Health & Medicine
Through the study and use of genetics, we can identify measures that could lead to the improvement of human health and wellness. These methods and procedures aim to prevent years of chronic disease and thousands of dollars in health care costs, and provide families and communities with knowledge of how to live healthier.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Self control a limited resource? Ego depletion theory gets a boost
For years, “ego depletion” has been a dominant theory in the study of self control. This is the intuitive idea ...
Why are children picky eaters? Genetics may play key role
Children who are picky eaters may have their genetics to blame, a study claims. Researchers from the University of Illinois in ...
Why we stutter
While the average American might not come across it on a daily basis, stuttering is a relatively common condition. So when ...
Tackling Alzheimer’s by boosting mitochondrial health
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and neurodegeneration worldwide. A major hallmark of the disease is the ...
Diabetes and anorexia might be treatable by inhibiting ‘hunger hormone’, mice study suggests
Scientists once had high hopes that inhibiting a hormone named ghrelin would be the key to preventing obesity. Ghrelin didn’t ...
Cancer treatment without chemotherapy? CAR T-cells could become the new standard
Although rare, it is not unheard-of for new treatments to achieve substantial early successes in one or two patients only ...
Agro-defense: Experts worry US could be caught off-guard by a biological attack on agriculture
The U.S. is woefully unprepared to cope with outbreaks of emerging livestock or crop pathogens and pests, whether those outbreaks ...
Birth defects in Brazil linked to Zika, not insecticides or vaccines
In the fall and early winter of 2015, a startling number of infants in northeastern Brazil were born with abnormally small ...
Treating spinal cord injuries by genetically modifying cells that help us smell
Researchers from the University of Bristol have just shared the promising results of a new treatment for spinal cord injuries that could ...
2017: The year gene therapy became a ‘clinical reality’
This year, gene therapy finally became a clinical reality. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two personalized treatments that ...
‘Supermalaria’ may be heading to Africa, as global health threat grows
[Editor's note: Janet Midega is a scientist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program in Kilifi, Kenya and a research associate at ...
How your brain steps on the brake after starting a task
To stop an activity, your brain must engage in very precise timing that involves the careful coordination of three distinct ...
Could GMO Golden Rice be teamed with vitamin A supplements to tackle global childhood blindness?
I want more than just having Golden Rice — I want it to be widely available to people who eat ...
CRISPR 2.0: Targeting incurable diseases by ‘turning up volume’ on good genes
Incurable diseases such as diabetes and muscular dystrophy could be treated in future using a new form of genetic engineering ...
Canola oil causes Alzheimer’s? How the media mis-covers science, feeds NGO misinformation and scares the public
Sensationalist press coverage fueled by a poorly written university press release misled the public about a recent study on mice—a ...
Society of Toxicology: Science has ‘overwhelmingly demonstrated’ GMO crop safety
[Editor's note: The following is part of a Society of Toxicology (SOT) issue statement approved the SOT Council November 2017.] ...
Autism linked to electrical firing of neurons, neuron-controlled brain size
Researchers at UC San Francisco have developed a new genetic model of autism, using neurons created in the lab from ...
Never too old: Video games could insulate the eldery against Alzheimer’s
If you’re between 55 and 75 years old, you may want to try playing 3D platform games like Super Mario ...
New ‘curvature blindness’ optical illusion illustrates how the brain interprets images
A new optical illusion has been discovered, and it’s really quite striking. The strange effect is called the ‘curvature blindness’ ...
Transplanting stem cells directly into brain could alter treatment of nervous system disorders
A therapeutic technique to transplant blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells directly into the brain could herald a revolution in our approach ...
In era of personalized medicine, what’s the value of cholesterol tests?
Most physicians order what [cardiologist Allan Sniderman] considers the wrong test to gauge heart disease risk: a standard cholesterol readout, ...
GMOs in South Africa: Benefits of biotech crops changing women farmers’ minds
As a young girl, Tepsy Eve Ntseoane never thought she’d grow up to be a farmer, let alone an advocate for ...
First US baby born from living donor uterus transplant
For the first time in the United States, a woman who had a uterus transplant has given birth. The mother, ...
Gene therapy challenge: How much should it cost and how do we pay for it?
When evaluating the high prices of one-time gene therapy treatments, should we look to the costs of organ transplants when ...
Fighting infectious diseases with immunotherapy on ‘cusp of commercialization’
Immunotherapy, which involves adapting immune cells to destroy specific cellular targets, has made a name for itself treating cancer. But ...
Organic food helps you get pregnant? Media outlets fall for ‘activist science’
[Editor's note: Terence Bradshaw is a research associate at the University of Vermont. He has a PhD in plant & soil science.] ...
Gene drives could combat exploding population of poison-resistant subway rats and other pests
Figures ... show that London councils receive 100 complaints about rats and mice each day with some local authorities reporting ...
