Biomedicine & Disease
Why did Ellie in the Last of Us not succumb to Cordy, the zombie virus? Stem cells might explain it, and that could yield real-life vaccines
It’s unsettling to watch The Last of Us, in which parasitic fungi turn humanity into flesh-eating zombies, just as the ...
Why have colorectal cancer cases skyrocketed in recent years among young adults?
Signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer include changes in bowel habits, rectal bleeding or blood in the stool, cramping or ...
‘Three-parent baby’ mitochondrial replacement therapy was developed to prevent fatal illnesses — but the the technique might not work as expected
Mitochondria are little “energy factories” that float around in the cytoplasm of our cells. While most of our DNA is ...
Breakthrough or boondoggle? Should the government fund development of medications for small fraction of the population resistant to antibiotics?
With time running out in the 2022 congressional session, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and infectious disease specialists is scrambling ...
Cognitive health over age 70: Who has the highest risk of dementia, those who are single or married?
People who are married have a lower risk of developing dementia or mild cognitive impairment after the age of 70 ...
Analysis: US public health officials scramble to restore trust in science and vaccines after two years of COVID controversies
By the summer of 2021, Phil Maytubby, deputy CEO of the health department here, was concerned to see the numbers ...
Undoing childhood cancer? Flipping ‘genetic switch’ can turn tumor cells back into normal tissue
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified a new drug target for Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of ...
Genomic surveillance: How studying malaria parasite genes helps develop more effective treatments
In a classic evolutionary ‘arms race’ between pathogens and their human hosts, both sides develop arsenals of weapons. Our immune ...
Podcast and video: Fighting cystic fibrosis with viruses; Soaring seed prices; Europe’s byzantine plant-breeding rules persist
Cystic fibrosis is a fatal condition that claims patients at an early age, so why does it persist? Soaring seed ...
Gene therapy delivered directly to the brain treats extremely rare disease in children
When Rylae-Ann Poulin was a year old, she didn’t crawl or babble like other kids her age. A rare genetic ...
Drug research is plagued with extreme costs and high failure rates. Here’s how genetic data could transform how we develop medications
Drug development has long been an issue for the pharma industry, due to the expense and the high failure rate ...
Viewpoint: Did health officials bungle by embracing mRNA vaccines at the expense of J&J’s single shot?
How many times have public-health experts told us that Covid isn’t like the flu? Suddenly that’s changed. The Food and ...
‘3D printer for your body’: Bioprinted tumors could help doctors target cancer more effectively
Scientists have made big strides in the fight against cancer. A person’s risk of dying of cancer in the U.S ...
GLP Podcast: Smoking, drinking fueled by genetics? Women more empathetic than men; Enthusiasm for HIV vaccine wanes
If you drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, a growing body of evidence suggests that your genetics may have predisposed you ...
AIDS vaccine: Why the COVID shot was developed so quickly but one for HIV remains elusive
Since 1982, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control first named the syndrome "AIDS," there have been years of fear ...
Cystic fibrosis chronicle: Why has the often-deadly CF gene not passed out of the human genome? And what new treatments are being developed?
Is cystic fibrosis (CF) a death sentence? It can be for many if it is not treated aggressively and early ...
FDA pauses studies of experimental drugs more often than it used to, Wall Street Journal review found
The Food and Drug Administration is pressing pause on drug-company testing of experimental medicines more often, a side effect of ...
Using synthetic biology to rewire T-cells to fight cancer
With a slew of tools to trick out immune cells, researchers are expanding the repertoire of CAR-T therapies ...
‘We’ve found 1-in-a-million type of cancers’: A common prenatal blood test accidentally identifies rare tumors
An expectant mother's bloodstream doesn't just contain bits of free-floating DNA associated with the fetus. It's also chock full of ...
2022 in genetics: 8 discoveries that are changing our understanding of the world
From big discoveries that moved the field forward to work that improved upon existing findings, here are some of the ...
Will an HIV vaccine ever be developed? Failure of Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ global testing raises doubts
The only vaccine against H.I.V. still being tested in late-stage clinical trials has proved ineffective, its manufacturer announced on [January ...
Viewpoint: Unleashing the power of biomedicine and personalized medicine
The world is awash in data. Data abundance and tools to extract meaning from data let us better understand, control ...
GLP Facts & Fallacies Podcast and Video: Curing ‘incurable’ leukemia? Cowardly corporations; Glyphosate hasn’t tainted school lunches
A new gene-editing technique known as base editing may have helped doctor's cure a young girls "incurable" cancer. Why are ...
Using cancer cells to kill tumors? Cell therapy engineered to eliminate and prevent brain cancer in advanced mouse model
Researchers took advantage of living tumor cells' unique ability to travel long distances across the brain to return to the ...
Average 22.5% weight loss: What research says about Eli Lilly’s Tirzepatide diabetes drug awaiting approval as diet pill
A clinical trial found that a high dose of tirzepatide — which was previously approved for diabetes treatment — helped ...
mRNA COVID vaccine technology is leading breakthroughs in addressing very rare diseases
COVID vaccines made mRNA a household name. How can it help in rare diseases? A handful of companies have mRNA ...
Strep throat, flu, RSV: What’s behind recent strange patterns of common childhood illnesses?
RSV, Strep A, the flu: a range of familiar bugs are worrying doctors and parents with strange new patterns. What's ...
