nature
Asians and Blacks dramatically under-represented in medical research, distorting drug therapy effectiveness
A 2018 analysis of studies looking for genetic variants associated with disease found that under-representation [of minorities] persists: 78% of ...
How animals think
Neuroscientists wanting to understand the brain’s coding language have conventionally studied how its networks of cells respond to sensory information ...
Why is it so difficult to battle antibiotic resistance?
Before COVID-19, antibiotic resistance was estimated to kill at least 700,000 people each year worldwide. That number could now climb ...
Older coronavirus victims 350 percent likelier to experience symptoms than 10-19 year olds
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown a markedly low proportion of cases among children. Age disparities in observed cases could be ...
When CRISPR gene editing falls short: ‘Base editing’ might treat disorders on the maternal line in mitochondrial DNA
[A] technique — which builds on a super-precise version of gene editing called base editing — could allow researchers to ...
Viewpoint: Activist opposition to GMOs fueled by an ‘extremist’ vision of nature
We would like to take the opportunity on #Worldenvironmentday to come back to a problem we have been thinking about ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO groups push ‘natural’ COVID cures, deny pandemic-fighting biotech solutions
One of the primary arguments hurled at proponents of genetic engineering is that the crops, medicines and vaccines produced using ...
Infographic: Animal origins or lab leak? Tracing coronavirus back to the source
Since the pandemic began, the question of where the coronavirus came from has been one of the biggest puzzles. It ...
Video: Unnatural is better—How technology keeps us healthier and living longer
American Council on Science and Health microbiologist Alex Berezow takes on one of the most pervasive myths on social media ...
Infographic: 8 ways we can defeat the coronavirus
More than 90 vaccines are being developed against SARS-CoV-2 by research teams in companies and universities across the world. Researchers ...
Genetic analysis unravels East Asia’s history, highlighting migration of early farmers
Ancient genomics is starting to unravel the history of East Asia. The first large-scale studies of ancient human genomes from ...
Anti-vaccine online movement targeting undecided groups in social media, spreading disinformation about safety and coronavirus containment efforts, study warns
As scientists work to create a vaccine against COVID-19, a small but fervent anti-vaccination movement is marshalling against it. Campaigners ...
‘A radical idea’: Could a single factor be responsible for all mental illnesses?
What are the roots of mental illness? In the hope of finding an answer, scientists have piled up an enormous ...
Why isn’t there an ‘accelerated pathway’ for approving treatments during a pandemic?
Commercial biopharmaceutical discovery is a less than ideal vehicle for responding to an outbreak of a new viral pathogen spreading ...
Searching for coronavirus ‘antidote’ in the blood of former patients
Hospitals in New York City are gearing up to use the blood of people who have recovered from COVID-19 as ...
Viewpoint: To protect genetic privacy, it’s ‘crucial’ that we develop an international code of conduct
Genomics researchers worldwide are increasingly dealing with vast data sets gathered by consortia spanning many countries. Most are unclear on ...
‘Excitement is finally catching on’: Why RNA editing may be more promising than CRISPR
CRISPR editing — at least as a therapeutic technique in people — has turned out to be more difficult than ...
Developing a ‘kill switch’ to make CRISPR gene editing more precise—and safer
[Microbiologists] stumbled onto tools now known as anti-CRISPRs. These proteins serve as the rocks to CRISPR’s molecular scissors. And soon, ...
Quest to understand sense of touch could lead to new treatments for chronic pain
If she wasn’t looking at her limbs, the girl didn’t seem to have any clue where they were. She lacked ...
‘Search and destroy’: Precision stem cell treatments could be safer against blood cancers
Scientists are experimenting with ways to selectively target the body’s blood-making cells for destruction. Early studies in animals and people ...
‘De novo genes’: How natural selection creates new genes from nothing
In the depths of winter, water temperatures in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean can sink below zero. That’s cold enough to ...
Emerging field of ‘social genomics’ comes with ethical, societal risks: ‘Who’s going to benefit?’
By looking at the genomes of people living in former coal-mining areas, [geneticist Abdel Abdellaoui] has found genetic signatures associated ...
Researchers retract study questioning long-term health of China’s controversial CRISPR babies
A study that raised questions over the future health of the world’s first gene-edited babies has been retracted because of ...
Japan’s quest to be world leader in regenerative medicine sparks surge in questionable stem cell treatments
In the United States, authorities have grappled with a surge of clinics selling therapies that are unsupported by evidence and, ...
‘Using Nature’s Shuttle’: Judith M. Heimann’s fascinating new book about how scientists learned to create genetically modified crops
Judith M. Heimann’s recent book [Using Nature's Shuttle] provides a thoroughly engaging account of how [the mystery of plant crown ...
First real anti-aging drug on the horizon? Common drugs turned back body’s epigenetic clock 2.5 years in small trial
A small clinical study in California has suggested for the first time that it might be possible to reverse the ...
Japanese woman receives first artificial cornea created from reprogrammed stem cells
A Japanese woman in her forties has become the first person in the world to have her cornea repaired using ...
CRISPR creates ‘smart’ hydrogels that could lead to therapies capable of fighting multiple infections, diseases
Is there anything CRISPR can’t do? Scientists have wielded the gene-editing tool to make scores of genetically modified organisms, as ...
