IBM halting sales of Watson AI tool for drug discovery

The decision to shut down sales of Watson for Drug Discovery marks another setback in the company’s effort to apply AI to various areas of health care. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

An obscure Indian journal with an impressive and growing international stature

A small Indian journal, IJME, has an impressive list of staff and contributors and has been earning plaudits from the science community lately. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

FDA developing new rules for artificial intelligence in medicine

These machine-learning systems present a particularly thorny problem for the FDA, because it's essentially trying to hit a moving target in regulating them. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Biogen's New Beta Amyloid Targeting Alzheimer's Drug Halted

Biogen and its partner, Eisai, said an analysis concluded that aducanumab was unlikely to benefit Alzheimer’s patients compared to placebo. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

The modern tragedy of fake cancer cures

An underreported story about a half-baked advance caught fire and scorched its way through social media, onto TV, and into the minds of millions. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

After ghoulish allegations, a brain-preservation company seeks redemption

Robert McIntyre and Nectome are determined to claw their way out of scientific purgatory and show they can preserve brains and perhaps memories. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

A spot of good news in Ebola crisis: Vaccine supplies are expected to last

The WHO predicts there are adequate supplies of an experimental Ebola vaccine to control the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Celgene, sold for $74B, leaves a legacy of chutzpah in science and drug pricing

Want to know why an industry that views itself as lifesaving and heroic is viewed by much of the public as price gouging and venal? Look here. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Scientists discover hidden blood networks that cross through bone

In something like a microscopic prison break, blood cells slip unseen from the enclosed depths of the bone marrow into the general circulation. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Stunning images of a fly’s brain via new microscopy technique

The research could allow scientists to create more precise maps of the brain and find clues to the causes of brain diseases. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

New microscopy technique captures stunning images of a fly’s brain

The research could allow scientists to create more precise maps of the brain and find clues to the causes of brain diseases. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Lab strips James Watson of final honorary roles after racist statements

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has stripped the Nobel laureate of his last remaining honorary positions. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Lab strips James Watson of final roles after continuing racist remarks

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has stripped the Nobel laureate of his last remaining honorary positions. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Cancer startup Loxo, founded in 2014, acquired for $8B

The pharmaceutical giant will purchase Loxo Oncology, a tiny startup, for $8 billion in cash to gain access to the company’s cancer medicines. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

A shot-in-the-dark email leads to hope of cracking a deadly flu’s secret

A university professor has some theories, and now has in his possession human tissue handed down through the generations to try to test them. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

NIH report scrutinizes role of China in theft of U.S. scientific research

“It’s not just random here or there,” said M. Roy Wilson, co-chair of the advisory committee to the NIH director that wrote the report. “It is significant.” | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Solving the fake news problem in science

The number of times a scientific paper is cited is a poor proxy of quality, and can lead to fake news. We need a better way to evaluate research quality. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Pharma Valley, China’s equivalent of Kendall Square, is expanding rapidly

Shanghai's Pharma Valley lags Kendall Square in capital, entrepreneurial talent, and scientific firepower, but its biotech ecosystem is growing rapidly. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Claim of CRISPR’d baby girls stuns genome editing summit

A researcher's claim that he used genome editing to alter DNA of human embryos, resulting in the birth a few weeks ago of twin girls, stunned scientists. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

FDA promised a ‘lower-cost option’ to EpiPen, but the price isn’t any lower

The Teva pricing appears to undercut a notion promoted by FDA officials that approving more generics can help relieve pocketbook pressure on Americans. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Despite concerns, FDA approves new opioid 10x more powerful than Fentanyl

The medicine has “unique features” that make it well-suited for the military, a point that factored heavily into the approval. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

In the fierce competition for science funding, even a typeface glitch is fatal

An inadvertant typographical glitch, generated by a computer, sank a VA physician's funding request for a project seeking to help vets with PTSD. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Font despair: In fierce competition for science funding, typeface glitch fatal

An inadvertant typographical glitch, generated by a computer, sank a VA physician's funding request for a project seeking to help vets with PTSD. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Overdose deaths have fallen for six months

Public health experts say they see reason to be optimistic but warned against drawing firm conclusions based on a half-year’s worth of data. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Harvard calls for more than 30 retractions of cardiac stem cell research

Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have recommended that 31 papers from a former lab director be retracted from medical journals. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Turmoil over expulsion of member from leading evidence-based medicine group

One of the medical world’s most respected expert bodies is in turmoil as its annual meeting gets underway after its governing board voted to expel a member. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

NIH to update online explanation of cancer risk from drinking

In response to criticism that it soft-pedaled the cancer risk from alcohol, the NIH alcoholism institute changed the wording on its website. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Researchers to release first-ever genetically engineered mosquitoes in Africa

Burkina Faso granted scientists permission to release genetically engineered mosquitoes as soon as this month — a key step in efforts to eliminate malaria. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Here’s the data behind the new Apple Watch EKG app

When the new app can get a reading, it can accurately detect atrial fibrillation 99 percent of the time, according to data Apple submitted to FDA. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Doctors admonish us to leave earwax alone. Why won’t anyone listen?

Few pieces of medical advice have been so consistent for so long, and so ignored, as the admonition not to use foreign objects to remove earwax. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Member of family behind OxyCotin granted patent for addiction treatment

The patent, issued earlier this year, concerns a new formulation of buprenorphine, one of the medications shown to help people with opioid addiction. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Startup launches to match cancer patients with clinical trials

The company is betting a smartphone app can help close the gap between patients seeking experimental treatments and cancer centers ready to offer it. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

First CRISPR clinical trial backed by U.S. companies launches

The trial, co-sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, will test the genome-editing technique in patients with the blood disorder beta thalassemia. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

At Silicon Valley’s debutante ball for startups, there’s more biology than ever

A record percentage of startups pitched ideas for the life sciences, like a blood test that uses women’s used menstrual pads instead of needles. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Google DeepMind AI system diagnoses eye diseases and shows its work

A Google DeepMind AI system can identify dozens of eye diseases and point out the portions of scans it relies upon to make diagnoses. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Powerful people in health care are finding a new landing pad: Google

Dr. Toby Cosgrove, the longtime president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic, is the latest health care bigwig to pick Google as a landing pad. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Three years after steep price hike,Martin Shkreli’s drug company is losing money

Vyera Pharmaceuticals, once known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, is losing money and watching sales slip. It's also considering another name change. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

The pleasure and pain of seeing inside living cells/

Eric Betzig's newest microscope looks nothing like the one you remember from school. It can see into a living, breathing cell. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Potential DNA damage from CRISPR has been ‘seriously underestimated’ study finds

A new study suggests CRISPR can cause significantly greater genetic havoc than experts thought; leading CRISPR companies scrambled to play down the threat. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Sonic hedgehog and Beethoven: An oral history of how some genes got their names

STAT interviewed a handful of researchers on how they came up with some of the more memorable gene names. Here’s what they had to say in their own words. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Biogen reports positive results with Alzheimer’s drug

The drug maker reported positive secondary results from a mid-stage study in hopes of saving a drug many in the field had written off entirely. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

I handed over my genetic data to the NIH. Here’s why you should, too

The NIH's All of Us Research Program, which aims to collect sensitive health and genetic information from one million Americans, has put in place layers of security and privacy protections. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

FDA approves country’s first medicine made from marijuana

Epidiolex, a drug manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals, is made of a cannabidiol, or CBD, a component of marijuana, and is prescribed as an oil. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Could genetic tests help reunite separated immigrant families? It’s complicated

Beyond the impossibility of obtaining parental consent for such testing, it would be challenging to obtain informed consent from kids. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Here come the right-to-try profiteers. The FDA is powerless to stop them

The new right-to-try law allows drug makers to earn a profit by selling unproven therapies to desperate patients. The FDA can't do anything about it. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon etc

Atul Gawande, the surgeon and author, has been selected to lead the health-care venture from Amazon, J.P. Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

Barriers to genomic testing get in the way of precision medicine

An alarming number of oncologists have trouble quickly performing and interpreting genetic tests. It's a problem the cancer community needs to fix. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago

With tantalizing early results, gene therapy for Duchenne raises hopes

An experimental treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy produced jaw-dropping increases in a crucial muscle protein normally missing in patients. | Continue reading


@statnews.com | 5 years ago