My blog posts around Thanksgiving are predictably dull: Turkey Genetics 101, The Peaceable Genomes of Pumpkins. But 2020 is like no other…
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post Thinking About Thanksgiving? A Reminder of What COVID-19 Can Do To A Human BodyRead more
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post Genetic Clues in the Goop of a COVID SwabRead more
The components of certain things are meant to remain mysterious. The ingredients of sausage. A burger’s slimy secret sauce. The recipe for…
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post Can Some Antibodies Worsen COVID-19? The Odd Situation of EnhancementRead more
Antibodies are supposed to be the good guys. The proteins, built of distinctive Y-shaped pieces, enter the bloodstream early in infection, pouring…
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post A Drug Trio for COVID-19: Precedents in Cystic Fibrosis, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis CRead more
Teaming treatments has long been a strategy to quell cancer, override mutations, and fight viruses. Will that be a winning strategy against…
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post A Conversation with CRISPR-Cas9 Inventors Charpentier and DoudnaRead more
Congrats to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2020. The idea to edit DNA sequences and…
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post Long-Awaited Drug for Alkaptonuria (AKU), the First “Inborn Error,” On the Way to Approval in EuropeRead more
The European Medicines Agency has just recommended extending use of an existing drug, nitisinone (Orfadin), to treat alkaptonuria (AKU). AKU holds a…
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post 5 COVID-19 Updates: Cats, Kids, Seniors, Blood, and an Old VaccineRead more
Times have been strange for us all, weird indeed for science journalists. The initial manageable flow of news alerts to the media…
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post A Cloned Przewalski’s Horse Evokes Memories of the Catskill Game FarmRead more
On August 6, the first cloned Przewalski’s horse was born in Texas. Kurt began with a cell nucleus from another of his…
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post How the Various COVID Vaccines WorkRead more
COVID vaccine hesitancy is on the rise, perhaps in the wake of pressure to speed approval beyond scientific reason. But I think…
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post Extinction of the Woolly Rhino: Ancient Genomes Point to Climate Change, not OverhuntingRead more
Two views of the forces behind extinction of the woolly rhino elegantly illustrate how scientific thinking shifts to embrace new knowledge –…
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post Progress and a Setback in Treating Rare Genetic Diseases: Hemophilia A, CLN1, SMA, and DMDRead more
In these strange days of the pandemic, it’s easy to forget that people are still sick with the illnesses that we’ve always…
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post How COVID-19 Arose and Amplified Along the Meat Supply ChainRead more
Early in this unforgettable year, a wet market in Wuhan, China, emerged as a possible step along the way, if not the…