Every morning I pop a Pearl probiotic. I try hard not to drop it, for the tiny, slippery yellow sphere bounces, is…
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post Designing a Better Probiotic. CRISPR Hubris?Read more
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post Transmissible Alzheimer’s Disease? Long-Ago Growth Hormone Treatment and a Legacy of Cannibalism and Mad CowsRead more
Five people treated for pituitary dwarfism decades ago with human growth hormone (hGH) pooled from cadavers have shown cognitive decline reminiscent of…
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post Chewing Gum Reveals Stone Age Diet and DiseaseRead more
We can learn about life, past and present, anywhere we find DNA and determine its sequence. DNA Science has described intriguing sources…
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post Multi-cancer Early Detection Blood Tests (MCED) DebutRead more
A 52-year-old woman is at her annual physical exam. The physician assistant mentions he’ll need two extra vials of blood for new…
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post CRISPR Tackles Diverse Single-Gene ConditionsRead more
The end-of-year FDA approval of the first CRISPR-based therapy, for sickle cell disease, came a mere dozen years after Jennifer Doudna and…
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post The 500th Blog Post at DNA Science: In Celebration of VaccinesRead more
A few weeks ago, I noticed a surprising metric when posting my weekly DNA Science blog – at year’s end, I’d hit…
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post Perfume from Extinct Flowers, Thanks to Ancient DNA and Synthetic BiologyRead more
“Enchant your loved ones with nature’s lost scents, revived through biotechnology and perfume artistry.” When that popped up on Facebook, I was…
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post Why Cats Sniff Each Other’s ButtsRead more
Anyone who lives with more than one member of Felis catus knows that our beloved felines love to smell each other’s anal…
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post Breeding Better Butternut Squash – and a Thanksgiving RecipeRead more
After a long career as a science writer, textbook author, and genetic counselor, I’ve become an accidental authority on squashes. I began…
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post The Dawn of Molecular Genetics: A Glimpse of History in a Textbook from 1952Read more
The email from my former neighbor Shaun Kuczek was unexpected. “Hi Ricki! My Dad passed in July, and we’re cleaning out his…
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post FDA Returns Disappointing News for ALS Stem Cell TherapyRead more
Last week DNA Science covered a setback in a clinical trial of a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Also recently…
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post Is Recent Gene Therapy Setback for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Déjà vu All Over Again?Read more
In the final chapter of my 2012 book The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It, I predicted that…