Human-genome-sequencing pioneer Craig Venter, PhD, and his group have announced the achievement of a significant milestone: They've reconstructed the known genome of a bacterial organism, …
Author: Bruce Goldman
Crossing the valley of death: bridging the drug-development divide
Newsweek science columnists Sharon Begley and Mary Carmichael have written a cogent and provocative article about the impediments to moving promising early drug research out …
Two robust fragile X syndrome findings intersect
Last Friday, the New York Times reported successful results in an early-stage clinical trial of a drug for the treatment of fragile X syndrome. This …
Stumbling stem-cell policy regains footing
As I wrote last month and again just over a week ago, the Obama Administration tripped on a rake awhile back in an attempt to …
A fungus among us: deadly spores spell trouble in Ecotopia
Ah, nature. The Associated Press reports the emergence of a new, airborne deadly fungal strain that has crept out of the woodwork (literally: it grows …
U.S. health system's sketchy WHO rating is bogus, says horse's mouth
Last October I wrote about studies suggesting that America's reputation for shoddy health care was undeserved. Now, in a letter to the New England Journal …
Well-behaved stem-cell lines to emerge from unintended time-out?
In March 2009, the Obama Administration announced new guidelines for stem-cell funding, replacing what was widely considered a much more restrictive set of rules put …
Viruses can cause warts on your DNA
Just when we're getting over our discomfort with the notion that there are ten bacterial cells in your body for every one of your own, …
Two different types of MS, one big step toward personalized medicine
Larry Steinman, MD, is so committed to multiple-sclerosis research that every time he Googles something his laptop mysteriously inserts the term "multiple sclerosis" into the …
Positive results in deep-brain stimulation trial for epilepsy
Deep-brain stimulation - implantation and activation of a device that sends electronic pulses to targeted brain regions - has already proved helpful for Parkinson's Disease. …
Fear of having to switch stem-cell workhorses midstream
An NPR report today points out an oddly ironic result of the embryonic-stem-cell policy shift announced by the Obama Administration last year. On August 9, …
Why our brains may not like surprises
"Still, a man sees what he wants to see, and disregards the rest." You just know that those words from The Boxer, penned by Paul …
Hit the brakes on health-care bill, say two top Dem pollsters
Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen are pollsters for the last two non-GOP U.S. Presidents - Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, respectively. So it's revealing that …
Old 8th grade algebra sucks new medical information from blood
0.24a + 0.41b + 0.35c + 0.12d + . . . = 1.00 0.21a + 0.29b + 0.20c + 0.08d + . . . = …
Guts and glory: Growing intestinal tissue in a lab dish
The intestine is, in its essence, a tube surrounded by rings of smooth muscle that periodically undergo rhythmic, sequential contractions followed by relaxations. This squeezes …
Ain't no cure for the muscle-cramp blues: The sun slowly sets on quinine
On June 8, 1962 - the ninth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation - Commander Walter Edward Whitehead, the bearded pitchman for Schweppes quinine water, …