Human Spotlight
Biohackers help ‘patient’ inject himself with experimental HIV treatment—live on Facebook
[Tristan] Roberts is about to inject himself with an experimental gene therapy for HIV, a DIY prototype treatment designed by ...
Life-forming water droplets could have jump-started early evolution
Reactions in tiny droplets of water may have given rise to some of the molecules essential for the origin of ...
Should we use gene drives to eradicate rats and other pests?
The CRISPR gene editing tool enables very precise changes to the genetic composition of its host. While the technology is ...
Bioethics: What are CRISPR’s real threats and rewards?
[S]cientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research participated in an international think tank this month ...
Genetic predisposition to high triglycerides can be mitigated with healthy BMI, diet
Triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood, are important for good health. But having high triglycerides might increase a ...
Breast cancer linked to 65 newly-found genetic variants
Women who have a strong family history of breast cancer have double the chance of developing it themselves. But the ...
How our brain perceives time
Internal time perception is complex, involving disperse areas of the brain. But a new field of research called neurorelativity, using ...
CRISPR gene editing takes on HIV
Researchers at UCSF have received a three-year, $1.6 million grant to advance their work using novel gene-editing technology to make ...
Gay conversion? Grotesque brain implants used to try to ‘cure’ homosexuality
[Editor's note: John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology.] Homosexuality has been treated with lobotomies, ...
Neanderthal-human mating reintroduced lost African genes, for better and worse
When Neandertals mated with modern humans, they shared more than an intimate moment and their own DNA. They also gave ...
CRISPR 2.0 ‘base editing’ arrives and it’s an even more remarkable disease-fighting tool
You’ve probably heard of the molecular scalpel CRISPR-Cas9, which can edit or delete whole genes. Now, scientists have developed a ...
Biodiversity crisis? Humans may actually be creating more species than we’re killing
Chris Thomas … a professor of conservation biology at the University of York in the UK … does not deny that ...
When genetic engineering came of age: World’s first GMO—GE insulin—approved 35 years ago
It has been 35 years since genetically engineered insulin was approved by the FDA in a process that was quick ...
CAR-T engineering of patients’ own T cells for cancer therapy gains traction
The strategy of engineering patients' own T cells for cancer therapy got two major endorsements in late August, one financial ...
Protecting against cancer: What can we learn from animals who live for centuries
There are an increasing number of genetic clues from animals that could provide hints to treating aging and age related ...
How epigenetics is linked to drug resistance
Scientists at Vanderbilt University say they have discovered a nongenetic cause of resistance to cetuximab, a therapeutic that is used ...
IVF ethics: What if your only viable embryo has a genetic disease?
[A]n emerging ethical morass in the field of reproductive medicine: what to do when patients seeking to get pregnant select ...
Is the universe really 13.8 billion years old?
[Editor's note: Ethan Siegel is an astrophysicist and author.] You've no doubt heard that the Universe itself has been around for ...
Why Alzheimer’s patients have abnormal gut bacteria
People suffering from Alzheimer's disease have altered gut bacteria, a new study published in Scientific Reports shows. ... A team of researchers primarily ...
Body/brain connection: Two genes linked to seizures, obesity, autism
Identifying relevant genetic interactions contributing to neurodevelopmental disorders is a huge challenge facing the field. Now, a study from researchers ...
CRISPR gene editing of the brain could open research floodgates
[Researchers] at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) have developed a new tool that, for the first time, ...
Unapproved stem cell therapy leaves elderly women blind
[E]ye doctors based primarily at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami had published a widely covered report describing three eerily similar cases: ...
Google’s self-learning AI starts with blank slate and ‘creates knowledge itself’
Google’s artificial intelligence group, DeepMind, has unveiled the latest incarnation of its Go-playing program, AlphaGo – an AI so powerful that ...
Gulf War veterans show signs of permanently damaged DNA
Researchers say they have found the “first direct biological evidence” of damage in Veterans with Gulf War illness to DNA ...
Deteriorating bio-libraries house thousands of disappearing cultures and deadly diseases
Freeze-dried and locked away in liquid nitrogen–filled vaults around the world are hundreds of thousands of microbial cultures. In the ...
Another year, no CRISPR Nobel Prize
[Editor's note: Aaron Dy is a PhD student in biological engineering at MIT.] To most of us, the question for ...
Genetics brought to bear in fight against modern cholera outbreaks
Although cholera is a disease that is thought of as mostly extinct, it still persists today in underdeveloped areas. The ...
