Category: 4. Health

Tucked among the trillions of tax cuts in the House’s just-passed “big, beautiful bill” is the repeal of the tax on indoor tanning services. But before you rush to book a tanning bed appointment, remember that the Senate…

In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at whether we should worry about spaceborne bacteria, a clinical trial for regenerating nerves after a traumatic injury, a new class of electronics and more. You can sign up to get The Prototype in your inbox here.

A previously unknown strain of bacteria is living on Chain’s Tiangong space station, according to a study published this week. The new…

During the 2024 presidential campaign, politicians and their surrogates repeatedly raised concerns about abortion later in pregnancy. The topic grabbed media attention and continues to inspire strong emotions, but most of the discussions include numerous misunderstandings.

These debates tend to focus almost exclusively on the status of a presumed healthy fetus: Does it have a heartbeat? Can it feel pain? Can it survive outside of the pregnant person’s body? Laws in the U.S. routinely…

With rising cancer rates necessitating new forms of diagnosis and treatment, Hong Kong-based biotech startup Phase Scientific International announced Tuesday it raised $34 million in a Series A funding round led by Asian asset management firm Value Partners Group.

Under a private equity fund of Value Partners, which was cofounded by billionaire Cheah Cheng Hye, the Series A brought Phase Scientific’s…

Heather Candrilli, 36, a mother of two, is battling metastatic colon cancer—underscoring the urgent need for education, research, and advocacy for young adults facing rising rates of the disease.

Her journey began two years ago with persistent abdominal bloating and rectal bleeding. “I had just delivered my son and assumed the symptoms were postpartum related,” she recalls. Even…

Yet despite its prevalence, methods to treat MDD often fall short for a not-insignificant portion of the population. Antidepressants — the standard of treatment — don’t work for 30 percent with MDD.

When infused at a low dose ketamine shows remarkable efficacy as a rapidly acting antidepressant, with effects observed…

Gene therapy has emerged as a promising approach, replacing or supplementing defective genes to preserve or restore vision. Yet, most existing gene therapy strategies have been developed and tested in early disease stages — leaving a major gap in…

To improve the AAV’s ability to deliver therapeutics specifically to the lungs and airway, Mass General Brigham researchers developed and applied a new version, called AAV.CPP.16, that can be administered with a nasal spray. In preclinical models, the innovative tool outperformed previous versions by more…

Proteins catalyze life by changing shape when they interact with other molecules. The result is a muscle twitching, the perception of light, or a bit of energy extracted from food.

But this crucial ability has eluded the growing field of AI-augmented protein engineering.

Now, researchers at UCSF have shown it is possible to make new proteins that move and change shape like those in nature….

What impact can cannabis have for sleep apnea patients? This is what a recent report from the Office of Cannabis Management hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the pros and cons of using medical cannabis to treat sleep apnea, which is caused from reduced or paused breathing during sleep, resulting in disruptive sleep, waking up fatigued, and an overall negative impact on well-being.

For the study, the researchers evaluated 3,102…