Five years ago today, I learned that I had breast cancer. I didn’t find out in the usual way, an alarmingly ambiguous…
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post My Five-Year Breast CancerversaryRead more
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post Halloween Evokes Thoughts on OrganoidsRead more
When the jello brains and gummy organs of Halloween come out, my thoughts turn to organoids. These are tiny organs, or parts…
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post The Age of the Pangenome DawnsRead more
“Pan” has several meanings. As a noun, it refers to “a round metal container that often has a long handle and a…
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post Nobel Prize to Paleogenetics Rockstar Svante Pääbo Evokes Memories of Being Drawn to ScienceRead more
One of my favorite places as a child was the American Museum of Natural History. While most kids would rush to the…
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post Two Newly-Approved Gene Therapies Cost MillionsRead more
The FDA recently approved two gene therapies with hefty price tags, the first for an inherited anemia and the second for a…
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post Thoughts on a Return of PolioRead more
When a case of polio showed up in Rockland county, just north of New York City, in July 2022, and then polioviruses…
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post Mellow Yellow: A Biotech Way to Make SaffronRead more
Biotechnology mass-produces valuable molecules from nature, from drugs to textiles to a jellyfish protein that lights up most anything a glowing green…
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post Can Curcumin, Black Pepper, and Ginger Treat Retinitis Pigmentosa? Steve Fialkoff’s Excellent ExperimentRead more
Steve Fialkoff and I weren’t friends at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, NY. We were in the class of 1972; earlier…
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post DNA Analysis Solves the Mystery of the Rabbit Invasion of AustraliaRead more
COVID and monkeypox seem to have come out of nowhere and exploded across continents. But the phenomenon of natural selection acting on…
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post Where Will the Next Pandemic Come From? Highlights from CDC’s Emerging Infectious DiseasesRead more
When monkeypox came from out of nowhere in the spring, it sounded like a joke to our collective COVID-fatigued brains. I think…
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post OrganEx Revives Pigs an Hour After Death, Holding Promise for TransplantsRead more
Transplant medicine could take a giant leap forward if donor organs could soak up oxygen for longer and decay delayed. A technology…
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post Did a Virus Type Used in Gene Therapy Cause the Recent Wave of Hepatitis in Kids?Read more
The last thing the field of gene therapy needs is another setback. Two studies, not yet peer-reviewed, point to adeno-associated virus (AAV)…