Medical Regs & Ethics
Too much and too little: Delicate balance of knowing risk and treating disease
One woman seeks out her genetic risk for familial breast cancer and finds she has a potentially lethal mutation for ...
Growing concern over athletes receiving unproven stem cell therapies
Elite athletes do whatever it takes to win. Lately, that’s meant getting an injection of their own stem cells. The ...
Why evaluating risk factors might not always lead to the best medical advice
Most health-conscious people are familiar with the concept of risk factors for disease. We’re too familiar, in fact. A risk ...
21 European scientists call for public support of GMOs
In an open letter released last month, 21 out of the 27 most cited plant scientists in Europe pledged decision makers ...
While almost all celiac and gluten sensitivity claims are misguided, symptoms are real and treatable
There is no scientific evidence for a GMO-celiac disease link. It's also clear that non-celiac gluten allergies are wildly overstated ...
In India, a form of eugenics that people might embrace
The term “eugenics” has very negative connotations today. Nevertheless, in some ways society is moving in a direction which results ...
Tracking disease outbreaks through city’s sewer system
Disease prevention and mapmaking have been inextricably intertwined since 1854, when an English physician named John Snow plotted a cholera ...
Immune system hoards iron supply to fight microbes
Disease is an act of piracy. When microbes infect us, they steal our resources so they can thrive at our ...
Genetic information: How much to share, how much to keep private in age of Big Data
Genetics and computational biology are evolving so quickly that it’s impossible to predict the medical answers that they’ll reveal in ...
Seeing dragons? Woman’s strange condition that baffled neurologists
Here’s the medical case report in The Lancet: Prosopometamorphopsia and facial hallucinations from a team of researchers including the famous Oliver Sacks ...
Slowing the aging process: How the Mediterranean diet preserves your chromosomal telomeres
People who stick closely to a Mediterranean diet were found to have longer telomeres—a biomarker of aging found at the ...
Evolution of Food Babe: From misguided consumer advocate to crude bully
It's been a rough week for the Food Babe. After her takedown by NPR, Vani Hari has begun lashing out ...
DNA of Niemann-Pick disease victims might offer clues in finding Ebola cure
Niemann-Pick is a debilitating disease that retards movement and development of an infants ability to think and reason, as if ...
Global Risks of Rejecting Agricultural Biotechnology
With the demand for food expected to double by 2050, biotechnology can lead to increased food security, as well as ...
More US clinics offering stem cell therapy, but is it safe?
Plastic surgeons, other doctors and naturopaths at more than 100 clinics round the country are charging thousands of dollars for ...
Nobel Prize winner calls anti-GMO opinion ‘crime against humanity’
This is how you kick off a biotech convention: On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Medicine Richard J. Roberts accused ...
Laboratories race to advance CRISPR research in spite of patent dispute
Last month in Silicon Valley, biologists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier showed up in black gowns to receive the $3 ...
Has the Human Genome Project lived up to hype?
Just taking some notes here - relates to a discussion going on online. Would love pointers to other references relating ...
‘Ancestors in Our Genome’ explores human history through DNA
For most of us, when we think of evolution we think of Charles Darwin and natural selection. Thanks to high ...
Too many directions in Ebola research could hinder search for cure
When it comes to treatments for Ebola, there has been a nearly four-decade-long drought. Nothing in the medical arsenal attacks ...
Glyphosate used with GMO crops under attack for disrupting microbiome: Science or a gut feeling?
Despite professional science and health organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science ...
Couples can protect children from devastating mutations with new IVF methods
IVF clinics are moving beyond chromosome counting to offer families a more in-depth genetic analysis of embryos before implantation. This ...
Mice with human brain cells smarter than peers
What would Stuart Little make of it? Mice have been created whose brains are half human. As a result, the ...
Anti-GMO Activism and Its Impact on Food Security
Activists have dismissed the opinions of the world’s leading scientists to undermine public trust in the benefits of GM crops ...
First ever gene therapy drug comes at high price
The Western world's first gene therapy drug is set to go on sale in Germany with a 1.1 million euro ...
Are we Martians? DNA survives entry into Earth’s atmosphere–Are planets source of life?
Exposed to the high temperatures of rapid transit through the upper atmosphere, DNA, the hereditary material in all life, survives ...
Unravelling Ebola via early detection
Could monitoring the genetic activity of white blood cells be the key to catching Ebola before it becomes symptomatic and ...