Archive for October, 2009
Controversies over gene patents often ignore the lack of evidence that they impede basic research. The more important concern may be the negative impact of the push to commercialize science.
Despite moving early to initiate production of a vaccine for H1N1 influenza, it’s now clear that the federal government will not have nearly has many doses ready this season as officials originally claimed. Reports in both the Washington Post and the New York Times indicate that the administration relied on production estimates provided by the [...]
Last week, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors issued a new policy for the transparent disclosure of conflicts of interest for the authors of papers published by journals in the consortium. A coalition of advocates have been pushing for the adoption of a uniform COI policy for medical journals since 2007, according to Merrill [...]
Given the Obama administration’s positive approach to science and to human rights, a new CAP report argues that now is the time to craft policies that support collaborations between researchers and advocates that stop atrocities.
What is personalized medicine? How does personalized medicine work? What are the challenges and possible solutions? Michael Rugnetta explains the principles behind the “Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine” report.
Two of the Nobel Prize winners announced yesterday for Medicine or Physiology have something in common besides their groundbreaking work on how cells copy chromosomes. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider both served on presidential bioethics commissions. Blackburn, of the University of California, San Francisco, was a member of the George W. Bush President’s [...]
Cocaine is notoriously addictive, and even users committed to kicking the habit have a tremendously hard time cutting the chemical dependency. To help break the cycle, researchers have developed a vaccine aimed at stimulating an immune response that stops the drug from working. The National Institutes of Health reported yesterday that a clinical trial of [...]
A “plan B” focused on planetary control through geoengineering might turn out to be nothing but a mistaken notion.
Joking that he is eager to grow a pair of crab claws, Stephen Colbert asked National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins last night what’s taking so long with stem cell research. In response to the Colbert Report host, Collins presented a smart example of how we need to make sure that we get stem [...]
