Archive: Jun 2017

by Leah Rosenbaum Last April, Dr. Paul Reggiardo saw a patient who was referred to his dental office in Huntington Beach, California from the local emergency room. She was an eight-year-old girl with facial swelling, the soft tissue on her head puffy…

by Catherine Weiner figures by Michael Gerhardt A decade ago, the idea of analyzing your DNA from the comfort of your own home seemed like science fiction. Tests required several weeks, thousands if not millions of dollars, and a lab of highly…

Child with autism [Image: Autism/ by hepingting on Flickr]Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication. The cause of autism is unknown, but several theories have been proposed. One theory…

As mosquitoes develop resistance to insecticides used to control their populations, scientists have been developing new tools. The latest idea: infecting mosquitoes with a fungus genetically engineered to produce arachnid toxins. After infecting the…

High-resolution microscope image of a lymphocyte, the part of the immune system that interacts with Keytruda [‘T Lymphocyte’ from NIAID] Results from a small clinical trial comprising 86 cancer patients have prompted scientists to rethink how…

by Giulia Notarangelo figures by Rebecca Clements The human body fights off noxious intruders on a daily basis to maintain our health and prevent disease. The army of cells that is responsible for leading this fight is called the immune system. The…

by Qingbo Wang figures by Anna Maurer In 2014, the Fields Medal, often described as the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics,” was awarded to a Harvard alumnus and mathematician, Maryam Mirzakhani. The mathematics society celebrated not only her sophisticated…

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus. Photo Credit: Janice Haney Carr Content Providers: CDC. Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, bacterial infections were the leading cause of death worldwide. Now, treating infections is often a routine procedure –…

by Steph Guerra figures by Shannon McArdel The Cancer Moonshot is an initiative that was launched by Joe Biden in 2016 with the goal of accelerating cancer research progress by bringing together world-class researchers and institutions in the battle…

by Ryan L. Collins figures by Brad Wierbowski Thanks to modern genetics, “precision medicine” is slowly becoming a reality: doctors can perform genetic tests to determine your risk for dozens of diseases, like stroke or liver disease, and can prescribe…