Health

The future of fertility, from artificial wombs to AI-assisted IVF

A look back at the history of infertility treatments and ahead to the tech that could change everything we thought we knew about reproduction.

Kristin Houser

Overlay of hands and abstract patterns in purple and blue tones, symbolizing hope for Parkinson's cure.

Drugs

The exciting research that may cure Parkinson’s

GeneCode is developing a drug it hopes won’t just alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms but also protect and restore patient’s neural health.

Kevin Dickinson

A child sitting on a couch in a dimly lit room, holding and looking intently at a tablet, as if testing the Goldilocks hypothesis for the perfect screen brightness.

Mental Health

Beyond screen time: Rethinking kids’ tech use with the “Goldilocks hypothesis”

The “Goldilocks hypothesis” asks parents to think beyond screen time and consider the habits that teens build around technology use.

Kevin Dickinson

Phone cameras can now measure your pulse and breathing

A team of researchers has developed an algorithm to measure pulse and respiration rate during a telehealth appointment using your device’s camera.

B. David Zarley

Medicine

New oral insulin tech replaces needles with nanoparticles

If the success of a new oral insulin delivery system in rats translates to people, it could entice more diabetics to pursue insulin therapy.

Kristin Houser

Game triggers auditory hallucinations in mice and people

An experimental game that triggers auditory hallucinations in both mice and humans could lead to new treatments for schizophrenia.

Kristin Houser

Vaccines

New approach for mRNA HIV vaccine passes first human trial

There is currently no HIV vaccine, but a new technique which produced specific immunity cells in humans may pave the way to one.

B. David Zarley

Penn scientists correct genetic blindness with a single injection into the eye

Antisense oligonucleotide therapy uses small molecules to alter RNA. Researchers have now used those molecules to alleviate a genetic form of blindness.

B. David Zarley

Nobel prize-winning chemist helps invent synthetic mucus

Mucins, the long proteins in mucus, have an array of bacteria-fighting properties. These artificial mucins can act like the real thing.

B. David Zarley

How scientists finally got gene therapy to work

Gene therapy shows promise for treating diseases and the longstanding mysteries of medical science. But what is gene therapy and how does it work?

Teresa Carey

Injectable “glue” helps heal traumatic brain injury in rats

By injecting a “brain glue” into rats, researchers were able to speed up their recovery after a traumatic brain injury.

Kristin Houser

A major Huntington’s trial has failed. Here’s why there is still hope.

A simple genetic test can determine a person's fate for one of the worst diseases on the planet. But research offers new hope for Huntington's disease.

Teresa Carey

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine 100% effective in adolescent study

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was reportedly 100% effective in a trial involving more than 2,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15.

Kristin Houser

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