STAT
‘Game-changing’ drug first ever postpartum depression medication approved by FDA
The Food and Drug Administration on [March 19] approved brexanolone, the first drug specifically targeted to treat postpartum depression — ...
Promising Alzheimer’s drug trial halted
Alzheimer’s disease has beaten back another effort to tame it. Biogen and its Japanese pharma partner Eisai said [March 21] ...
Is it OK to take sperm from the dead?
[A] New York judge earlier this month ordered a medical center to save the sperm of Peter Zhu, a 21-year-old cadet ...
Viewpoint: Genetic research can’t fulfill its potential without greater diversity in study populations
Genetic differences exist between people of different ancestries. That means genetic studies that focus on just a handful of populations ...
Tetanus infection offers ‘gut-wrenching’ warning about dangers of not vaccinating children
A 6-year-old boy from Oregon who had never received a single vaccine got a cut on his forehead while playing ...
Amidst measles outbreaks, ‘massive’ new study proves again that vaccines don’t cause autism
A massive new study from Denmark found no association between being vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella and developing autism. In science ...
US approves immunotherapy for breast cancer for first time
Roche’s cancer immunotherapy Tecentriq (atezolizumab), a PD-L1 inhibitor, scored its fifth Food and Drug Administration approval on [March 8], for advanced triple-negative ...
How ‘smart toilets’ and other technologies could help detect cancer before it’s too late
I believe we should be more aggressively pursuing precision health: ways to prevent disease and, when that isn’t possible, intercept and ...
Can a blood test lead to more precise treatments for lung cancer patients?
Could a blood test help more lung cancer patients get drugs that are targeted to the genetic weaknesses of their ...
‘Genetic crapshoot’: Two studies suggest clinical use of CRISPR hampered by off-target editing
The version of CRISPR whose selling point has been its precision suffers, ironically, from the same shortcoming that has dogged ...
Can vaccines be supercharged by CRISPR, creating ‘one-and-done’ virus protection?
Vaccines are risky or ineffective in people with compromised immune systems, they don’t even exist for several viral diseases, and ...
This small startup wants to change FDA clinical trials by making control groups unnecessary
Could a startup founded by two guys in their 20s change the way medical researchers study patients? The Food and ...
US government’s BOLD initiative seeks to close the African-American Alzheimer’s gap
Alzheimer’s is a public health crisis for which Congress has thankfully put aside its differences long enough to pass the ...
Pioneering ‘refugee’ from gene therapy’s darker days ‘kept the faith’
Gene therapy, now a pillar of biotechnology with the potential to cure deadly diseases, was once a cautionary tale of ...
Did China’s government fund the controversial ‘CRISPR babies’ experiment?
Three government institutions in China, including the nation’s science ministry, may have funded the “CRISPR babies” study that led to ...
‘Genome profiling’—not gene editing—could offer easiest path to smarter babies
For the foreseeable future, editing embryos to enhance IQ is a sci-fi fantasy. A different approach aimed at enhancing IQ ...
Esketamine could soon be approved for depression, prompting ‘excitement and hesitation’
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to approve esketamine, which would become the ...
Rethinking cancer care: Home-based treatments may be right around the corner
Imagine having cancer and being told that most of your treatment will happen in your home instead of a high-tech ...
Viewpoint: It’s time for a debate on precision medicine and its failed promises
Although some niche applications have been found for precision medicine, and gene therapy is now becoming a reality for a ...
Shortcomings of new cystic fibrosis treatments illustrate the complexity of some genetic diseases
Josh Hillman, a 23-year-old Harvard Law student from Alabama, has cystic fibrosis, the progressive genetic disease that causes frequent lung ...
Researchers launch quest to understand why mental health treatments do or don’t work
Successful mental health treatments can function like a conversation: The brain hears some kind of message — whether it’s from ...
CRISPR-based drugs face tricky manufacturing problem
There are two key challenges in delivering a CRISPR-Cas9 therapy so it is effective in the body: It must be ...
Viewpoint: Human gene-editing ethics should not ‘be left to scientists alone’
There is one important takeaway from the controversy [about He Jiankui’s gene-edited babies] that seems to have gone overlooked in ...
Controversial brain preservation company Nectome seeks second, more ethical, chance
Robert McIntyre would like to get a few things straight. That “waiting list” of people plunking down $10,000 to have ...
Precision medicine for dogs? Silicon Valley startup wants to make it happen
When pet dogs are diagnosed with cancer, they typically get surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation — that is, of course, if ...
How your history with the flu could shape your body’s response to vaccines
If you’ve ever gotten a flu shot — and then, later that season, gotten the flu — you were more ...
Questions arise over US scientist’s role in CRISPR baby controversy
An American scientist at Rice University was far more involved in the widely condemned “CRISPR babies” experiment than has previously ...
