STAT
Two promising Ebola drugs ‘dramatically reduced’ risk of dying from disease
Final data from a landmark clinical trial of four Ebola therapies conducted in the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the ...
Bluebird Bio defends as ‘simple and human’ its pricing of costly gene therapy for beta thalassemia
[J]ust as we spent the past years cracking the code to make gene therapy work, we now need to work ...
Second RNAi-based drug gains FDA approval, targeting rare genetic condition causing severe abdominal pain
The FDA has approved the second-ever drug based on a Nobel prize-winning technique known as RNA interference, Alnylam’s givosiran. The ...
CRISPR therapy demonstrates ‘real curative potential’ for sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia
The first two patients to receive a CRISPR-based treatment for the inherited blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia ...
Campaign in France to loosen ban on direct-to-consumer DNA testing gains traction
The French ban on direct-to-consumer genetic testing is part of the country’s bioethics laws, which legislators are supposed to revise every ...
Why lumping transgender teens into a single group in mental health studies is missing an opportunity to help them
The disparities are staggering: A growing body of research suggests that transgender teens experience suicidal thoughts and attempt to take ...
Patient’s ‘serious’ kidney injury halts gene therapy trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
The Food and Drug Administration has halted a clinical trial involving a Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy from Solid Biosciences ...
CRISPR prime editing: Broad Institute biochemist David Liu discusses pros, cons and off-target effects
STAT invited readers to submit questions to [biochemist David] Liu on the new [CRISPR prime] technology. He also received some ...
Viewpoint: AI can revolutionize drug development if we can learn to trust it
The pharmaceutical industry is facing a crisis is R&D. About 50% of late-stage clinical trials fail due to ineffective drug targets, ...
Animal safety concerns prompt FDA to halt study testing Zolgensma gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy
The Food and Drug Administration has halted a clinical trial of Novartis’ Zolgensma gene therapy due to a safety concern ...
China’s new seaweed-based Alzheimer’s therapy raises hopes—and questions about safety, effectiveness
Chinese regulators have granted conditional approval to an Alzheimer’s drug that is derived from seaweed, potentially shaking up the field ...
Analyzing first fecal transplant death: Donor stool wasn’t tested for rare E. coli strain
This spring, a 73-year-old man with a rare blood condition became the first person to die from drug-resistant bacteria found ...
Is experimental Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab being resurrected based on ‘bad’ data?
I worked on and around aducanumab, an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s, for years during my time at Biogen. I thought ...
Viewpoint: ‘Long-promised AI revolution’ in healthcare delayed by shortcomings, including systems that are easily misled
Today, hundreds of startup companies around the world are trying to apply deep learning to radiology. Yet the number of radiologists who ...
Viewpoint: Why CRISPR embryo editing is not ‘morally urgent’: No one has to have a child
[He Jiankui’s CRISPR babies] brought to the surface common misunderstandings — even among scientists and ethicists — that reproductive uses of this ...
Things to know about flu shots, including whether it’s too soon to get one
Three years ago, STAT laid out some of the questions surrounding flu vaccination in an article you can find here. Lots ...
New CRISPR tool promises ability to reduce unintended consequences to almost zero, treat expanded range of diseases
A new form of the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 appears to significantly expand the range of diseases that could be treated ...
Consumer genetic health-test market expands: Ancestry launches new service, paired with professional counseling
Ancestry, the consumer genetics company that has until now focused on helping people understand their family history, on [October 15] ...
African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented in Alzheimer’s research. Here are 4 ways to fix that
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, the organization we work with, recently analyzed more than 300 peer-reviewed studies of non-drug interventions for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Just ...
‘Temporary hurdle’: Russia halts scientist’s effort to create more CRISPR babies
Russian health officials are playing down international concerns that a Moscow researcher plans to create gene-edited babies any time soon, ...
‘Marsupial-enabled time machine’: How a Koala virus is giving researchers insights into the human genome
A koala retrovirus, or KoRV, has been rolling through koala populations in Australia from the north to south. It’s passed among the ...
Personalizing pancreatic cancer treatment by growing, treating tumors in a dish
Only about 15% of advanced pancreatic patients are alive two years after their diagnosis. Margaret Schwarzhans has now made it ...
Blaming overdiagnosis of cancer on ‘irrational exuberance’: Are we too concerned about early detection?
Even though overall mortality from cancer is falling, the overall incidence is rising. The declines in lung, stomach, cervical, and ...
Mental health apps are reading your texts—some of them are selling your data, raising privacy concerns
An app for monitoring people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is so precise it can track when a patient steps ...
23andMe venturing into business of recruiting patients for clinical trials
Consumer genetics giant 23andMe announced [September 26] that it would move deeper into the business of clinical trial recruitment, partnering with a ...
California man invites scientists to experiment with CRISPR on his rare disorder
On one level, Malakkar Vohryzek always knew what was wrong with him. For as long as he can remember — ...
This winter’s flu vaccine may not be ‘optimally protective’. We could be in for a rough season.
Twice a year influenza experts meet at the World Health Organization to pore over surveillance data provided by countries around ...
Viewpoint: The key to ethical human germline editing is ‘slow science’
The hubris of some scientists knows no bounds. Less than a year after He Jiankui, a Chinese biophysicist, drew scorn ...
