Medical Regs & Ethics
‘Integrative medicine’ doctor defends Dr. Oz, claims Monsanto orchestrating protests
It has been a tempestuous week in the land of Dr. Oz. On close inspection, though, the source of these ...
Drug-resistant malaria poses serious threat in Africa
Early indicators of the malaria parasite in Africa developing resistance to the most effective drug available have been confirmed, according ...
New genetic test will make breast cancer screening affordable for more women
A Silicon Valley start-up with some big-name backers is threatening to upend genetic screening for breast and ovarian cancer by ...
IBM’s Watson promises breakthroughs in personalized medicine
A new IBM business unit launched last week to help physicians, researchers, insurers and patients use big data, analytics and ...
Dr. Oz set to respond as more physicians, scientists, journalists call for Columbia to drop “quack” promoter
Dr. Oz plans to strike back at the doctors who wrote a letter (see below) to the Dean of Health Sciences and ...
‘Melt’ chocolate gene discovery could lead to medical advances
Scientists have discovered a gene involved in determining the melting point of cocoa butter, a critical attribute of the substance ...
Dr. Oz complaint letter may backfire, undermining efforts to expose his ‘fear mongering’
Recently I wrote about a letter sent to Lee Goldman, MD, the Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine ...
“Orphan Black” is back! Reflections on reproductive cloning and eugenics
The Clones are Coming: Airing on BBC America, the popular show Orphan Black already has included a goldmine of conversation ...
Fall of Dr. Oz: Tour of the world of a celebrity medical quack
Dr. Oz is arguably the most influential health professional in America. The Dr. Oz Show, which started in 2009, has an average ...
What’s the ideal amount of exercise for a healthy life?
Exercise has had a Goldilocks problem, with experts debating just how much exercise is too little, too much or just ...
Dutch height shows humans still subject to natural selection
Insecure about your height? You may want to avoid this tiny country by the North Sea, whose population has gained ...
Arsenic in your food? Scared? Shouldn’t be, but if so there’s a GMO fix
Arsenic levels are high in rice and rice products, since the rice plants take it up from groundwater. New research ...
‘Search and replace’ CRISPR DNA tool gaining traction despite calls for moratorium
Momentum has been rapidly mounting around a technology called CRISPR-Cas9, often described as a “search and replace” tool for DNA. The reason? ...
Toxicology studies could impede advances in nanotechnology
Nanomaterials have been on the scene for over 15 years and they are being applied in a variety of sectors ...
Genetic tests in clinic fall short for prescribing best cancer therapy
Many cancer patients in clinics across the United States might be getting inaccurate information from DNA analyses that are intended ...
China institutes strict measures against surrogate births
The central government has said it will take a tougher stance on surrogacy, a practice that has grown underground in ...
Can a placebo pill actually serve as drug therapy?
Placebos have helped to ease symptoms of illness for centuries and have been a fundamental component of clinical research to ...
How can we best consider the consequences of altering a human genome?
The advent of CRISPR/Cas9 again sees a biomedical technology challenging norms and raising concerns. CRISPR/Cas9 makes it comparatively easy to ...
Game of Life and Death: Can you dare the odds and make it past 100?
Washington Post releases a new interactive feature online that delves into 7 ways medical technology has evolved over the past ...
GENeS launches: New project provides journalists, NGOs, policy analysts scientific expertise on breaking stories
Journalists and policymakers take note: GENeS--Genetic Expert News Service--is now live! Turn to GENeS for independent expert analysis and commentary ...
Are humans genetically unique?
A new paper in Science reports high (20-40 percent) derived frequencies for an allele which seems correlated with higher rates of ...
For modern parents, how to weigh pros and cons of sequencing baby’s genome
At 31 years old, not a day goes by without overhearing one of my friends discuss the pros and cons ...
Malpractice on Dr. Oz: Case of the maligned Arctic Apple
Dr. Oz gets it wrong again on science, this time on genetic engineering on last week's show on the non-browning ...
Human germline modification sorely in need of ethical discourse
An Institute of Medicine committee is in the midst of a 19-month study, undertaken at the FDA’s request, of the ...
Health, ethics, or money: What’s really driving CRISPR debate?
A momentous technological revolution is unfolding in our very real, no longer fictive ability to easily and cheaply alter the ...
Doctor wants to remove head from human body, put it on another
It sounds like the plot for a science fiction movie. Someone has a horrific accident and winds up in the ...
Doctors to begin scanning fetus’ entire genome for genetic abnormalities
If you could gaze into a crystal ball and discover whether your newborn baby might have health problems, would you ...
