biomedical research

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., embraces Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., during a media briefing about the 21st Century Cures Act on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Winners And Losers If 21st Century Cures Bill Becomes Law

1:18pm December 02, 2016

Sweeping legislation that would reshape how the Food and Drug Administration reviews new products and bolster National Institutes of Health funding is moving closer to becoming law. What's at stake?

In a cluster of glowing human stem cells, one cell divides. The cell membrane is shown in purple, while DNA in the dividing nucleus is blue. The white fibers linking the nucleus are spindles, which aid in cell division.

Glowing Human Cells May Shed Light On Sickness And Health

3:24pm November 30, 2016

by Jon Hamilton

Researchers who developed a collection of human stem cells with glowing internal structures have begun sharing them with colleagues. The glow reveals the secret workings of cells.

Biomedical researchers are amassing huge amounts of patient data but are having trouble making sense of the information.

Big Data Coming In Faster Than Biomedical Researchers Can Process It

6:28pm November 28, 2016

by Richard Harris

There's a plethora of projects to gather data about the brain, various kinds of cancer and every type of cell in the body. But researchers are struggling to keep up with the information explosion.

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Medical researchers are including more patient voices in the discussion of how research is carried out.

Patients Increasingly Influence The Direction Of Medical Research

12:13pm November 28, 2016

by Richard Harris

Medical researchers are no longer ignoring the people who have the most to gain — or lose. But as patient advocates become more influential, they risk being co-opted by the biomedical industry.

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Gregoire Courtine, a neurologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, holds a silicone model of a primate's brain with an electrode array. The goal is to pick up signals from the brain and transmit them to the legs.

Monkeys Regain Control Of Paralyzed Legs With Help Of An Implant

2:08pm November 09, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

Two monkeys with spinal cord injuries were able to move after a wireless implant restored the connection between brain and legs. But any help for people will be years away, researchers say.

Cori Bargmann is applying her training as a neuroscientist to shaping the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's ambitious agenda.

Applying A Silicon Valley Approach To Jumpstart Medical Research

6:28pm October 25, 2016

by NPR Staff

Neuroscientist Cori Bargmann is leading the new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's $3 billion effort to cure or prevent "all diseases" by the end of this century. She talks about that daunting task.

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Research in mice shows that lowering oxygen levels could reset circadian clocks and cure jet lag.

Breathing Less Oxygen Reduces Jet Lag, At Least In Mice

3:49pm October 20, 2016

by Erin Ross

Jet lag and shift work impose painful changes on the body's circadian rhythms. Adjusting oxygen consumption might help, researchers say. But don't hold your breath; it's only been tested in mice.

Since a single scientific study rarely provides a definitive answer, researchers combine the results of several studies to reach clearer conclusions.

Reviews Of Medical Studies May Be Tainted By Funders' Influence

4:33pm October 12, 2016

by Richard Harris

Researchers often combine the results of many medical studies to evaluate treatments. But when the combiners have a financial interest, the results might be inaccurate, a scientist says.

Rats are great at remembering where they last sniffed the strawberries.

Rats That Reminisce May Lead To Better Tests For Alzheimer's Drugs

4:34pm September 29, 2016

by Jon Hamilton

Most potential Alzheimer's drugs are tested on mice. But rats may be a better choice because they seem to have a type of memory that's more like ours, and also are highly vulnerable to Alzheimer's.

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A multi-million dollar effort to produce a test to guide treatment for a potentially lethal skin cancer recently fell apart after the scientific investigator discovered that the commercial antibodies he was using were unreliable.

Flawed Research Tool Leads To Faulty Medical Findings

5:00am September 29, 2016

by Richard Harris

Just as natural antibodies help your body find and fight microbial invaders, tailored research antibodies let scientists target and study cancer cells. But too many are poorly made, scientists say.