February 20, 2025
(Nature) – The child, who is now almost three years old, shows no signs of the often fatal motor neuron disease. A two-and-a-half-year-old girl shows no signs of a rare genetic disorder, after becoming the first person to be treated … Read More
February 18, 2025
(The Economist) – In recent months China’s progress in artificial intelligence has stunned the world. A quieter, yet equally significant shift is under way in biotech. China has long been known for churning out generic drugs, supplying raw ingredients and managing clinical … Read More
February 18, 2025
(Reuters via MSN) – U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were fired over the weekend as part of a broader purge of the federal workforce, according to two sources with knowledge of the … Read More
February 17, 2025
(Nature) – CAR-T-cell therapy treated a girl with a rare childhood cancer, raising hopes for future recipients of the approach. The girl was four years old when she arrived at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston to receive a highly experimental … Read More
February 17, 2025
(ProPublica) – The story of Zolgensma lays bare a confounding reality about modern drug development, in which revolutionary new treatments are becoming available only to be priced out of reach for many. It’s a story that upends commonly held conceptions … Read More
February 11, 2025
(New Yorker) – In the coming years, an unprecedented number of people will leave planet Earth–but it’s becoming increasingly clear that deep space will make us sick. (Read More)
February 10, 2025
(Associated Press) – A New Hampshire man fought for the chance at a pig kidney transplant, spending months getting into good enough shape to be part of a small pilot study of a highly experimental treatment. His effort paid off: … Read More
February 7, 2025
(New York Times) – Surgeons in Boston successfully transplanted the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a 66-year-old man with kidney failure last month, Massachusetts General Hospital announced on Friday. It was the fourth pig kidney transplant in the … Read More
February 7, 2025
(NBC News) – A startup called LinusBio says its test can help doctors rule out autism spectrum disorder in children 1 to 36 months old. LinusBio, a New Jersey-based startup, on Thursday launched the test, called Clearstrand-ASD, which it says … Read More
February 7, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – It isn’t just artificial intelligence—Chinese biotechs are now developing drugs faster and cheaper than their U.S. counterparts The biotech industry’s DeepSeek moment came last fall. That is when Summit Therapeutics, backed by billionaire Bob Duggan, announced that … Read More
February 6, 2025
(NPR) – Daily electrical stimulation of certain nerves in the spinal cord appeared to help three people with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), an inherited disorder that causes muscles to waste away. The treatment increased leg muscle strength in all three … Read More
February 6, 2025
(STAT News) – How hype, scientific setbacks, and growing investor demands humbled the gene editing industry A strange thing happened weeks before the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment made with CRISPR gene editing, an all-but cure for … Read More
February 5, 2025
(The New Yorker) – One of the most valuable substances in the world has never been replicated. Are we close? Blood is in high demand almost everywhere, but its seemingly endless complexity has confounded scientists for decades. (Read More)
February 3, 2025
(New York Times) – The research offers hope to tens of thousands of patients with kidney failure who are on a long waiting list for an organ transplant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to … Read More
January 30, 2025
(NPR) – Towana Looney is waiting to check in with her doctors at NYU Health Langone when it registers that she’s passing a major milestone in her recovery from a kidney transplant. In late November she became the first person … Read More
January 29, 2025
(Wired) – The FDA recently approved a bioengineered blood vessel, which becomes part of a patient’s body over time. It’s designed to help treat victims of traumatic injuries. Each year, about 185,000 people in the United States undergo amputation. Nearly … Read More
January 28, 2025
(BBC) – A man fitted with a pioneering, computer-controlled brain implant to tackle his Parkinson’s disease says it works so well he is sometimes able to forget he has the condition. A small computer inserted into Kevin Hill’s chest wall … Read More
January 28, 2025
(Axios) – Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University are working on a novel approach to influenza vaccination that could provide broad protection against multiple strains — including the H5N1 bird flu virus — without the yearly injection. The big … Read More
January 28, 2025
(The New Atlantis) – From cradle to grave, surrogacy to smartphones to gender surgery to euthanasia, Americans are using technology to shortcut human nature — and shortchange ourselves. Here is a new agenda for turning technology away from hacking humans … Read More
January 27, 2025
(Associated Press) – An Alabama woman passed a major milestone Saturday to become the longest living recipient of a pig organ transplant – healthy and full of energy with her new kidney for 61 days and counting. “I’m superwoman,” Towana … Read More
January 27, 2025
(The Guardian) – Exclusive: In-vitro gametes are viewed as the holy grail of fertility research Mass-producing eggs and sperm in a laboratory in order to have a baby with yourself or three other people in a “multiplex” parenting arrangement might … Read More
January 23, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – The Trump administration is preparing an executive order that would halt federal funding, at least temporarily, for a risky and controversial kind of research into viruses that makes the pathogens more dangerous or contagious. The goal … Read More
January 16, 2025
(Science) – Result could be first success at stitching a curative gene into a chromosome’s “safe harbor,” reducing cancer and other risks A little-known gene editor, tested with help from a disgraced gene therapist seeking redemption, may have cured a … Read More
January 16, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – Neuralink did not reply to emails seeking comment, but here is what our analysis of its public statements leads us to expect from the company in 2025. How many people will get these implants?Elon Musk keeps … Read More
January 15, 2025
(Nature) – Proteins designed using artificial intelligence (AI) can block the lethal effects of toxins delivered in the venom of cobras, adders and other deadly snakes. The AI-designed proteins could form the basis of a new generation of therapies for … Read More
