Recently on the local news, New York governor Kathy Hochul confidently proclaimed that we would not experience another COVID surge. Yet just…
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post What Lies Ahead with COVID? We Simply Don’t Know
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post Lessons from Flu and HIV Inspire Universal Coronavirus Vaccine
Masks are coming off and we’re venturing back into the world, thanks largely to vaccines and natural immunity. Still, viral evolution continues…
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post SARS-CoV-2 Pops Up, Mutated, Beyond the Respiratory Tract
As if the waves of novel variants of “interest” and “concern” sweeping the planet haven’t been enough, and we find versions of…
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post Rare Disease Day 2022: Juvenile Huntington’s Disease
In honor of Rare Disease Day 2022, February 28th, I’m reposting a DNA Science story from nine years ago. February 16th was…
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post Converting Donor Lungs to Universal Blood Type O Could Boost Organ Supply
Lung transplants can be lifesaving for patients with end-stage lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, and pulmonary hypertension…
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post COVID Complacency: Warnings from Invasion, Station Eleven, and a Research Report
When Mark Twain wrote “Truth is stranger than fiction,” he wasn’t imagining people watching tales of an alien invasion and a pandemic…
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post Yellow Mealworm Genome Sequence May Ease Farming Insects for Food
I have a special fondness for the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor. As a child, I fed the mealworm stage of this beetle…
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post Omicron Evolves and the Covidization of Scientific Publishing
Just as we thought Omicron was rolling across the US and into oblivion, a new “subvariant” has arrived and is, again, taking…
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post DNA in Strange Places: Hippo Poop, Zoo Air, and Cave Dirt
Many years ago, a dear friend took me to the Detroit zoo to see the Hippoquarium. Much to my delight, the resident…
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post Pandemic Predictions Take a Turn Towards the Positive – Finally
An end may be in sight. For the first time since the pandemic began, I listened to a press briefing from medical…
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post Please Help My Liberian “Son” Achieve his Dream as an Infectious Disease Physician
For many years I’ve ended editions of my human genetics textbook with a request for students to email me to share their…
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post Sandy From the Mountains Dies, Leaving a Message to the Unvaxxed
Five days ago, Sandy’s husband allowed the staff in the ICU to turn off her life support, and COVID claimed yet another…