Field: Medicine

A new NASH treatment, efruxifermin, significantly reduced liver fat when combined with a GLP-1 drug in a small trial.

Osimertinib, an FDA-approved lung cancer drug, slashes the risk of death for certain patients by 51%, according to new trial results.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that genes associated with schizophrenia risk may impact the placenta, not just the brain.

Gain-of-function experiments in the lab can help researchers get ahead of viruses naturally gaining the ability to infect people in the wild.

Even though pain is universal and we know it happens in the brain, we've never before had a way to objectively measure its intensity.

The first treatments proven to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s are helping settle a decades-long debate about how the disease starts.

To improve leukemia treatment, Australian researchers have created a bispecific antibody that connects chemo drugs to cancer cells.

Techniques borrowed from astrophysics are helping to advance personalized cancer treatments beyond what genetics can tell us.

This protein may help bats survive viral infections and could be the springboard for new anti-inflammatory drugs.

Researchers have found ibogaine-inspired compounds effective in treating depression and addiction in mouse models.

A surgical team has performed a surgery that alleviated a dangerous brain condition before it was too late.

A new pancreatic cancer vaccine based on mRNA tech was shown to be safe and capable of triggering an immune response in a small trial.

New research links the gut microbiome, an ecosystem of viruses, bacteria, and fungi, to the development of anorexia nervosa.

A new study suggests we may be able to convert dormant eye cells into photoreceptors to reverse retinal degeneration.

In a small study, Northwestern researchers were able to get chemo drugs into the brains of glioblastoma patients with implanted ultrasound devices.

A new AI tool can find the most stable mRNA sequence for a vaccine, leading to more effective shots that are less prone to degradation.

The FDA has approved the world’s first vaccine for RSV, a potentially deadly viral infection that has long eluded vaccination.

The FDA approval of the first fecal transplant pill could kick off an era in which we target the gut microbiome to treat many other diseases.

Researchers have measured gamma waves, a sign of brain activity, in patients who were dying.

Eli Lilly’s new Alzheimer’s drug, donanemab, slowed cognitive decline by 35% in a phase 3 trial, but two people died from side effects.

A Harvard study found that a new gene therapy that reprograms cells to their younger state can reverse NAION-caused vision loss in primates.

A new brain cancer treatment not only cured 100% of mice that received it, but also trained their immune systems to fight future cancers.

Ghana and Nigeria have become the first two nations to approve Oxford’s vaccine against malaria.

A new drug delivery system for pancreatic tumors could dramatically decrease medication dosages, helping minimize unpleasant side effects.

The famous placebo effect has a long, rich history — it certainly had an outsized role in the medicine of centuries past.

Scientists are starting to agree that the "holy grail" solution for Alzheimer's is more likely to be a drug cocktail than a single treatment.

MindMed and University Hospital Basel have announced top line results for their phase 2 trial.

Ants were just as accurate as cancer-sniffing dogs. Better yet, they could be trained in minutes rather than months.

In a study of CPR patients across the US and UK, researchers found new evidence about near-death experiences.

Tech platform Hydreight wants to help nurses go into business for themselves by being a turnkey solution.

We're detecting and aggressively treating more tumors than ever before. But we're also over-treating more cancers then ever.

MIT researchers have turned a system found in bacteria into programmable “nanosyringes” for injecting proteins into human cells.

A potentially lifesaving treatment to stop severe postpartum hemorrhage could soon be more accessible to the people who need it the most.

It takes around 17 years for medical research to translate into clinical practice — why not use EMR data to speed things up?

Rice University's new drug delivery tech uses biodegradable microparticles to administer medications exactly when and where they are needed.

The world needs a tuberculosis vaccine, but the challenge trials that could help are impossible to run. Two new approaches look to change that.

Using patient data and AI, French researchers have created a digital model of the brain to figure out which brain region needs removed.

New Zealand-based startup Kimer Med wants to create an antiviral that would be effective against many known viruses — and unknown.

A new peanut allergy treatment based on mRNA could potentially lead to therapies that prevent all types of allergies in people.

Naloxone administered by nasal spray can be a lifesaving drug with minimal side effects. It's now approved for over-the-counter use in the U.S.

Thanks to groundbreaking innovations in neuroscience, we’re seeing that forms of paralysis long assumed to be permanent can be reversed.

Biomedical engineer Joseph Dituri is attempting to break a world record by living in an underwater habitat for 100 days.

3D printing could make blood vessel replicas with the soft feel and the structural accuracy surgeons need.

Scientists are finding tumor signals in spit that could be key to developing diagnostic tests for various types of cancer

A groundbreaking discovery on how pancreatic cancer spreads could lead to better therapies for the hard-to-treat disease.

As avian influenza continues to devastate the bird population and jump into mammals, scientists are preparing to protect two important groups.

The FDA has approved Pfizer’s zavegepant, a nasal spray for migraines that can ease pain in as few as 15 minutes.

Researchers found that patients who slept less than six hours a night were 27% more likely to have an infection.

Canadian students launched EpiPen solution into suborbital space, and what came back was no longer life-saving medicine.

An injection of stem cells reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke by 58% in a trial of people with heart failure.

A sudden shift to virtual health care has increased access — and possibly outcomes — for patients with opioid use disorder.

It has been a year since the first COVID human challenge data was published. What did we learn, and can HCTs prepare us for the future?

A new drug might extend the lives of people with bone cancer without subjecting them to painful or unpleasant treatments.

A new stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease has just been administered to the brain of a person for the first time.

Massachusetts General researchers have developed a new form of transplantation that cured type 1 diabetes in monkeys.

Patients who received tirzepatide in a recent clinical study lost more than 20% of their body weight (52 pounds, or 23.6 kg).

Periodontal (gum) disease is more common in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, implicating the former in causing the latter.

The FDA has granted authorization to an at-home test that can tell COVID from flu, the first of its kind.

We may be able to prevent chronic inflammation in multiple sclerosis patients by manipulating their gut microbiomes.

A handful of animals make a pared-down version of our own antibodies. Scientists hope to harness them as treatments for human illnesses.

A new light-activated cancer treatment developed in the UK could make existing therapies better and safer.

Did He Jiankui "Make People Better"? A new documentary leans toward a different narrative about gene-editing than we've heard before.

Naltrexone, a medication that costs less than $1 per dose, helped people cut back on their binge drinking in a small study

A large international study has found that a single oral dose of a common antibiotic can “significantly” reduce the risk of maternal sepsis

Cancer-protective microbes support cooperative behaviour by bodily cells, but cancer-inducing microbes undermine it.

A CAR T-cell therapy that’s effective in mice with ovarian cancer may bring us closer to using the blood cancer treatment against tumors.

An approach called “rational vaccinology” could allow us to design more powerful vaccines, just by rearranging their ingredients.

A man infected by a deadly brain-eating amoeba is on the road to recovery thanks to a decades-old drug used to treat urinary tract infections.

Researchers find that, in some cases, tooth dentin can be regrown instead of needing to be replaced with man-made composite.

Using a large language model AI, biotech startup Profluent has created new antimicrobial proteins.

Delivering chemotherapy to colon cancer patients before and after surgery — instead of just after — reduces their risk of recurrence by 28%.

Using spiraling ultrasound waves, researchers hope to remove stroke-causing blood clots faster and safer.

A microbiome-friendly method of controlling Staph colonization has aced phase 2 clinical trials.

Alto Neuroscience’s depression drug seems effective in early trials, a proof-of-concept for biomarker-based design.

BioNTech is sending a modular mRNA vaccine factory that can produce 50 million COVID-19 vaccines annually to Africa.

Moderna’s mRNA RSV vaccine for adults looks to be over 80% effective, based on early data from a large phase 3 trial.

A new delivery method for mRNA therapies could open the doors to better treatments for aging, cancer, and more.

A “morning after” antiviral nasal spray could be created using new knowledge about how SARS-CoV-2 invades your nose.

After a monumental year of breakthroughs, scientists, investors, and CEOs share which areas of biotech they are eagerly watching this year.

MRI-guided focused ultrasound has been used to deliver chemo into the brain of a pediatric cancer patient for the first time.

A new hypothesis suggests that Alzheimer's disease is the result of "jumping genes" in the brain, not inflammation or plaque.

Researchers have resurrected an ancient CRISPR system 2.6 billion years old, capable of editing genes in the modern day.

Verily, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, believes it can eliminate Singapore’s dengue problem.

The USDA has conditionally approved a honey bee vaccine to protect the important insects from American foulbrood, a brutal bacterial infection.

People with shingles have an approximately 80% higher risk of stroke than those without the disease, and researchers want to know why.

Lecanemab, a new Alzheimer’s medication shown to slow cognitive decline in patients, has been granted accelerated approval by the FDA.

A new therapy that treats children with rare mtDNA mutations using mitochondria sourced from their mothers has now been tested in patients.

A new universal flu vaccine candidate that uses mRNA to target all known flu subtypes looks promising in animal models.

Stem cell patches under development in the UK might allow surgeons to permanently repair infants congenital heart defects.

A roundup of major science and tech achievements that flew under the radar in 2022, including new vaccines, advanced solar cells, and more.

Research suggests that microglia play a key role in preventing neurodegenerative diseases by helping to remove toxic waste.

Researchers have identified a compound capable of stopping multiple coronaviruses in cell and tissue models.

A first-of-its-kind CAR T-cell therapy sent a UK girl’s blood cancer into remission when all other treatments failed.

Moderna’s new mRNA cancer vaccine reduced melanoma patients’ risk of recurrence or death by 44% compared to a standard treatment alone.

A cheap, readily available drug used to treat liver disease could also prevent COVID-19 infections — regardless of the variant.

Most types of antidepressants work by increasing neurotransmitter levels throughout the brain, which take weeks. A new drug takes hours.

A new, one-dose treatment for lethal sleeping sickness was 95% effective at clearing the parasite from patients.

The Chroma AI's ability to design proteins with structures no one has ever seen before could revolutionize medicine.

By combining tiny nanobubbles with ultrasound, Israeli researchers showed they can destroy tumors.