work
Although the drugs seem safe, obesity medicine specialists call for caution because the obesity drugs must be taken indefinitely or ...
Longer chromosome telomeres mean longer life? The truth may be just the opposite
The longer a person’s telomeres, researchers found, the greater the risk of cancer and other disorders, challenging a popular hypothesis ...
A cancer vaccine to protect healthy but high risk people? Researchers ‘brimming with optimism’ in preventative shot
It seems like an almost impossible dream — a cancer vaccine that would protect healthy people at high risk of ...
Do biobanks that accept anonymous DNA have a responsibility to inform donors when they discover a treatable genetic defect?
What should happen when researchers, while sequencing a participant’s DNA as part of a large study, discover gene variants that ...
‘It’s a whole new life’: After first successful stem cell cure, hope is on the horizon for 10 million people suffering from Type 1 diabetes worldwide
Mr. [Brian] Shelton was the first patient. On June 29, he got an infusion of cells, grown from stem cells ...
Treating cancer without chemotherapy? Oncologists say it’s possible
Chemotherapy for decades was considered “the rule, the dogma,” for treating breast cancer and other cancers, said Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi, ...
Sickle cell gene therapy trial halted after two patients develop cancer, though the link is not certain
A patient who was treated [with gene therapy for sickle cell disease] five and a half years ago has developed ...
AI writing test accurately predicts Alzhiemer’s years before symptoms appear
People with a wide variety of neurological illnesses have distinctive language patterns that, investigators suspect, may serve as early warning ...
Why are Alzheimer’s and dementia rates falling in Europe and the U.S.?
The risk for a person to develop dementia over a lifetime is now 13 percent lower than it was in ...
Vaccines will be in short supply when developed. Here’s a way to prioritize who gets one
A preliminary plan devised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this spring gives priority to health care workers, then ...
Coronavirus survivors’ plasma offers ‘modest’ recovery boost for infected patients, small study suggests
A small study of patients who were severely ill from the coronavirus hints that treatment with antibodies from recovered patients ...
Teenager’s experimental gene therapy treatment could change the lives of millions of sickle cell patients worldwide
Meet Helen Obando, a shy 16-year-old who likes to dance when her body isn’t ravaged by the debilitating symptoms of ...
Should we eat less red meat? There’s no solid evidence behind that advice, dietary expert panel says
Public health officials for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of concerns ...
Bringing us closer to ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ hemophilia treatment with experimental gene therapies
Scientists are edging closer to defeating a longtime enemy of human health: hemophilia, the inability to form blood clots. After ...
Genetic crystal ball? Forecasting 5 serious diseases with algorithm that checks 6.6 million DNA spots
Scientists have created a powerful new tool to calculate a person’s inherited risks for heart disease, breast cancer and three ...
Why you may need a second, or even third, opinion on your genetic test results
[Radiology resident Joshua Clayton] sent a sample of his saliva to 23andMe, the genetic testing company. His report was pretty ...
Immunotherapy as a last resort for terminal cancer patients
Dr. Oliver Sartor has a provocative question for patients who are running out of time. Most are dying of prostate ...
‘All of Us’: NIH biobank set to collect genomes of 1 million people to address chronic diseases
This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever ...
Immunotherapy mystery: Drugs treat ovarian cancer ‘when they should not have’
[Four women with rare ovarian cancer], strangers to one another living in different countries, asked their doctors to try new ...
Why news of cloned monkeys doesn’t mean humans are next
Researchers in China reported on [January 24] that they have created two cloned monkeys, the first time that primates have ...
Gene therapy challenge: Overcoming shortage of key and expensive viruses
Eager to speed development of revolutionary treatments, the Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it would expedite approval of ...
Why do gene therapy treatments cost so much?
The first gene therapy treatment in the United States was approved recently by the Food and Drug Administration, heralding a new ...
Unlocking the past: DNA ancestry tests rewrite family histories
A growing number of companies now offer DNA tests that promise to pinpoint a customer’s heritage and, with permission, to ...
Harvard’s George Church: CRISPR could give us pig-to-human organ transplants within 2 years
In a bold scientific step that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers at Harvard and a ...
FDA approves 23andMe direct-to-consumer genetic tests for 10 diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration said it would allow a company to sell genetic tests for ...
Is DNA destiny when it comes to heart disease?
A new analysis of data from more than 55,000 people provides an answer. It finds that by living right — ...
Rethinking obesity: More about genes than willpower
[A] nationally representative survey of 1,509 adults...by NORC at the University of Chicago, an independent research institution...found that concerns about ...