March 11, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – It sounds like science fiction, but Odunsi is among dozens of people participating in studies on a controversial new forefront of the gene-editing revolution. Regulators last year approved the world’s first medicine using Crispr, the Nobel … Read More
March 7, 2024
(The Atlantic) – The disease once guaranteed an early death—but a new treatment has given many patients a chance to live decades longer than expected. What do they do now? After a year on Trikafta, Jenny told Teresa something that … Read More
March 5, 2024
(Nature) – Cells taken from the fluid around growing fetuses have been used to make organoids, 3D bundles of cells that mimic tissue. These organoids could help researchers to understand diseases that develop in the fetus during pregnancy. The researchers … Read More
March 1, 2024
(Associated Press) – Two scientists at a high-security infectious disease laboratory in Canada lost their jobs after reviews found they failed to protect sensitive material and information and did not acknowledge links with China, newly released records show. The scientists, … Read More
February 29, 2024
(NPR) – At the end of the drive, I meet David Ayares, who runs Revivicor Inc., a biotech company based in Blacksburg, Virginia. Ayares has invited me to be the first journalist to tour the company’s research farm, which is … Read More
February 29, 2024
(Reuters) – U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Elon Musk’s Neuralink, less than a month after the startup said it was cleared to test its brain implants in … Read More
February 27, 2024
(Aeon) – Good Chemistry takes viewers behind the scenes and beyond the headlines of the CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough. Centred on the work of the French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier and the US biochemist Jennifer Doudna, who together became the first all-female … Read More
February 23, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The Alabama legal ruling is clearly animated by religion—there are lots of Bible quotes and references to “murder” when discussing abortion. But what hasn’t gotten as much notice is the court’s specific argument that an embryo … Read More
February 22, 2024
(Vox) – If you take it for granted that nobody can listen in on your innermost thoughts, I regret to inform you that your brain may not be private much longer. You may have heard that Elon Musk’s company Neuralink … Read More
February 21, 2024
(Nature) – The CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing system excels at altering and disrupting genes. But the changes it makes are permanent, which can be a big problem if the system goes awry. Now, a CRISPR-based system that targets a cell’s short-lived messenger … Read More
February 21, 2024
(Axios) – While CAR-T has been successful in some blood cancers, it’s not yet been approved for solid tumors, which make up about 90% of cancer types. The new therapy class — tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TIL — uses immune cells from … Read More
February 21, 2024
(Undark) – The swabbers were sampling what’s called environmental DNA, or eDNA, representing the assortment of cells that all humans, animals, and microorganisms naturally shed as they go about their everyday lives, leaving genetic fingerprints. The scientists gradually quantified and … Read More
February 21, 2024
(Nature) – Although the main impetus behind the work is to help restore functions to people with paralysis, the technology also gives researchers a unique way to explore how the human brain is organized, and with greater resolution than most … Read More
February 20, 2024
(Reuters) – The first human patient implanted with a brain-chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startup’s founder Elon Musk said late on Monday. “Progress is good, … Read More
February 16, 2024
(The Conversation) – Putting a computer inside someone’s brain used to feel like the edge of science fiction. Today, it’s a reality. Academic and commercial groups are testing “brain-computer interface” devices to enable people with disabilities to function more independently. … Read More
February 14, 2024
(Wired) – For years, a type of bacteria called Enterococcus faecium lurked in Lynn Cole’s bloodstream. Often found in hospitals, E. faecium is usually a gut-dwelling bacteria but can creep into other areas of the body. Her doctors tried various … Read More
February 9, 2024
(Wired) – In the 19th century, French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot noticed that Parkinson’s symptoms seemed to be markedly better after patients had been on long carriage or train rides, and subsequent research has revealed that rhythmic auditory, visual, or physical … Read More
February 7, 2024
(Nature) – The trial is not registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, an online repository curated by the US National Institutes of Health. Many universities require that researchers register a trial and its protocol in a public repository of this type before study … Read More
February 6, 2024
(STAT News) – America’s outdated approach to medical device oversight starts with limited testing prior to FDA authorization for the vast majority of marketed devices and ends with patchwork monitoring of patient safety. The tale of Philips Respironics — which … Read More
February 2, 2024
(Wired) – One biotech startup, rBIO of Houston, is aiming to make insulin more affordable by producing a copycat version of the drug—known as a biosimilar. It’s not the only company developing biosimilar insulin, but it says it has invented … Read More
February 1, 2024
(TIME) – Receiving an implant comes with risks. Some are typical surgical risks—such as excessive bleeding or infection. Others are unique. For example, the brain simulation that BCIs entail can triggerepileptiform activity, a precursor for epilepsy, or epileptic attacks. (Neuralink … Read More
February 1, 2024
(The Verge) – OpenAI’s GPT-4 only gave people a slight advantage over the regular internet when it came to researching bioweapons, according to a study the company conducted itself. Bloomberg reported that the research was carried out by the new … Read More
January 31, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – 23andMe went public in 2021 and its valuation briefly topped $6 billion. Forbes anointed Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s chief executive and a Silicon Valley celebrity, as the “newest self-made billionaire.” Now Wojcicki’s self-made billions have vanished. 23andMe’s … Read More
January 29, 2024
(RAND) – A complex, high-threat landscape is emerging in which future wars might be fought with humans controlling hyper-sophisticated machines with their thoughts; the military-industrial base is disturbed by synthetically generated, genomically targeted plagues; and the future warfighter goes beyond … Read More
January 26, 2024
(Reuters via Yahoo! News) – Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink was fined for violating U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rules regarding the movement of hazardous materials, according to records from the federal agency reviewed by Reuters. (Read More)
