biomedical research

A lab in Seoul is the only place in the world known to commercially clone dogs. But often the dog clones are sickly, critics say, and many other dogs are subjected to surgery to make a clone.

Up to half of all results from biomedical research laboratories these days can't be replicated by other science teams. Why not? Myriad flubs slow progress in the hunt for cures.

Our immune systems constantly fight off disease — protecting us from colds, flu and infection. An experimental treatment called immunotherapy is helping patients' immune systems fight off cancer.

By making E. coli dependent on an artificial amino acid, scientists hope to show that engineered organisms can be safer and more useful for industrial processes like drug production.

So, you want to be a science professor? Good luck. Highly educated, relatively low-paid postdoctoral fellows may drive U.S. biomedical research, but they're training for jobs that don't exist.

The answer, this time, isn't simply more cash, says Dr. Harold Varmus, director of the National Cancer Institute. Instead, changing the way research money is distributed might fix systemic problems.

A shrinking pool of grant money for medical research has led competing applicants to oversell weak scientific findings, critics say. The result: Many experimental treatments are worthless.