Biomedicine & Disease

Scientists engineer chickens to make cancer drugs—10 times cheaper to produce than factory-made medicines
Researchers have genetically modified chickens that can lay eggs that contain drugs for arthritis and some cancers. The drugs are ...

Can aggressive cancer cells be transformed into ‘harmless fat’?
Imagine if you could turn aggressive cancer cells into harmless fat. Scientists in Switzerland say they've done just that, in ...

23andMe harnesses ‘massive’ genetic database for medical research
23andMe is well known for its DNA kits that promise to shed light on a person's ancestral history and potential ...

Immunotherapy more effective in patients with more cancer mutations, study shows
The number of mutations in a tumor’s genome may predict how well a patient will benefit from treatment with immune ...

We could soon have a blood test for Alzheimer’s
Approximately 5.5 million Americans over the age of 65 cope with [Alzheimer’s disease]. Symptoms include behavioral changes, cognitive difficulties, and ...

Gene drive alternative uses CRISPR to control insect populations by creating sterile males
Scientists at the University of California (UC) San Diego and UC Berkeley have developed a new approach to controlling disease-carrying ...

Genes or environment? Twins study offers ‘unsatisfying answer’ when it comes to disease
It’s the next chapter in the nature-nurture debate: To keep people healthy, is it better to focus on people’s Zip ...

International treaty could threaten genetics research on ebola, other infectious diseases
There is something that is weighing heavily on the minds of some infectious diseases scientists these days. ... It’s an ...

Diagnostics, drug discovery, disease: How CRISPR is solving medicine’s biggest problems
This is the public face of genome editing or, as it is sometimes called, gene editing: a technology capable of ...

Finding echoes of cancer journey in Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
The 'choose your own path' nature of Bandersnatch echoes a journey with breast cancer ...

Algorithm identifies genetic mutations with just a photo
Some people’s faces — or even just a photo of them — hint at the genes they carry. And now, ...

New therapy could aid battle against drug-resistant bacteria
[T]he first penicillin-resistant pathogen was detected in 1940. Since then, many other antibacterial drugs (both natural and semisynthetic) have been ...

Examining the genetic roots of anorexia and other eating disorders
Characterized by extreme caloric restriction resulting in weight loss, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body image, anorexia ...

Autism and depression: Study shows why ‘gold standard treatment’ sometimes fails
The 'gold standard' therapy does not always work and can lead to a worsening of symptoms ...

Using stem cells to trace autism’s development to earliest days of pregnancy
Figuring out how autism starts is complicated. … [A] large international team obtained skin cells from eight autistic people and ...

New cousin to deadly Ebola virus discovered in bats in China
The notorious filovirus family — which includes such dangerous actors as the Ebola and Marburg viruses — seems to just keep ...

What the bulldog’s distinctive tail can tell us about this rare human genetic disorder
One of the most distinctive body parts of your typical English bulldog, French bulldog, or Boston terrier—their coiled screw tail—might ...

Can a simple breath test detect cancer?
Researchers want to find out if signals of different cancer types can be picked up in patterns of breath molecules ...

Can we reduce schizophrenia risk with prenatal supplements?
Schizophrenia has a clear genetic basis, but genes don't tell the whole story. The other factors that determine whether or ...

Cancer death rate in the US has dropped 27% over 25 years
The rate of people dying from cancer in the United States seems to have dropped steadily for 25 years, a ...

Should we treat aging as a disease rather than something that’s inevitable?
In June 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) released the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases. It contained an ...

9 GLP 2018 human genetics highlights: Sen Warren’s Native American ancestry; transgender genetics; Freddie Mercury’s teeth and his voice
The top GLP stories in a very busy year for human genetics ...

How AIDS transformed genetic engineering
For two decades, [Matt] Sharp had been living with HIV. He’d watched the height of the aids crisis claim dozens of his ...

Absence of a ‘smoking gun’ pathogen has stymied efforts to solve AFM mystery illness paralyzing children
What some are calling an "unprecedented mystery respiratory illness" is being reported in the Rockies and across the Midwest. Contributing ...

Mapping autism’s genetic origins through massive analysis offers new research tool
The largest genetic analysis of postmortem brain tissue to date has yielded maps of when and where genes are turned ...

How 100-year-old tissue samples could rewrite the Spanish flu’s deadly history
Late one night Michael Worobey began poking around on the internet, looking for descendants of a World War I British ...

Searching for infectious canine cancer in the shadow of Chernobyl
After the [Chernobyl] explosion, over 90,000 people were evacuated from hundreds of towns and communities in the vicinity of the ...

Plague genome offers clues about origins of Black Death pandemic
Yersinia pestis, the subject of [Barbara Bramanti’s] research, is the bacterium responsible for three bubonic plague pandemics over human history ...