News and Opinions

by Harvard University - Microglia are a specialized type of immune cell that accounts for about 10% of all cells within the brain and spinal cord. They function by eliminating infectious microbes, dead cells, and aggregated proteins, as well as soluble antigens that...

By Meghana Keshavan - Stat News - From my colleague Jason Mast: KJ Muldoon, the first infant treated with a personalized gene-editing drug, has been discharged from the hospital for the first time in his life, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced Tuesday....

by Sarah Williams, Stanford University - MedicalXpress - Whether you are a competitive athlete or an older adult, strong bones are essential—not only for movement, but also for overall health. Now, a new study has shed new light on how our bones are maintained and...

By Fondazione Telethon - SciTechDaily - Researchers have identified an early postnatal window that allows gene transfer to circulating blood stem cells, advancing the development of potential treatments for genetic disorders. A team of scientists from the San...

By Natalie Healey - Nature Medicine - Landmark trials using stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease in the USA and Japan mark a turning point for cell therapy in neurodegeneration. Similar approaches to Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are also...

By Raymond Forslund, PhD - Clinical Leader - The imposition of tariffs by the United States government has introduced significant uncertainties across various industries, including biotechnology. This white paper examines the potential ramifications of these tariffs...

By Rick Mayer - WUSF-NPR - Health News Florida The measure authorizes physicians to perform the treatments for orthopedics, wound care or pain management with strict requirements to ensure safety and ethics. Before the annual session ended last week, the Florida...

By NASA - High school student Kyle Benjamin speaks with Dr. Lisa Carnell, program scientist of NASA’s Translational Research Program, about her work using tissue chips to study human biology in space -- and what it could mean for personalized medicine back on Earth....

By Lynn Nicho;ls - Stanford Medicine - From Frequent Transfusions to a Cure for Beta Thalassemia Wade Huynh, age 3, was born with a serious blood disorder, and he needed a stem cell transplant to thrive. Luckily, he didn’t need to look far for a donor match—just...

By Healthcare-in-Europe.com What if doctors could precisely print miniature capsules capable of delivering cells needed for tissue repair exactly where they are needed inside a beating heart? A team of scientists led by Caltech has taken a significant step toward that...

by Max G. Levy, PhD - Drug Discovery News - At the root of anything good or bad in the human immune system is a question about recognition. When the immune system functions correctly, it clocks unrecognized bacteria and viruses. When it misbehaves, immune cells...

by Drug Target Review - Cell and gene therapy (CGT) is advancing rapidly, offering new treatments for complex conditions such as cancer and genetic disorders. As these therapies evolve, the demand for more efficient and reliable methods of cell expansion – an...

By Derek Lowe - Science - Here’s some more good news on the immuno-oncology front. Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is one of those cancer types whose prognosis is in the “A lot better than it used to be, but. . .” category. There are several varieties (with the “classic” form...

By Willow Shah-Neville - LabBioTech - Parkinson’s disease is an extremely complex condition to treat. Although there are medications available that can help relieve symptoms, there are still no approved therapies that slow down the progression of the underlying...

By Robert Sanders - UC Berkley News - In a decision released today (May 12), the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to reconsider its 2022 interference...

by Kerstin Wagner, Leibniz - MedicalXpress.com - Scientists at the Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena have discovered a previously unknown function of immune cells in the bone marrow. Embryonic macrophages—specialized phagocytes of the...

By Nick Paul Taylor - Fierce Biotech - Biotech bank balances were again in focus Monday morning, with Tango Therapeutics cutting preclinical work to stretch its cash runway and Avalo Therapeutics outlining options for preserving its money. Tango extended its cash...

By Jon LaPook - CBS NEWS - Philadelphia — Soon after KJ Muldoon was born in the summer of 2024, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that is fatal for about half the infants who are born with it. Until now, the only effective long-term treatment for the rare...

by The Francis Crick Institute - Phys.Org - Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have developed a new stem cell model of the mature human amniotic sac, which replicates development of the tissues supporting the embryo from two to four weeks after fertilization....

By Tiffany Yesavag - Genetic Bioengineering & Biotechnology News - Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an innovative cancer treatment that engineers a patient’s own T cells to target and destroy cancer cells. While the field has sparked significant...