Recently in the Biomedicine Category
March 15, 2010 3:59 PM
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Amid Fraud Allegations, Researchers Say Vaccine Science Solid
The anti-vaccine movement has been buzzing over a fraud investigation involving Poul Thorsen, a Danish scientist who co-authored key papers in 2002 and 2003 that found no link between...
March 15, 2010 2:11 PM
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Israel Steps Up Efforts to Bring Back Expat Scientists
The Israeli government has adopted a $350 million plan to lure back its scientists working abroad, Israeli media reported yesterday. According to Haaretz, the scheme will create 30 academic...
March 11, 2010 2:25 PM
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Half a Million for Gene Sequencers
The 10th annual Albany Medical Center Prize—the U.S.'s biggest prize in biomedicine—will go to three scientists who conceptualized the Human Genome Project: Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes...
March 9, 2010 2:54 PM
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Bill Introduced to Codify U.S. Stem Cell Rules
Congressional supporters of stem cell research have re-introduced legislation to codify President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order lifting restrictions on the number of human embryonic stem cell lines available...
March 7, 2010 9:53 AM
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Varmus Dispels Cancer Institute Rumor
Could science superstar Harold Varmus be named the next director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)? Last week, that rumor swept through the cancer research community. But Varmus, a...
March 3, 2010 5:19 PM
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Hopes Dashed for (Another) Alzheimer's Drug
Alzheimer's researchers have faced a series of frustrations in recent years as one promising compound after another has flopped in late-stage clinical trials. Unfortunately, the string continues with the...
February 24, 2010 5:02 PM
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New Science to Bolster FDA Drug Approval
Two federal agencies today announced a new initiative to support regulatory science, the tools and standards used to evaluate new drugs and devices. The National Institutes of Health and...
February 23, 2010 3:53 PM
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The Latest Buzz: Orszag Budgets for Caffeine Genetic Marker
Peter Orszag, the high-energy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, recently shared some good news with Politico. No, he hasn't solved the country's economic problems....
February 22, 2010 4:47 PM
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Wellcome Unveils a Road Map
The Wellcome Trust, the United Kingdom's massive biomedical research charity, has a released a strategic plan for its next decade....
February 22, 2010 1:33 PM
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"End Homeopathy on NHS," Say British MPs
In a report released today, the United Kingdom's House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has decided that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo and should not be...
February 19, 2010 3:44 PM
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FBI Closes Anthrax Case, Says Bruce Ivins Was Sole Culprit Behind Letter Attacks
Nearly a year-and-a-half after implicating U.S. Army researcher Bruce Ivins in the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, the United States government has formally closed the case. In a press...
February 18, 2010 2:50 PM
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Facing Own Lawsuit, Firm Drops Libel Suit Against Researcher
GE Healthcare has dropped its controversial libel claim against the Danish radiologist Henrik Thomsen, who had infuriated the company by repeatedly suggesting that Omniscan, an agent used to enhance...
February 10, 2010 10:46 AM
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New Criteria for Psychiatric Diagnoses Proposed
Today the American Psychiatric Association (APA) releases proposed revisions to the most influential book in psychiatry: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These draft criteria for diagnosing...
February 9, 2010 12:45 PM
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Michelle Obama's War on Childhood Obesity Starts Now
First Lady Michelle Obama has launched a major initiative on childhood obesity, one of her signature topics. The carefully orchestrated rollout—Obama has been foreshadowing her plan for over a...
February 8, 2010 7:08 AM
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Landmark Pluripotent Patent Has Stem Cell Researchers Nervous
In what may presage an intellectual property battle, Rudolf Jaenisch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Konrad Hochedlinger of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston will be...
February 5, 2010 2:35 PM
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Parsing NIH's 2011 Budget: Is Big Science Up, Small Science Down?
Is National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins planning to steer his ocean liner of an institute toward "big biology" at the expense of single-investigator grants? That was the...
February 4, 2010 4:59 PM
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Biotech Chiefs Slam U.S. Report on Gene Patents
Anticipating a series of federal recommendations on gene patents coming out tomorrow, a former Senator and four executives at biotech companies and biotech trade groups criticized the Department of Health...
February 1, 2010 6:51 PM
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NIH Director Bends Budget to Fit Five Themes
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins says he's pleased with the $1 billion raise, to $32.1 billion, that NIH is slated to get in the president's 2011...
February 1, 2010 5:24 PM
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FDA Gears Up for Food Safety, Drug Surveillance
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could get a substantial boost if Congress approves President Barack Obama's 2011 request for a 23% increase over its current budget, to a...
February 1, 2010 11:14 AM
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In a Flat Discretionary Budget, Slight Boost for NIH Is Good News for Biomed Lobbyists
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is slated to get $32.089 billion, an increase of $1 billion or a 3.2% raise. Biomedical research lobbyists say it's the first time...
January 29, 2010 2:39 PM
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Gates Call for "Decade of Vaccines," Pledges Assault on Child Mortality
Philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates called on the world today to launch a "decade of vaccines" that would dramatically reduce childhood mortality in poor countries—and they pledged to raise...
January 28, 2010 12:04 PM
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FASEB Says the National Institutes of Health Needs 19% Raise in 2011
Undaunted by tight fiscal times, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is recommending a whopping 19% increase, to $37 billion, for the 2011 budget of the...
January 26, 2010 2:21 PM
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Sanford Donates $50 Million for Biomedical Research
South Dakota banking mogul Denny Sanford has donated $50 million more to the Burnham Medical Research Institute in San Diego, California, which will be renamed the Sanford-Burnham Institute in honor of...
January 23, 2010 12:44 PM
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German Medical Institute Director Will Lose Job
Citing a wish to avoid distractions such as disputed expense accounts, the board of the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care has decided to not renew...
January 22, 2010 1:59 PM
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Canada's Vision for Alzheimer Research Hits a Snag
OTTAWA—Alain Beaudet, almost from the moment he became president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research 2 years ago, has been talking about the need for a multibillion-dollar initiative...
January 21, 2010 1:58 PM
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deCODE Genetics Rises From the Ashes
deCODE genetics, the Icelandic genomics company that declared bankruptcy in November, has made a comeback. Today it reappeared as "the New deCODE," a renamed version of the previous deCODE's...
January 20, 2010 3:40 PM
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Grassley Goes Fishing
As part of his ongoing investigation of conflicts of interest in biomedicine, Senator Charles Grassley (R–IA) now wants to comb through the e-mails of Thomas Insel, director of the National...
January 19, 2010 5:02 PM
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Turmoil at Baylor College of Medicine Over Conflicts, Possible Suitor
Worries about future governance continue to shake Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), the top ranked, but financially troubled research institution in Houston, Texas. Last week after merger talks with...
January 18, 2010 7:44 AM
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Under Fire from Pharma, German Institute May Lose Its Director (UPDATED)
A long-running feud between pharmaceutical companies and the German institute that evaluates the effectiveness of medical treatments could cost the institute director his job. Although the post is supposed...
January 15, 2010 11:34 AM
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H5N1 Forgotten (Almost), But Not Gone
While the world's flu fighters have concentrated on countering the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, avian influenza H5N1 has quietly continued to take its toll on both poultry and humans....
January 14, 2010 5:27 PM
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Facing Inquiry, WHO Strikes Back at "Fake Pandemic" Swine Flu Criticism
The chief flu scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) today defended his agency against criticism that the H1N1 swine flu pandemic was "fake," that its threat to human...
January 13, 2010 11:31 AM
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Panel Calls on U.S. Agencies to Require Free Access to Research Papers
A diverse group of scientific publishers, librarians, and university officials has come together to endorse a once-controversial idea: that all federal research agencies should require that papers published by...
January 12, 2010 4:08 PM
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Definitely Not Retirement, Says Varmus
Harold Varmus announced this morning that he’ll soon be leaving his job as president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Later in the day, he spoke to...
January 12, 2010 2:37 PM
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Rice-Baylor Marriage Proposal Falls Apart
A plan to merge Texas's only private medical school with a nearby top research university has collapsed. Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Rice University, both in Houston, had...
January 8, 2010 5:23 PM
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Government Panel Proposes New Rules for Handling Dangerous Pathogens
The White House has released a much-awaited report on ways to strengthen biosecurity in the United States. Produced by an intragovernmental working group that was set up by President...
January 8, 2010 7:02 AM
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U.K. Lords: Nanofoods Deserve Further Scrutiny
You might think that the cleverest thing a physicist can do with your food is to explain why dropped toast always lands butter side down (incidentally, they can). But...
January 6, 2010 3:41 PM
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Wisconsin Wins a Battle Over Cholesterol Compounds
Chalk up another patent victory for the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Its hard-hitting intellectual property adjunct—the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)—appears to have clobbered a biotech partner, Xenon Pharmaceuticals...
December 23, 2009 10:21 AM
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Harsh Reaction to Chemistry Claims Cast Doubt on Reactome Paper
A newly developed research tool called a reactome array, which has attracted widespread interest from biologists, has come under intense fire from scientists who say the description of the...
December 22, 2009 3:56 PM
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Merck's New Vaccine Honcho: Former CDC Chief Gerberding
After stepping down as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) almost a year ago, Julie Gerberding has a new gig: She will preside over vaccine...
December 21, 2009 11:44 AM
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Turnaround on Concussions for the National Football League Now Complete
The league has now fully embraced researchers it has long sought to discredit:“It’s quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems,” the...
December 18, 2009 12:16 PM
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Report Slams Deadly Dutch Probiotic Study
Most of the controversy over probiotic therapies, in which live "beneficial" bacteria or other microbes are administered to treat or prevent disease, has centered on their effectiveness, not their...
December 15, 2009 5:08 PM
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Irish Supreme Court Rules Lab Embryos Not Protected
Irish scientists who want to work with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) got a boost from Ireland's Supreme Court today, which ruled that human embryos outside the womb are...
December 11, 2009 11:33 AM
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Harvard to Halt Construction on $1 Billion Life-Sciences Complex
Harvard University has announced it will temporarily halt construction on a $1 billion life-sciences complex in Allston, a few miles away from the main Cambridge campus. Crews are currently working...
December 9, 2009 5:56 PM
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To Promote Scientific Creativity, Cut the Strings, Economists Say
Biomedical research leaders often complain that the U.S. system of funding research on specific projects stifles risk-taking and creativity. A better model, they say, would be to give researchers...
December 9, 2009 4:41 PM
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After Struggle With Roche, Panel Casts Doubt on Tamiflu
Does oseltamivir, better known as Tamiflu, prevent complications from influenza, such as pneumonia and influenza? We're no longer sure, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group that produces reviews of...
December 7, 2009 3:47 PM
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Threat of Animal Rights Violence Influenced Decision to Cancel Anthrax Project
Last week a commotion erupted over a canceled anthrax project at Oklahoma State University (OSU), Stillwater. The National Institutes of Health had agreed to fund the study, which involved...
December 7, 2009 1:16 PM
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London Superlab Gets a Plan and a Design
LONDON—At a press briefing today, researchers, government and biomedical charity officials, and architects unveiled design drawings and a scientific vision for a mammoth lab facility here that one participant says will be...
December 4, 2009 12:20 PM
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Researcher at Army Lab Infected With Rabbit Fever
A researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Frederick, Maryland, has contracted rabbit fever—also known as tularemia, USAMRIID officials announced today. The...
December 3, 2009 1:41 PM
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Expert Agreement With New Mammography Guidelines Clouded by Politics
A House of Representatives hearing that was supposed to look at the science behind a controversial policy on mammography yesterday erupted in a donnybrook. Conservative members of the Energy...
December 2, 2009 5:05 PM
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Why Did Oklahoma State Cancel Anthrax Research Project?
Three years ago, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, cut the ribbon on a brand new biosafety level 3 laboratory, a move the university hoped would position it to bring in...
December 2, 2009 2:51 PM
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Obama Begins Embryonic Stem Cell Research Support With $21 Million
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins announced today that the first 13 human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines have been approved for funding under the expanded policy outlined...
November 30, 2009 5:38 PM
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Government Guidance for Gene Firms to Prevent Bioterrorism
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a set of guidelines for how providers of custom-made DNA sequences should do business. The proposal is the first comprehensive...
November 25, 2009 5:07 PM
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Co-Chairs of NFL's Head Injury Committee Resign
The two men in charge of the National Football League's committee on mild traumatic brain injury have resigned, The New York Times reports today. The move appears to be...
November 24, 2009 3:46 PM
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Some HIV Prevention Efforts Working, Major Challenges Remain
In one of the first signs that HIV prevention efforts have begun to make a dent on a global scale, new infections appears to have dropped by 17% over...
November 23, 2009 12:38 PM
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Neurologists to NFL: We're Here to Help
The National Football League will require teams to consult an independent neurologist or neurosurgeon to determine when it's safe for a player to return to play after a concussion,...
November 19, 2009 5:37 PM
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NIH Undergoes Behavior (Research) Modification
Social and behavioral research is finally getting some of the high-level attention it has sought for years at the National Institutes of Health. Yesterday NIH Director Francis Collins announced...
November 19, 2009 2:33 PM
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University of Nebraska May Restrict Stem Cell Use
Nebraska citizens don't like the open-ended new Obama policy on research with human embryonic stem cells. So in response to public pressure, the University of Nebraska board of regents...
November 19, 2009 1:31 PM
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NIH Slammed Again for Lax Oversight of Conflicts of Interest
The National Institutes of Health is again being taken to task for doing too little to manage researchers' potential conflicts of interest, such as consulting for drug companies. This...
November 19, 2009 12:17 PM
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Eye Disease Trial Could Be First Embryonic Stem Cell Effort In U.S.
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced today that it has applied to the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a trial using embryonic stem cell–derived retinal pigment epithelial cells to...
November 18, 2009 2:45 PM
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New Genome Research Head to Tackle Unclear Budget, Data Glut
In 2 weeks, human geneticist Eric Green will take the reins of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the arm of the National Institutes of Health that spearheaded...
November 17, 2009 2:55 PM
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Should NIH Study Conflicts of Interest More?
A new group is adding its voice to the furor over the influence of drug money on medical research and practice, saying there should be more money to study...
November 17, 2009 2:41 PM
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To Improve Global Health, Scientists Want Money for Chronic Disease Research
The genomics company deCODE genetics Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, but that doesn't mean it is disappearing. The company will keep going with a loan from an...
November 13, 2009 12:07 PM
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Psychologist Wins Million-Dollar Prize for Work on the Adolescent Brain
Temple University psychologist Laurence Steinberg has been awarded the first Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize. The new award, worth $1 million, comes from the Zurich-based Jacobs Foundation, founded by...
November 12, 2009 12:19 PM
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Drug Companies Flagged for Biased Reporting
The drug companies Pfizer and Parke-Davis (now a subsidiary of Pfizer) shaded clinical trial results in at least 12 studies in order to make the drug gabapentin appear more...
November 12, 2009 11:20 AM
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In Asia, A Debate Over Making Cancer a Global Health Priority
Not surprisingly, cancer researchers in Asia think their specialty deserves to be a higher global health priority. Today at an Asia Cancer Forum discussion in Tsukuba, Japan, one speaker...
November 5, 2009 3:46 PM
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Swine Flu Vaccine Distribution Dilemmas: Hey, You, No Cuts!
Concern appears to be rising at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about people in lower risk groups cutting in line to receive the limited supplies of...
November 5, 2009 3:37 PM
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Sick of Swine Flu? Here Comes H3N2
With reporting by Martin Enserink. Although the world’s attention is focused on the novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu pandemic, H3N2, a seasonal strain of influenza, has popped...
November 4, 2009 1:46 PM
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Why Are Drug Companies Funding Less Academic Research?
Fewer academic biomedical scientists are relying on industry support for their research than in the mid-'90s, according to a study highlighted today in The Boston Globe. That's the most...
November 3, 2009 4:18 PM
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When Will U.S. Give Up Vaccine for the Poor?
It's a promise: 10% of the 250 million doses of H1N1 vaccine purchased by the United States will be donated to help poor countries. But when is still unclear....
November 3, 2009 3:22 PM
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The Challenge of Getting Swine Flu Vaccine to Poor Nations
As the H1N1 swine flu pandemic marches on, western countries have begun vaccinating their most vulnerable populations against the virus. But many countries in the developing world lack the...
November 2, 2009 4:21 PM
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Could a Drug Reverse Mental Retardation?
Can a genetic disorder that derails brain development be cured with a drug? A clinical trial announced today represents the first step towards testing a drug therapy for Fragile...
November 2, 2009 4:14 PM
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Two Shots for Kids, One for Preggers: U.S. Clarifies Swine Flu Vaccine Doses, Addresses Vaccine Safety Fears
U.S. policymakers erred on the side of caution in September when they recommended that children under 10 need two doses of the swine flu vaccine to develop a strong...
October 30, 2009 5:46 PM
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Swine Flu Spread Continues to Outpace Efforts to Treat and Prevent Disease
Health officials today reiterated that the novel H1N1 virus continues to spread rapidly around temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere, hospitalizing and killing an unusual number of children, young adults,...
October 30, 2009 2:22 PM
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Top U.K. Drug Adviser Out
Illicit drugs, science and politics can be a volatile mix, no doubt. So it's not a total surprise that David Nutt, a respected psychopharmacologist at the Bristol outpost of...
October 29, 2009 6:04 PM
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In Celebrated Reversal, a South African President Finally Confronts Country's HIV/AIDS Epidemic
South African President Jacob Zuma unequivocally declared today that his country had to step up its efforts against HIV/AIDS. "We need to do more, and we need to do...
October 29, 2009 12:14 PM
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Where NIH's Stimulus Money Went
The results are in for National Institutes of Health's much-discussed Challenge Grants, and the news is only slightly better than expected: The agency funded 840 projects, which puts the...
October 28, 2009 1:46 PM
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How Swine Flu Vaccines Are Like Disco
Pandemics make strange bedfellows—in this case, public health advocates and defense hawks....
October 28, 2009 1:28 PM
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Judge Throws Out Stem Cell Lawsuit
A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration's policy lifting restrictions on using federal funds to study human embryonic stem cells. Christian groups had sued the...
October 23, 2009 6:07 PM
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Roundup 10/23: The Future's So Bright Edition
President Barack Obama didn't launch any new initiatives in his visit today to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he highlighted clean energy technology and the need for climate...
October 23, 2009 1:11 PM
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Cancer Center Stumbled on Clinical Trials, Ex-Employee Charges
Molecular biologist Suzanne Stratton was working to improve clinical trials at the Carle Cancer Center of Urbana, Illinois, when she was fired late last year—prompting an investigation of the...
October 22, 2009 3:08 PM
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NIH Heart Institute Director Heading for Harvard
Elizabeth Nabel; director of the $3 billion National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; told staff in a memo today that with "bittersweet emotions" she is leaving at the end of...
October 21, 2009 10:57 AM
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Childhood Vaccinations at All-Time High
There's good news today for global health: More children than ever before are being vaccinated against deadly childhood diseases, and vaccine production is up, according to a report from...
October 20, 2009 4:38 PM
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AIDS Vaccine Study Reassures Skeptics
PARIS—The fog around the largest AIDS vaccine study ever conducted began to lift today, as Thai and U.S. researchers for the first time publicly presented a detailed analysis of their...
October 20, 2009 3:49 PM
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Novel H1N1 Continues to Wallop Younger U.S. Population
A new analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of severe disease caused by the novel H1N1 virus again emphasizes that people under 65 suffer...
October 16, 2009 3:24 PM
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Mouse Lab Getting Personal, Sniffs Florida Digs
The Jackson Laboratory, the mouse-research powerhouse in Bar Harbor, Maine, is thinking about building a branch in south Florida as part of a move into personalized medicine. The nonprofit...
October 9, 2009 3:40 PM
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CDC: Get Your Swine Flu Shots
As the availability of swine flu vaccine steadily increases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping up its efforts to combat a growing sense of complacency...
October 8, 2009 11:20 AM
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Hurry Up and Wait for Kansas Agro-Bio Lab
A Homeland Security spending bill that received final approval from Congress yesterday will grant the Department of Homeland Security $32 million the next fiscal year to continue planning the...
October 7, 2009 2:18 PM
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A New Journal for Translating Biomedical Discoveries
Moving discoveries out of the lab and into clinics has become one of the top goals of biomedical research leaders. They've called for programs to deploy research findings more rapidly...
October 6, 2009 4:25 PM
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Slowly But Surely, U.S. Swine Flu Vaccination Begins
As predicted, the U.S. government has started to deliver a small amount of swine flu vaccines to states this week, and states are wrestling with how to decide who...
October 1, 2009 11:27 AM
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Signs of Dementia a Growing Headache for the NFL
Yesterday, The New York Times broke a story about a study that seems to add to mounting evidence that playing in the National Football League increases the risk of...
September 30, 2009 2:11 PM
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Obama Announces $5 Billion in NIH Grants; Cancer, Autism, Heart Disease Named as Targets
President Barack Obama paid a visit to the National Institutes of Health this morning to announce that the agency has given out $5 billion in stimulus money for over 12,000...
September 30, 2009 12:16 PM
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Big Progress, Daunting Challenges in HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention
The push to deliver antiretroviral drugs to all HIV-infected people who need them made another step forward last year, but still has a long ways to go. As of...
September 29, 2009 5:05 PM
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Bio-Containment Labs Urged to Report Accidents, Train Personnel
How can safety be improved at biocontainment labs, where researchers work with dangerous pathogens and toxins? A new report from an interagency task force that has been studying the topic...
September 25, 2009 11:53 AM
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FDA Admits Politics Trumped Science on Knee Device
For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has publicly admitted that politics has trumped science. The agency acknowledged yesterday that it approved a device to help...
September 24, 2009 12:18 AM
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Massive AIDS Vaccine Study a "Modest" Success
A large clinical trial of an AIDS vaccine has, for the first time, yielded positive results. But researchers immediately questioned the relevance of the data, which indicated that the...
September 23, 2009 4:10 PM
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Rethinking the Ingredients of Influenza Vaccines for 2010
Next winter in the Southern Hemisphere, influenza vaccines should no longer be designed to protect against the seasonal H1N1 strain as the pandemic H1N1 strain has replaced it, according...
September 22, 2009 9:52 AM
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To Help Young Scientists, NIH Bends Quality Rules
A new analysis of the grantsmaking process at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lifts the veil on how many grant proposals are funded even though they fall below...
September 21, 2009 6:01 PM
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Plague Samples Suspected In Scientist Death
An autopsy last week revealed that a geneticist who died mysteriously might have succumbed to the plague. Malcolm Casadaban, 60, studied a weakened and reportedly benign form of the...
September 21, 2009 2:05 PM
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Mixed Results of Swine Flu Vaccine in Kids
Early results from clinical trials suggest that healthy children under the age of 9 will likely need two doses of the swine flu vaccine, but those between 10 and...
September 21, 2009 11:40 AM
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Get Your Cells Vetted
The National Institutes of Health took a step today toward facilitating the new Administration policy on use of human embryonic stem cells, opening a Web site where NIH-funded scientists...
September 18, 2009 4:19 PM
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New Date for First U.S. Swine Flu Vaccine Arrival
At least 3.4 million doses of swine flu vaccine will become available the first week in October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today. In one...
September 18, 2009 1:54 PM
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Roundup 9/18: Playing a New Tune Edition
The University of California, San Francisco, appointed pediatrician Sam Hagwood yesterday as dean of its medical school. Hagwood was named interim dean in December 2007 after the abrupt dismissal of...
September 17, 2009 3:00 PM
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Countries That Have Swine Flu Vaccine Will Share With Have-Nots
In the wake of evidence that a single dose of the swine flu vaccine can protect adults, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan today to share 10% of...
September 17, 2009 2:30 PM
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Panel Calls for $20 Billion "New Biology" Initiative
A group of senior scientists today called for an ambitious new U.S. biology research initiative that would tackle broad challenges involving food, energy, the environment, and health. The proposal...
September 17, 2009 11:13 AM
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Behind the Scenes on a New Vaccines Push in India
This morning in London, Merck and the Wellcome Trust unveiled an unusual joint vaccine development effort, a $145 million non-profit research institute to be formed in India by the end...
September 15, 2009 5:04 PM
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Biomedical Scientists Remain Locked Out as Murder Investigation Continues
The Amistad Street Building in New Haven, Connecticut, where the body of Yale University grad student Annie Le was found Sunday, was closed again today. Officials have named scientists...
September 15, 2009 4:42 PM
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FDA Approves Swine Flu Vaccines
As expected, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved four vaccines against the novel H1N1 virus that is causing the swine flu pandemic. None of the vaccines are...
September 15, 2009 3:29 PM
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Stanford's Med School Discloses Industry Ties, Kinda
Stanford University's School of Medicine has followed through on a plan announced last spring to post the industry ties of its faculty on a public Web site. The school joins...
September 15, 2009 1:35 PM
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More Football Players Plan to Donate Brains to Tackle Injury Research
Three active players in the National Football League have agreed to donate their brains and spinal tissue after they die to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy...
September 14, 2009 2:28 PM
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Research Disrupted as Scientists in Shock Over Yale Murder
As the investigation into the horrific murder of 24-year-old Yale University pharmacology graduate student Annie Le has moved into high gear, the building in which she was found has...
September 14, 2009 2:17 PM
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Mayor Bloomberg Feted With Health Prize
Along with researchers studying nuclear reprogramming and physicians who developed a revolutionary leukemia drug, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won a public service award from the Lasker Foundation today....
September 11, 2009 5:04 PM
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HHS Celebrates Early Swine Flu Vaccine Results
In an effort to assuage growing concerns about the swine flu pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pulled out all stops today to broadcast the...
September 11, 2009 11:22 AM
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U.S. Swine Flu Vaccine: Good News, Bad News
An increasing number an influenza experts in the United States are worried that the wave of the swine flu epidemic that has started to hit the country may peak...
September 9, 2009 4:30 PM
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New Proposal Would Secure Pathogens, Both Dangerous and Safe
The United States currently has 82 viruses and bacteria on its list of select agents, pathogens whose handling requires compliance with a number of safety and security rules mandated by...
September 4, 2009 3:11 PM
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Researcher Sued Over Prostate Cancer Test
A prominent prostate cancer researcher has been sued by a biotech company for allegedly making false claims about a biomarker for detecting prostate cancer, according to a startling story in...
September 2, 2009 1:55 PM
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Specious Report of Bird and Swine Flu Coinfection
An Egyptian news story that is starting to receive worldwide attention about a nightmare swine flu/bird flu coinfection is inaccurate, according to officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...
August 27, 2009 5:34 PM
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Gulf War Study Challenged on "Deficiencies"
A controversial U.S. research project on Gulf War illness got word yesterday that the government plans to end its support because of managers’ “persistent noncompliance and numerous performance deficiencies.” The...
August 21, 2009 3:30 PM
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Unsurprisingly Surprising Swine Flu Battle Continues
The virus causing the swine flu pandemic has spread to turkeys in Chile, slowed its spread in people in the Southern Hemisphere and in the United Kingdom, and is thriving...
August 21, 2009 11:11 AM
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Japan streamlines embryonic stem cell reviews
TOKYO—Research involving human embryonic stem (ES) cells will become easier in Japan as a result of new ethical review requirements that take effect today....
August 21, 2009 11:01 AM
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Varmus Gets His Preprint Server
The most prominent open-access biomedical research publisher—that is, the Public Library of Science (PLoS)—has launched an "experimental" site for posting raw preprints of papers on hot topics. PLoS Currents (Beta)...
August 20, 2009 3:53 PM
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Genetics Policy Expert to Rejoin Collins at NIH
New National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has recruited a former aide to be his chief of staff....
August 20, 2009 3:29 PM
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Pro-Embryo Group Sues NIH Over Stem Cell Policy
A Christian group has filed a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health alleging that the Obama Administration's stem cell policy violates federal law, reports the online newspaper Kansas Liberty.com....
August 18, 2009 2:35 PM
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Pathologists Splinter From Army Institute to Form Company
More than two dozen pathologists have left the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C., to form a new company that will offer the same pathology consultation services...
August 17, 2009 8:59 PM
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Collins Sets Five Themes for NIH
The new director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) laid out his priorities today, spending his 1st day on the job speaking to his staff and reporters. Physician-geneticist...
August 10, 2009 4:33 PM
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More Turmoil Over Hidden Costs of NIH Children's Study
The long-time director of an ambitious children's health study at the National Institutes of Health has changed jobs in the wake of an internal report suggesting that officials deliberately concealed...
August 10, 2009 4:12 PM
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A Human Genome in Record Time
A new type of technology has sequenced a human genome in a month and for less than $50,000 worth of reagents, according to a report today in Nature Biotechnology. But...
August 7, 2009 3:58 PM
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New Chief Orders CDC to Cut Management Layers
Thomas Frieden, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has decided to dismantle a key component of former CDC Director Julie Gerberding’s controversial reorganization of...
August 7, 2009 12:24 PM
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Collins Confirmed as NIH Director
The Senate today confirmed geneticist Francis Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health. A Senate committee had approved the nomination of the former NIH genome institute director on...
August 6, 2009 5:23 PM
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FDA Recruits Bioethicist Charo to Its Top Ranks
Bioethics expert R. Alta Charo is joining the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a senior adviser to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. In an interview Wednesday, Hamburg said that Charo...
August 5, 2009 1:31 PM
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The Role for Science in Regulatory Policy
An expert panel today suggested ways to improve how U.S. regulatory agencies use input from outside scientists. Their recommendations urge the government to be more transparent in selecting and vetting...
August 4, 2009 2:45 PM
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Novartis Blames Animal Rights Activists For Theft, Arson
Swiss drug maker Novartis claims animal rights extremists are responsible for stealing an urn containing the ashes of CEO Daniel Vasella's mother last week and setting fire yesterday to Vasella's...
July 30, 2009 4:34 PM
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CDC's Besser Moves to TV News
Epidemiologist Richard Besser, who until recently helped coordinate the nation's swine flu (H1N1) response as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will soon be reporting on...
July 30, 2009 10:43 AM
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Fast Track for NIH Director Confirmation?
The appointment of geneticist Francis Collins to direct the National Institutes of Health could soon be a done deal. NIH-watchers in Washington, D.C., say that the Senate committee that handles...
July 29, 2009 5:27 PM
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SLAC Worker Accused of Melting Protein Crystals
A former employee at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Palo Alto, California, was arrested Monday for allegedly destroying at least 4000 protein crystal samples by removing them from cryogenic...
July 29, 2009 5:03 PM
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Epidemiologist Michaels Named to Head OSHA
Yesterday, the White House announced that it will nominate epidemiologist David Michaels to direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Labor agency that sets worker safety standards....
July 29, 2009 11:39 AM
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Only 1.4% Boost for NIH From Senate Panel
A Senate spending panel has matched President Barack Obama's request for funding for the National Institutes of Health in 2010—a $442 million boost to $31.8 billion. That slight 1.4% bump...
July 28, 2009 4:47 PM
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Laurie Garrett Interview: U.S. Global Health Leader MIA on Swine Flu
Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City, is a media consultant’s nightmare: She cuts to the chase and...
July 28, 2009 2:44 PM
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What If Someone FOIAs Your Grant Application?
Researchers tend to think of their grant proposals as carefully guarded information that will be seen only by peer reviewers in strictest confidence. Little do they realize that anybody can...
July 28, 2009 11:12 AM
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Yet Another New Patient Zero in Swine Flu Pandemic
A baby from San Luis Potosí in north-central Mexico was likely infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus on 24 February, making this the earliest case of swine flu yet...
July 24, 2009 4:44 PM
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Congressman Attacks NIH Funding for Study on Prostitutes
Studies of sex workers and drug abusers are an easy target, and today a conservative member of Congress took pot shots at three such overseas projects—all part of the U.S.-funded...
July 24, 2009 3:33 PM
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Swine Flu Continues to Camp Out in U.S. and Vexing Vaccine Questions Remain
The 2009 H1N1 influenza virus continues to spread in the United States, hitting particularly hard at summer camps, military academies, and other places where people from different locales gather. “It’s...
July 23, 2009 8:25 AM
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New Lease on Life for Australian Stem Cell Centre
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—The Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) hopes that a new business plan will help it regain momentum in the last 2 years of its term. The plan, announced today,...
July 22, 2009 5:47 PM
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Swine Flu Vaccine Tests Move Forward
Five clinical trials of different vaccines that aim to protect against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus will soon begin in the United States, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and...
July 22, 2009 11:23 AM
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NAS Panel's Advice on Data Integrity: It's a Good Idea
A National Academies panel that was asked to come up with data handling guidelines to deal with concerns about doctored images and demands to share data has come out with...
July 21, 2009 8:24 AM
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Italian Court Rejects Scientists' Plea to Fund Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Three Italian scientists have lost the first round of what may be a lengthy legal challenge to their government’s decision to exclude human embryonic stem cell work from a call...
July 17, 2009 5:24 PM
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Not to Worry About Vaccine Availability, U.S. Health Officials Say
U.S. health officials tried to play down worries today that the country might be unprepared for pandemic swine flu come this fall. Vaccine producers are having trouble producing large amounts...
July 15, 2009 5:16 AM
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China Cracks Down on Dubious Internet Addiction Therapy
BEIJING—The Chinese government has banned the controversial application of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for so-called Internet addiction. Although there is no meeting of the minds on whether Internet addiction is a...
July 13, 2009 3:11 PM
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Pandemic Vaccine Shots Urged for Healthcare Workers
Health care workers should be first in line when vaccines against the swine flu virus are ready and approved, an expert panel at the World Health Organization concluded in a...
July 10, 2009 12:57 PM
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House Panel Gives NIH a 3.1% Raise
A House of Representatives spending panel today approved a $942 million raise for the National Institutes of Health that would bring its 2010 budget to $31.3 billion. That 3.1% boost...
July 10, 2009 11:53 AM
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Lingering Concerns Remain About NIH Stem Cell Rules
UPDATE: NIH posted a notice today saying that ongoing research on previously approved stem cell lines can continue.BARCELONA, SPAIN—Science was the main topic of conversation here yesterday at the International...
July 10, 2009 11:32 AM
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23andMe Seeks Exemption from California Rules
23andme, the genetic testing company in Mountain View, California, has drafted a bill introduced into the California State Senate that would exempt it and similar companies from certain regulations and...
July 9, 2009 2:03 PM
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New EMBO Director on Open Access, Reaching Out
Yesterday, Maria Leptin was appointed the new director of the European Molecular Biology Organization. EMBO is an honorary organization with more than 1300 members and a budget of €18 million....
July 8, 2009 4:59 PM
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White House to Nominate Collins as NIH Director
It's official: The White House intends to tap geneticist Francis Collins to lead the National Institutes of Health. President Barack Obama's announcement today ends months of speculation that Collins, leader...
July 8, 2009 3:11 PM
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Finally, An NIH Director
This afternoon, the White House will nominate geneticist Francis Collins to be director of the National Institutes of Health, administration sources say....
July 8, 2009 1:43 PM
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A Plea to Soften NIH's Post-Stimulus Landing
Biomedicine may have done well so far in the economic downturn, but the largest coalition of U.S. biomedical researchers is warning of dire consequences if the National Institutes of Health...
July 7, 2009 5:53 PM
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Bye, Bye, Bioinnovation Center?
Back in 2007, drug giant Pfizer hired hotshot biotech entrepreneur Corey Goodman to reinvigorate research and get the pipeline flowing with potential blockbuster therapies. Goodman was to head a new...
July 7, 2009 4:56 AM
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Lords Want U.K. to Prepare for Future With Genomic Medicine
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee in the U.K. Parliament has come out with a new report on genomic medicine. The report expresses concern about at-home direct-to-consumer genetic...
July 6, 2009 5:08 PM
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Researchers Pleased With Final Stem Cell Rules
Scientists expressed satisfaction with the final guidelines on research with human embryonic stem (ES) cells issued today by the National Institutes of Health. The new rules, which set out criteria...
July 6, 2009 3:53 PM
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Institutions, Company Spar Over Rights to RNAi
A fight has broken out over who owns important pieces of RNA interference (RNAi) technology, a strategy to silence genes that could prove extremely lucrative as companies figure out how...
July 6, 2009 12:16 PM
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Final Stem Cell Rules Are Out
Note: This item has been corrected to indicate that the draft rules were issued in April rather than March as previously reported.The National Institutes of Health is holding a press...
July 6, 2009 10:54 AM
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Fears That Funds for HIV/AIDS Will Dwindle
A survey of people working on HIV/AIDS in 71 countries under various guises of the United Nations found that 31% expect the global financial crisis will impact the ability to...
July 6, 2009 10:50 AM
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Inside China's Swine Flu Quarantine System
BEIJING—China has perhaps the strictest quarantine procedures in the world to limit the spread of the Influenza A H1N1 virus—as I found out firsthand today.I’m the Asia editor for Science....
July 2, 2009 2:49 PM
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U.S. Donates Flu Drug, White House Organizes Summit
The U.S. government will donate 420,000 treatment courses of the drug Tamiflu to help treat severe cases of influenza in Latin America and the Caribbean. U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen...
July 1, 2009 5:06 PM
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Wellcome Funds Pan-African Research Consortia
The Wellcome Trust is pouring nearly $50 million into bolstering research capacity in Africa. On Thursday, the U.K. biomedical research charity announced seven pan-African research partnerships, involving more than...
July 1, 2009 11:10 AM
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Cancer Chief Fires Back
John Niederhuber, the director of the National Cancer Institute, is not a fan of Sunday’s front-page article in The New York Times that harshly critiques how cancer research is funded....
June 30, 2009 4:02 PM
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Berkeley Hyenas Saved By the Stimulus
The world's only captive research colony of spotted hyenas as gotten a much-needed boost from the U.S. economic stimulus package. Since 1985, the hyena colony at the University of...
June 30, 2009 2:44 PM
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100 Ways to Study Which Treatments Work Best
Earlier this year, the U.S. government set aside more than $1 billion to study the pros and cons of health treatments, but it needs advice on how to begin. Today,...
June 30, 2009 12:17 PM
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House Denies Funds For Ag Biodefense Lab
The Department of Homeland Security's National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), to be built in Manhattan, Kansas, ran into a funding roadblock last week when the U.S. House of Representatives...
June 29, 2009 5:11 PM
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The New York Times Hits Nerve on Cancer Grants
Yesterday’s The New York Times featured a front-page story suggesting that the government’s approach to funding cancer research—particularly at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—pushes scientists to “play it safe”...
June 26, 2009 6:03 PM
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With More than a Million Cases, U.S. Prepares for Swine Flu Vaccination Campaign
At least one million people in the United States are infected with the novel H1N1 flu virus, far more than the official case count, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...
June 26, 2009 10:20 AM
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Swine Flu Strikes Hog Farm in Argentina
The A(H1N1) swine flu virus has struck a pig farm in Buenos Aires province in Argentina—the second known instance of the pandemic virus infecting pigs. The outbreak was announced in...
June 25, 2009 11:54 AM
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Turmoil at California Stem Cell Institute
This month has been tumultuous for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Marie Csete, the $3 billion operation's chief scientific officer, has resigned after little more than a year, reports...
June 24, 2009 4:42 PM
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FDA Mulls a New Experiment: Opening Up
More than two dozen speakers, including a dietary supplement expert and a breast cancer advocate, vented frustrations today about a longstanding lack of transparency at the U.S. Food and Drug...
June 24, 2009 9:52 AM
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Latin American Cancer Collaboration Grows
Note: This item has been corrected and updated to include more information about the projects.The U.S. National Cancer Institute will help Chile’s Ministry of Health set up a national cancer...
June 22, 2009 12:03 PM
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Need More U.S. Workers? Quadruple the NIH Budget
A study out this week correlates declining U.S. death rates over the past half-century with federal funding for biomedical research—and argues that more money is needed so the longer-lived...
June 20, 2009 2:22 PM
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A New, Exhaustive Accounting of Global Health Funding
A paper in the 20 June issue of The Lancet offers the most comprehensive analysis yet done of the financing of global health. Led by economist Christopher Murray, head of...
June 18, 2009 5:33 PM
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Two Centers Halt Cancer Trial Enrollments
Two U.S. cancer centers are under scrutiny after routine inspections turned up potentially serious problems in record-keeping in clinical trials. Both centers—Emory Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta and the Carle...
June 17, 2009 5:29 PM
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Unlogged Pathogen Samples Found at Fort Detrick
A 4-month effort to inventory the contents of freezers and refrigerators at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, has turned up...
June 17, 2009 5:06 PM
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Beware of Stories About "New" Swine Flu Strain
A flurry of news reports today claim that Brazilian researchers have found a "new" strain of the novel H1N1 virus, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says...
June 17, 2009 2:34 PM
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House Approves $8 Billion for Swine Flu Pandemic
The U.S. House of Representatives last night approved $7.65 billion in new money to respond to the swine flu pandemic. The money will go toward the purchase of vaccine, antiviral...
June 12, 2009 11:53 AM
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Novartis Reports Advance in Swine Flu Vaccine Production
Novartis announced in a press statement today that it has made the first batch of vaccine against the A (H1N1) influenza virus causing the swine flu pandemic. The Swiss-based pharmaceutical...
June 11, 2009 4:31 PM
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FDA to Expand With New Tobacco Role
The Senate today voted 79–17 to approve a landmark tobacco bill that President Barack Obama said he will sign once it is reconciled with a similar House of Representatives measure....
June 11, 2009 11:20 AM
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Academic Groups Say More Drug Ties Should Be Reported
For the past year, the U.S. biomedical research community has been rocked by a Senate probe revealing that several prominent researchers have failed to properly disclose hefty payments that they...
June 11, 2009 11:18 AM
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AIDS Meeting Demands Lift of U.S. Ban on HIV-Infected Visitors
This item was updated with a list of other countries with similar bans and a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The International AIDS Society (IAS),...
June 9, 2009 3:46 PM
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NIH Feeling Overstimulated
Details emerged this week on how the deluge of applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health's Challenge Grant competition could disrupt the normal grant cycle down the road,...
June 5, 2009 3:14 PM
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Stem Cell Comments Top 49,000
The National Institutes of Health has received 49,015 comments on its proposed guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research, "and we're reading them all," said Lana Skirboll, policy office chief,...
June 2, 2009 5:22 PM
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Cold Spring Harbor Wants Scientist Bloggers to Follow Media Rules
At a recent meeting at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York state, Daniel MacArthur from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom, brought into focus...
May 29, 2009 2:03 PM
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Rock-It Scientists
A Geoffrey Beene ad campaign in the June issue of GQ features 11 biomedical scientists (all men) posing with rock stars such as Seal and Sheryl Crow. Why? It...
May 28, 2009 12:20 PM
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CDC Too Optimistic About Flu Peak?
On 26 May, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the swine flu outbreak in the country might have crested. But Donald Olson, a New York...
May 27, 2009 1:56 PM
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Stem Cell Rules Draw Torrent of Comments
The U.S. National Institutes of Health officials are busy sorting thousands of comments on the agency's proposed stem cell guidelines that poured in up to the deadline of 11 p.m....
May 26, 2009 4:26 PM
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Pandemic Definition Continues to Mystify
As cases of swine flu continue to increase in several countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that the outbreak does not merit the label "pandemic." And in the United...
May 26, 2009 1:04 PM
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NIH Director Rumor Reaches Fever Pitch
The biomedical research community was buzzing Friday with a rumor that the White House would nominate geneticist Francis Collins that afternoon to head the National Institutes of Health. That did...
May 22, 2009 6:40 AM
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Return of Singapore's Non-native Prodigal Son (and Daughter)
One criticism of Singapore's multibillion-dollar effort to build a biomedical empire is its reliance on high-profile foreign researchers lured to the city-state on short-term contracts. But at least two top...
May 21, 2009 4:14 PM
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Victoria and California Form Stem Cell Alliance
(Note: This story was revised at 9.30 pm U.S. EDT on 21 May to correct some inaccuracies.)Scientific partnerships between countries don't always have to involve national governments; state governments can...
May 21, 2009 2:54 PM
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The Odds of Winning NIH Stimulus Money
The feeding frenzy that began when scientists went after $10.4 billion in stimulus money at the National Institutes of Health seems to have given way to more normal grant-seeking behavior....
May 20, 2009 2:58 PM
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NIH's New Drug Pipeline for Neglected Diseases
The National Institutes of Health, a bastion of basic research, is making a foray into developing drugs. NIH leaders today announced a $120 million, 5-year plan to set up a...
May 15, 2009 5:44 PM
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Will Paul Farmer Join Team Obama?
Paul Farmer, a Harvard physician and co-founder of the international health organization Partners In Health, is reportedly mulling an offer from the Obama Administration to play a leading role in...
May 15, 2009 2:59 PM
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Girding for Pandemic, Europeans Order Swine Flu Vaccine
Four European countries have ordered a vaccine tailor-made for the new H1N1 influenza strain by GlaxoSmithKline. In a press release issued today, the company said it has yet to receive...
May 15, 2009 10:27 AM
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Obama Taps New York City's Health Chief to Lead CDC
President Barack Obama today named New York City’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—a post that has been...
May 14, 2009 3:53 PM
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Microbiologist Arrested for Smuggling Materials
A Canadian researcher is in U.S. custody after attempting to smuggle 22 vials of biological materials into the United States. Konan Michel Yao was arrested at the border between North...
May 14, 2009 11:56 AM
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Are NIH’S Stem Cell Rules a 'Tectonic Shift'? And a Plea to Speak Out on Science Policy
The 26 May deadline for commenting on the National Institutes of Health's draft guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research is fast approaching, and scientists are fretting that NIH's rules...
May 13, 2009 5:10 PM
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The Rapid Rise (and Fall?) of Controversial Theory That Lab Accident Caused Flu Outbreak
A retired plant virologist from Australia has caused an international ruckus by proposing that a vaccine-manufacturing accident may have created the virus driving the current swine flu outbreak. Many...
May 13, 2009 12:16 PM
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Foes of Gene Patents Sue Over BRCA Test
Two advocacy groups joined with cancer patients and doctors yesterday to launch a sweeping attack on human gene patents. They filed a lawsuit arguing that those for breast cancer genes...
May 13, 2009 12:04 PM
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Exclusive: CDC's Flu Chief, Nancy Cox, Battling Fires at Home and Abroad
In the wake of a 1976 swine flu outbreak that began and ended with soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, virologist Nancy Cox was a postdoc at the U.S....
May 12, 2009 5:05 PM
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Have Antivirals Helped Prevent Flu Spread?
As yet another day goes by with the World Health Organization (WHO) not declaring that the swine flu outbreak is a full-scale pandemic, more questions are surfacing about why this...
May 11, 2009 2:27 PM
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Artificial Blood Business Takes a Hit
The long, troubled push to develop artificial blood suffered another blow as a company that has led the charge announced it was shutting down. Northfield Laboratories in Evanston, Illinois, said...
May 10, 2009 9:20 AM
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NIH Tackles Conflicts of Interest
Responding to an uproar over conflicts of interest in biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on Friday that it is seeking comments on whether to tighten federal...
May 8, 2009 5:06 PM
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Swine Flu Names Evolving Faster Than Swine Flu Itself
The Germans call it Schweinegrippe, the French talk about la Grippe A. The World Health Organization now calls it "influenza A(H1N1)," and so do government officials in many countries, but...
May 7, 2009 6:12 PM
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Questions Remain About the Swine Flu Infection of Canadian Pigs and the Origin of Outbreak
Canadian scientists today clarified that they still think it’s “highly probable” that a farm worker infected the Alberta pig herd found to have the virus now causing the outbreak of...
May 7, 2009 5:27 PM
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WHO To The World: Swine Flu Is Still Serious
Don’t think the worst is over: That was the message at the daily press conference of the World Health Organization this afternoon. Speaking from a special press tent in Geneva,...
May 7, 2009 5:03 PM
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Infomercials in Medical Journals' Clothing?
Last month, the online newspaper The Australian reported allegations that pharmaceutical giant Merck had paid scientific megapublisher Elsevier to publish a bogus medical journal, The Australasian Journal of Bone and...
May 6, 2009 5:21 PM
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Could the Outbreak Have Started in Canada?
In keeping with the Canadian government’s apparently mistaken hypothesis that the origin of the swine flu outbreak likely had nothing to do with Canadian pigs, what if it did? On...
May 6, 2009 5:00 PM
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Plot Thickens: Farm Worker Suspected of Infecting Canadian Pig Herd Tests Negative
The pig herd infected with swine flu in Alberta, Canada, appears not to have been infected by a worker at the farm who had recently returned from Mexico with flu-like...
May 6, 2009 4:29 PM
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In Case of Pandemic: High-Tech Flu Vaccines Coming
The threat of H1N1 swine flu appears to be abating, but the virus could come roaring back later in the year, and experts are now debating whether to produce a...
May 6, 2009 3:56 PM
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FBI Anthrax Investigation Under Scientific Review
A long-awaited review of the scientific evidence relating to the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks is finally getting off the ground. The study, to be conducted by the...
May 5, 2009 5:37 PM
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More From Francis Collins on God and Evolution
The scientific blogosphere, as well as the Washington, D.C., rumor mill, are buzzing this week about geneticist Francis Collins's latest project: a new foundation and Web site created "to engage...
May 5, 2009 3:26 PM
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California Inspectors Fine UCLA Lab in Fatal Fire
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) yesterday issued four citations against the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in the...
May 4, 2009 1:37 PM
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Gates Foundation Explores On
Researchers in 17 countries have won $100,000 each from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop their unconventional ideas for improving health in the developing world. The 81 projects...
May 4, 2009 1:20 PM
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Korean Aims to Succeed Where Hwang Failed (and Faked)
Last week, a bioethics committee advising the South Korean government recommended conditionally approving plans for the first attempt at therapeutic cloning in the country since the work of Woo Suk...
May 1, 2009 7:23 AM
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South Korea May Restart Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
South Korean media (story, story, story) are reporting that the country's bioethics committee has given the green light for a research group at Cha General Hospital in Seoul to conduct...
April 30, 2009 11:33 AM
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Stop Writing Grants and Pick Up Your Pipettes
Slate covers the Challenge Grant frenzy that's sweeping the biomedical nation: The grant-writing mania is palpable across academic and medical institutions. At the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, for...
April 30, 2009 11:30 AM
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Experts Want Scientists to Monitor Their Colleagues
University researchers who work with dangerous pathogens should keep an eye on each other and report any signs of suspicious behavior to lab managers, says a panel of life scientists...
April 28, 2009 5:39 PM
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California's Stem Cell Scientists Fear Federal Red Tape
The federal government has opened the door for human embryonic stem cell research, and it's now figuring out which ethical strings to attach. But California researchers are worried that the...
April 28, 2009 12:21 PM
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Is Current Flu Vaccine Truly Impotent Against Swine Flu?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly doubts that this year’s flu vaccine will offer people any protection from the swine flu. “We don’t think that any of...
April 28, 2009 12:16 PM
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Biomedical Research Stalwart Arlen Specter Switches Parties …
… to the Democratic Party in a move aimed at retaining his U.S. Senate seat. Specter, a huge proponent of biomedical research and the force behind the $10.4 billion for...
April 28, 2009 12:15 PM
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Medical Experts: On Conflicts of Interest, Tell All
The best way to damp down concerns about doctors’ and researchers’ financial conflicts of interest is to require full disclosure, according to an expert report issued today. A panel of...
April 27, 2009 1:46 AM
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Hat in Hand, Specter Proposes New Agency to Race for the Cure
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) says giving the U.S. National Institutes of Health billions more dollars isn't enough to bolster biomedical research. On Saturday at a clinical research meeting in Chicago,...
April 25, 2009 3:46 PM
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CDC Looking Nationwide for More Swine Flu
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that it has not found any new cases of swine flu in the country other than the eight identified...
April 24, 2009 6:37 PM
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Dizzying Deluge of Swine Flu Numbers
The outbreak of swine flu in the United States and Mexico is—as is typical during the early stages of the spread of a new virus—leading to an outpouring of different...
April 24, 2009 5:33 PM
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Swine Flu Deja Vu?
For a handful of scientists, the swine flu hitting the southern U.S. and Mexico bears an eerie resemblance to another outbreak more than 30 years ago. Then, a strain of...
April 24, 2009 4:55 PM
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Swine Flu Behavior "Potentially Scarier Than the Outbreak of Avian Flu"
The level of worry about a swine flu outbreak in the United States rose a notch today, as health officials linked the virus that has infected eight people here to...
April 24, 2009 12:42 PM
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Obama Administration Maintains Bush-Era Travel Limits on NIH
Some federal scientists who thought the Bush Administration policy limiting travel to scientific meetings would be changed got a shock this week. Staff at the National Institutes of Health campus...
April 23, 2009 5:55 PM
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Swine Flu Infects Seven; Genetic Make-Up Has Scientists Stymied
A swine flu strain that has infected seven people in the United States since late March is an unusual hybrid that carries genetic material from four different sources, officials at...
April 23, 2009 4:21 PM
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Texas Cancer Institute Nabs Nobel Prize (Winner)
Texas has tapped Nobel-Prize winning biochemist Alfred Gilman to serve as chief scientific officer of its new cancer research institute, which could receive up to $3 billion from bonds over...
April 23, 2009 10:53 AM
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Should NIH Have Gone Further on Stem Cells?
An editorial in The New York Times says yes: The proposal is not bold enough and will continue to deny federal financing to some potentially promising research. Still it is...
April 22, 2009 9:38 PM
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Hundreds Turn Out for Pro-Animal- Research Rally at UCLA
The organizers of today's Pro-Test rally at the University of California, Los Angeles, say it succeeded beyond their hopes. Hundreds of people—many of them students and postdocs—came out to show...
April 22, 2009 10:04 AM
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Live Coverage From Animal Research Rally
Today will be a big day at the University of California, Los Angeles, where researchers have long been under attack from animal-rights extremists. Animal-rights activists have planned for a morning a...
April 21, 2009 1:08 PM
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Bioethics Panel Probes Marketed Medical Tests
Ordinary folk can now try to be masters of their own health, as private companies offer online DNA tests and full-body CT or MRI scans. But these services, which often...
April 20, 2009 4:38 PM
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NCI's Big Plans for Its Big Stimulus
With the National Institutes of Health receiving a $10.4 billion windfall thanks to the economic stimulus package, all eyes are on the agency to see how the money will transform...
April 17, 2009 4:41 PM
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"Coca-Cola" Malaria Drug Scheme Kicks Off With $225 Million
Until now, the main way that do-gooders have supported treatment programs for malaria in the developing world has been to give the governments of poor countries money to purchase drugs....
April 17, 2009 3:43 PM
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Green Light for Research on Stem Cells From Surplus Embryos
More on NIH's draft guidelines on stem cells. On 9 March, Obama signed an executive order that lifted the Bush Administration's bar on funding for lines derived after 9 August 2001....
April 17, 2009 2:10 PM
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NIH Decides: Surplus Embryos Only
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has just released its widely anticipated draft guidelines for federally funded research on stem cells. The draft rules would allow research only on human...
April 16, 2009 1:16 PM
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EPA Targeting Gender Benders
More than a decade after Congress told the Environmental Protection Agency to begin testing chemicals that may upset the balance of hormones in people, the agency is finally getting around...
April 15, 2009 1:33 PM
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Company Nabbed in Sting With Bogus Study Stops Reviewing Trials
A company that gave ethics approval to a fake clinical trial has agreed to stop reviewing FDA-approved studies. All studies of FDA-approved drugs and devices have to be approved by...
April 15, 2009 6:56 AM
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Big Pharma Blames Its Troubles on Scientists
At a big pharma conference yesterday, Merck & Co.'s chief strategy officer, Merv Turner, laid the blame for industry woes squarely at the feet of researchers. The basic problem is...
April 13, 2009 5:16 PM
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Money Rush Hordes Are Swamping the Government
Grants.gov, where federal funding including stimulus money is given out, has announced that the Web site will be down for a "build" this weekend. University officials are furious, according to...
April 13, 2009 8:51 AM
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What Did CDC Know About Lead in D.C. Drinking Water, and When?
Salon investigates the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recent work on urban water quality: A 2004 CDC report found that water contamination "might have contributed a small increase...
April 8, 2009 11:47 AM
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NIH Open-Access Policy Turns 1 Year Old ...
... submissions have risen, but impacts on research are unclear, says open-access guru Gavin Baker....
April 7, 2009 1:16 PM
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Bloomberg's Anti-Salt Campaign ...
... gets shaken up here by John Tierney. He critiques New York City's war on salt. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pushing food companies and restaurants to cut salt intake in...
April 7, 2009 9:09 AM
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Mystery: Did Experimental Vaccine Save Ebola Accident Victim's Life?
A researcher who pricked herself with a needle containing the Ebola-Zaire virus last month is expected to come back to work at the Bernard Nocht Institute in Hamburg, Germany, after...
April 6, 2009 5:15 PM
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Federal Court: You Can't Patent DNA Obtained From a Known Protein
As Science put it in a story on the issue: Any competent graduate student can take a known protein and come up with the nucleotide sequence that encodes it. Does...
April 3, 2009 10:55 AM
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Pro-Animal-Research Group Forms in L.A.
A victim of animal-rights terrorists is taking to the streets in favor of animal research. Last month, animal-rights extremists torched the car of University of California, Los Angeles, neuroscientist J....
April 1, 2009 2:37 PM
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How to Convince Tuberculosis Patients to Take Their Medicine?
Pay them. But how do you know they've done it?Public health experts have long struggled to persuade drug-resistant tuberculosis patients to continue taking their drugs after they get better...
April 1, 2009 9:47 AM
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Icelandic Geneticists Still in Financial Chill
DeCODE Genetics, the Icelandic company that made a name for itself with its personalized medicine work before running into a financial mud pit, tried to be optimistic today about its...
March 27, 2009 12:51 PM
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Virologist Exposed to Ebola Removed From Isolation, Appears Healthy
The lab researcher in Germany who was accidentally exposed to the deadly Ebola virus 2 weeks ago remains healthy, according to virologist Stephan Günther of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for...
March 27, 2009 9:56 AM
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Bioethics Panel vs. Obama
Ten members of the White House bioethics advisory board appointed by George W. Bush have slammed the president's stem cell decision, taking issue with Obama's characterization of Bush's 2001 decision....
March 26, 2009 4:27 PM
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NIH Braces for Stimulus Impact, Children's Study Overruns
The mood was mostly upbeat today at a House of Representatives Appropriations Committee hearing to discuss how the National Institutes of Health is spending its $10 billion windfall in the...
March 23, 2009 6:25 PM
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Bush Plan B Decision Slammed as Unscientific
A federal court today chided the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for putting politics before science in assessing Plan B, the emergency contraceptive. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern...
March 18, 2009 5:32 PM
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Researchers Worldwide Rally to Help Scientist Exposed to Ebola
The accidental exposure of a scientist to the Ebola virus last week has triggered a series of teleconferences by Ebola scientists on two sides of the Atlantic united around a...
March 18, 2009 11:04 AM
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Virologist in Isolation After Accident With Ebola
A researcher at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, was put in isolation last week after pricking herself with a syringe containing the Ebola virus. According...
March 17, 2009 3:24 PM
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Truthiness? No Lie MRI Hits the Legal System
In what appears to be a first, defense attorneys are offering fMRI-based lie detection as evidence of their client's innocence in a legal case in southern California. The Stanford Center...
March 11, 2009 8:11 PM
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Reports: Margaret Hamburg to Head FDA
The Obama Administration has chosen a new chief to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to media reports. She’s Margaret Hamburg, 53, the New York City health...
March 11, 2009 4:48 PM
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Reporters Ask for Direct Access to Federal Scientists
Journalists like to go straight to the source, and a group of reporters who cover health care say a change in federal policies will help them do their jobs better....
March 10, 2009 12:23 PM
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Animal-Rights Extremists Target UCLA Neuroscientist
Animal-rights extremists aren't letting up in their attacks on California biomedical researchers. According to the Los Angeles Times, the FBI is investigating a firebombing that destroyed the car of a...
March 9, 2009 1:38 PM
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Obama's Stem Cell Decision Gets Standing Ovation From Scientists
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In the same chandeliered White House room where, 2 years ago, George W. Bush reaffirmed federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, President Barack Obama announced this morning that...
March 9, 2009 1:22 PM
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Full Text of Obama's Stem Cell and Scientific Integrity Decisions
ScienceInsider has obtained the text of an executive order and a memorandum signed by President Barack Obama this morning. The first deals with overturning former president George W. Bush's restrictions...
March 9, 2009 10:59 AM
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Stem Cell Decision Roundup
(Update: President Obama has signed an executive order lifting federal restrictions on stem cell funding) The Washington Post has a good primer on the politics of the stem cells, and...
March 6, 2009 4:56 PM
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Stem Cell Funding Ban Reportedly Gone
The Washington Post says Obama will do it Monday....
March 5, 2009 11:47 AM
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A New Regulatory Lid on Tobacco?
If U.S. Representative Henry Waxman (D–CA) has his way, the Food and Drug Administration will soon gain the ability to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products in addition to the...
March 4, 2009 4:44 PM
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University of Louisiana, NIH, Face Primate Violations Allegations
Note: This item has been updated An undercover investigation of the New Iberia Research Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, has led the Humane Society of the United States to allege that...
March 3, 2009 9:50 AM
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Harold Varmus on Daily Show
Who says being co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is a low-profile job? .cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;} The Daily Show With...
March 2, 2009 2:34 PM
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Kim to Helm Dartmouth
Dartmouth has tapped Jim Yong Kim, a leader in global health, to become its next president. Kim, 49, currently heads the department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard...
March 2, 2009 12:37 PM
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Obama Picks Sebelius for HHS
President Barack Obama is expected to announce today that he has nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services. The response to her nomination,...
February 27, 2009 12:15 PM
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White House Requests New Funding for Autism
Autism research will get a funding boost if U.S. President Barack Obama has his way. In his budget overview released yesterday, Obama requested $211 million as part of the Department...
February 26, 2009 11:36 AM
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AIDS Czar Named
President Barack Obama today tapped Jeffrey Crowley to fill the top slot in the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP)....
February 25, 2009 2:48 PM
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And Win the War on Cancer, Too
In addition to saving the banks, shoring up the cratered real estate market, and capping greenhouse gas emissions, President Barack Obama had another ambitious goal for the stimulus package in...
February 25, 2009 2:06 PM
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Obama vs. Bush: Yes, Climate Change Is Unhealthy
Howard Frumkin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works today about the impacts of climate change on health. You...
February 24, 2009 11:39 AM
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Journal Latest to Confront Conflicts of Interest
Journal editors are always keen to ask authors to disclose individual contributions to papers and potential conflicts of interest. Today, the editors of PLoS Medicine published an editorial calling for...
February 23, 2009 4:26 PM
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Four Charged in Animal-Rights Incidents
On Friday, the FBI announced that it had arrested four animal-rights extremists suspected of harassing researchers who work at University of California (UC) campuses in Berkeley and Santa Cruz. The...
February 18, 2009 4:55 PM
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NIH Grant Pipeline Now Flush With $timulus
The National Institutes of Health will dedicate most of its $8.2 billion for research from the economic stimulus bill to funding grant applications it has already received and to supplementing...
February 18, 2009 4:45 PM
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Science Hero Specter Talks
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA—Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), fresh off earning the distinction of being one of just three Republicans to vote for the Obama Administration’s economic stimulus plan and savoring a successful...
February 13, 2009 2:41 PM
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$10,000,000,000.00 for the National Institutes of Health
In the economic stimulus package, the biggest winner among U.S. science agencies is probably the National Institutes of Health, which will receive $8.2 billion for research. Another $500 million will...
February 9, 2009 2:38 PM
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Japanese Cancer Scientists Plan Asia-Pacific Research Network
TOKYO—International health organizations have long recognized the devastating impact of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis on developing countries. Now researchers are also sounding an alarm about the...
February 9, 2009 10:20 AM
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Obama's Promise on Stem Cells: Unfulfilled
Stem cell researchers are getting restive. Many scientists fully expected that President Barack Obama would sign an executive order reversing the Bush Administration's stem cell policy the minute he took...
February 6, 2009 1:42 PM
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Proposed Law Would Make NIH Less "Open"
A controversial bill about open-access is back on the congressional agenda. The bill would undermine the U.S. National Institutes of Health's requirement that its grantees provide NIH with a...
February 4, 2009 10:35 AM
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Billions in Biomed Boosts?
Biomedical research may be headed for a big 2-year boost in the stimulus bill—more than even some lobbyists expected. In debate last night, the Senate agreed by voice vote to...
February 3, 2009 5:01 PM
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Next Chapter for Zerhouni
Elias Zerhouni, the radiologist-researcher who ran the U.S. National Institutes of Health for 6 years until he stepped down in October, is joining the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as...
February 3, 2009 1:33 PM
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Harvard Med Is Cracking the Whip
As Massachusetts General Hospital and the U.S. Senate investigate conflict-of-interest allegations, Harvard Medical School has named a committee to review its rules governing the conflicts. From The Boston Globe: US...
February 2, 2009 3:26 PM
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Obama Targets FDA
It's expected that the Obama Administration will nominate one of several big critics of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to run the beleaguered agency. Yesterday, the president signaled in...
January 30, 2009 12:19 PM
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Global Health at a Discount
Seven so-called neglected diseases just became a little less neglected. This morning, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new $34 million grant in support of a global network...
January 29, 2009 3:27 PM
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Canadian Genomicists Lament Cuts
Researchers funded by Genome Canada, Canada’s preeminent funding body for large-scale genomics and proteomics research, are reacting with shock to news that the Canadian government is withdrawing funding from the...
January 26, 2009 2:30 PM
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Update: Ebola-Reston Virus Jumped From Pigs to At Least One Human
The Ebola-Reston virus, recently found for the first time in pigs in the Philippines, has now been confirmed to have infected at least one human. Scientists are relieved because the...
January 16, 2009 3:18 PM
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Obama Will Unveil His Stem Cell Policy. Boosters Debate the Choreography
Stem cell supporters are in a frenzy over the coming change in presidential policy and have been holding press conferences abrim with enthusiasm, if not content. But at a meeting...
January 13, 2009 3:57 PM
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Britain OKs Hybrids, Won't Fund Them
The stem cell community is stirred up with the news that after all the trouble U.K. scientists went to to persuade the government to let them make "hybrid" embryos, they...
January 8, 2009 5:48 PM
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Angst and Embarrassment, FDA Style
Looks like some scientists at the Food and Drug Administration are doing what they can to influence President-elect Barack Obama's choice of their new boss. Nine scientists have written...
January 6, 2009 5:12 PM
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And They Say Jobs for Journalists Are Scarce These Days
The Obama White House has reportedly signed up a nominee for surgeon general—CNN commentator and celebrity doc Sanjay Gupta, according to the Washington Post. Gupta, who has not commented...
January 2, 2009 3:04 PM
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Collins Dominates Rumor Mill for NIH Director
Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, appears to be the top contender for the post as President-elect Barack Obama's director of the...
December 22, 2008 5:18 PM
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More Scientific Fallout From Madoff Scandal
The Picower Foundation is the latest U.S. charity to be sunk by Bernard Madoff and his self-admitted $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Researchers are reeling from the blow to the foundation,...
December 19, 2008 2:40 PM
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Google to Close Science Data Archive
In the last 2 years Google and its nonprofit spinoff have launched a variety of science projects in areas ranging from astronomy education to lunar exploration to making electric car...
December 17, 2008 10:42 AM
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Kaiser Permanente Cashes In on Biobank Plans
Health care provider Kaiser Permanente has finally landed the money it needed to fulfill plans for a massive DNA biobank. It has just announced receiving an $8.6 million grant from...
December 16, 2008 3:03 PM
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The Madoff Scandal's Impact on Science
The Science Careers Blog has a nice summary of what we know so far about the impact of the Bernard Madoff scandal on scientific institutions and philanthropies that donate to...
December 15, 2008 4:52 PM
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IOM to Obama: Get Your Act Together on Global Health
A new Institute of Medicine report released today by a prominent group of scientists and former public officials on a global health committee has a message for President-Elect Barack Obama:...
December 10, 2008 5:11 PM
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Psychological Tests for Bioagent Researchers?
Should academics who work on dangerous pathogens be required to undergo periodic psychological evaluations to ensure that they are not mentally imbalanced as U.S. Army researcher Bruce Ivins appears to...
December 10, 2008 5:06 PM
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U.S. Residents Keep Out
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA—Most scientific meetings don't need bouncers. But a Novartis stand at the annual gathering of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene had two guards—just to keep...
December 10, 2008 1:29 PM
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FDA Mooooves Away From Ban on Livestock Antibiotics
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has quietly dropped plans to halt the use of certain long-term antibiotics in animals that end up...
December 8, 2008 2:13 PM
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NIH: We're Conflict Averse
Worried that the U.S. Congress will force its hand because of public concern, the National Institutes of Health is moving to change its rules on financial conflicts of interest for...
December 4, 2008 5:46 PM
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Med Centers to Reveal Drug Payment$
Amid growing concerns about hefty payments that some doctors receive from industry, The Cleveland Clinic plans to post this income in a public database, the New York Times reported yesterday....
December 4, 2008 5:35 PM
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Clues on Obama's Stem Cell Plans?
Now it's coming from the horse's mouth. The Center for American Progress, headed by John Podesta, who is also running Barack Obama’s transition team, has spelled out on its Web...
December 3, 2008 3:11 PM
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Stem Cell Therapy, Buyer Beware
Worried about quack treatments with stem cells? Take a look at the website of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. It posted a set of guidelines and tips today—just...
December 2, 2008 1:40 PM
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An Academy Connection to China's Tainted Milk?
The recent tainted baby formula scandal in China has focused public attention on the high-tech adulteration of milk with the industrial chemical melamine (Science, 28 November, p. 310). The compound,...
November 25, 2008 2:16 PM
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On Weed, U.K. Government Ignores Scientific Advice
Today, the U.K. Parliament's House of Lords approved the government's proposal to reclassify cannabis as a dangerous Class B drug, along with amphetamines and speed, against the recommendations of its...
November 24, 2008 4:50 PM
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Lyme Disease: Taking Shots at Shots
Congress is wading into the murky question of whether people with Lyme disease should get long-term antibiotics or whether the drugs harm more than help. That issue, which has been...
November 21, 2008 6:06 PM
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The Senator's New Target: a Former NIMH Director
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has landed another big name in his probe of financial conflicts of interest in science. Today the New York Times reports on Grassley's investigation of psychiatrist...
