WRITING

ALLERGY & ASTHMA

Virtual clinics move in on allergy drops

An under-the-tongue treatment is popular in Europe, Canada, and Latin America. Why don't US allergists offer it?

UNDARK  

There's a much safer food allergy immunotherapy. Why don't more doctors offer it?

Some allergists offer oral immunotherapy. However, allergic reactions are common during treatment, and the hard-earned protection can fade if not maintained with regular dosing. An alternate approach, sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), delivers food proteins through liquid drops held in the mouth—a site rich in tolerance-inducing immune cells.

MEDSCAPE

Could gut microbes be key to solving food allergies?

New therapeutics are testing whether protective bacteria can dampen harmful immune responses to food.

KNOWABLE  

CANCER

Cancer's sweet cloak

Sugars on cell surfaces help tumors hide from the immune system.

SCIENCE NEWS  

*Winner of 2018 Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism

Scientists and parents band together to research cures for rare childhood cancer

A research start-up is connecting parents with scientists in hopes of sparking new research on diseases whose survival rates haven't budged in 30 years.

NPR

Leaving a legacy

Two mothers, each with a son who died of brain cancer, worked together to increase awareness and acceptance of tumor tissue donation.

CANCER TODAY 

COVID

How primary care physicians can recognize and treat Long COVID

First she had heart palpitations, a bad headache, a spike in blood pressure. Then came tingling and numbness . . .

JAMA 

Cheap generics might treat COVID-19, but obstacles abound

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the clinical trial system in the United States is inhospitable to independent researchers.

MEDSCAPE 

Investigating antidepressant's surprising effect on COVID deaths

Researchers are still puzzling over what this drug does at the molecular level to help COVID patients.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

IMMUNOLOGY

'Trained immunity' offers hope in fight against coronavirus

A novel form of immunological memory that was mostly ignored for a century extends the benefits of vaccines. It could be of help in ending the COVID pandemic.

QUANTA 

Nanohealers

Tiny particles cloaked in cell membranes sop up blood toxins and calm inflammation.

SCIENCE NEWS  

Could the immune system be key to Alzheimer's disease?

Increasing evidence suggests that chronic inflammation takes a toll on the brain over the course of a lifetime.

KNOWABLE

NEUROSCIENCE

Could blood transfusions and tissue transplants spread certain dementias?

Scattered evidence suggests that aberrant proteins act as "seeds" to transmit neurodegenerative disease, but the jury is still out.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Researchers call for a major rethink of how Alzheimer's treatments are evaluated

An approach that aims to quantify how long a drug can delay or halt the progression of disease is gathering steam.

NATURE INDEX 

Big brain, big data

Neuroscientists are starting to share and integrate data—but shifting to a team approach isn't easy.

NATURE  

PROFILES

Elizabeth Berry-Kravis: Running a marathon for fragile X syndrome

Elizabeth Berry-Kravis has spent decades uncovering molecular clues to fragile X syndrome and crafting trials of treatments. Her efforts are paying off.

SPECTRUM

Seeding the field

As a pioneer in plant behavioral studies, Joanne Chory set the stage for a generation of scientists.

HHMI 

They never told her that girls could become scientists

Now she knows they can. Mireille Kamariza, who grew up in Burundi, is a Stanford graduate student developing a cheaper, faster test to detect TB.

NPR  

STEM DIVERSITY & DISPARITIES

To diversify the scientific workforce, postdoc recruitment needs a rethink

Biased hiring practices are limiting efforts to attract and retain researchers from minority ethnic groups.

NATURE

Tackle negative thinking head-on to boost diversity in biomedicine

One California university is trying a new strategy to help minority students perform in STEM classes and develop the mental resilience to face future challenges.

NPR 

Atopic dermatitis underrecognized, undertreated in patients of color

Skin disease images that are found online or in medical textbooks mostly show white patients, yet atopic dermatitis can be more common and more severe in certain other ethnic groups.

MEDSCAPE  

TECHNOLOGY & STARTUPS

A new breed of cancer immunotherapy

Glycoscience-focused start-ups look to broaden the benefits of immuno-oncology with drugs that target a protein family called Siglecs and their glycan ligands.

CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS  

How engineers are drug developers are working to change childhood cancer's deadly calculus

A non-profit organization merges engineering and biology to accelerate drug development for childhood cancers.

NATURE  

Be Biopharma: B cells as protein factories

Plasma cells can be turned into protein factories for patients with protein deficiencies for whom one-and-done gene therapy is not an option.

NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY

FOR KIDS

Why can't bugs be grub?

Researchers are studying why some people think eating insects is gross—.and how to change that.

SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS  

Superbugs: A silent health emergency

Bacteria are outsmarting antibiotics to an alarming degree.

SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS  

Ants in space

Learning how ants search is helping scientists design robots and may help them better understand the brain, the Internet and other complex systems.

MUSE

THIS & THAT

Why aren't more people buying over-the-counter hearing aids?

In the US, millions of adults have hearing loss. Will consumer tech help sway them toward hearing aids?

UNDARK

Wanted: More data, the dirtier the better

The computational immunologist Purvesh Khatri embraces messy data as a way to capture the messiness of disease. As a result, he's making elusive genomic discoveries.

QUANTA  

Medical cargo could be the gateway for routine drone deliveries

Proposals for drones to carry blood, trauma supplies and lab samples are awaiting approval by the Federal Aviation Administration.

NPR