Bioethics News.
12/01/2014
Physicists solve mystery of why cats rule, dogs drool
Popular web videos showing that “cats rule and dogs drool” have new scientific evidence to support that felinophilic sentiment, at least when it comes to drinking.
12/01/2014
Exclusive: First gene therapy drug sets million-euro price record
The Western world’s first gene therapy drug is set to go on sale in Germany with a 1.1 million euro ($1.4 million) price tag, a new record for a medicine to treat a rare disease.
11/19/2014
Illumina teams with U.S. government, researchers to sequence Ebola
Gene sequencing equipment maker Illumina has teamed up with the U.S. government and academic researchers at the Broad Institute in Boston to train scientists in West Africa to improve tracking of how the Ebola virus is mutating in hopes of fighting it more effectively.
11/19/2014
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/us-health-trials-idUSKCN0J320C20141119
U.S. health officials on Wednesday proposed significantly expanding what researchers are required to report about clinical trials of drugs, devices, and other interventions, addressing concerns that data crucial to patients and physicians is kept secret.
11/18/2014
EmTech: Illumina Says 228,000 Human Genomes Will Be Sequenced This Year
Henry Ford kept lowering the price of cars, and more people kept buying them. The San Diego–based gene sequencing company Illumina has been doing something similar with the tools needed to interpret the human genetic code.
11/18/2014
CDC lays out new plan to counter Ebola exposure in US
Embattled Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director, Dr. Tom Frieden, laid out a new game plan to counter further contamination of health care workers dealing with Ebola patients – including sending rapid response teams to any hospital where a new case is confirmed.
11/17/2014
Access to calorie-counting app doesn’t lead to weight loss
Merely recommending a calorie-counting app to overweight people and giving them access to it on their phones does not lead to weight loss, according to a new study.
11/17/2014
Schools’ preparedness for kids after concussion can vary
When kids are ready to resume classes after being out for a concussion, schools’ preparedness to handle them can vary widely, a new study suggests.
11/13/2014
European space probe marooned in comet’s shadows
A probe that landed on a comet in a first for space exploration has ended up in the shadow of a cliff, about a kilometer (0.6 miles) from its intended resting place, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.
11/13/2014
Newly Identified Gene Mutations Act Like A Lifetime Of Treatment With Merck Cholesterol Drug
A very large genetic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine offers compelling evidence in support of a central role for LDL cholesterol in coronary heart disease.
11/12/2014
U.S. nurses hold strikes, protests over Ebola measures
Tens of thousands of nurses across the United States staged protest rallies and strikes on Wednesday over what they say is insufficient protection for health workers dealing with patients possibly stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.
11/12/2014
Scientists scour the genomes of people who live past 110
How do some people live past 110 years old? Is it superior genes, clean living, good luck or some combination of those?
11/11/2014
Docs should ask heart patients about secondhand smoke: study
Not all heart disease patients know that secondhand smoke is bad for them – and not all doctors are asking them if they live with a smoker, according to a new study.
11/11/2014
Most smokers with bladder cancer know tobacco was the cause
More than half of bladder cancers in the U.S. are the result of smoking, and 90 percent of smokers with the disease are aware of the connection, according to a new study.
11/10/2014
Medicare proposes covering lung cancer scans for heavy smokers
The U.S. Medicare program is proposing to add lung cancer screening tests for beneficiaries with a history of heavy smoking, the federal government announced on Monday.
11/10/2014
A Plan to Cut Costs and Crime: End Hurdle to Job After Prison
James White had steeled himself for the moment. But when he got to the question on the job application — Have you ever been convicted of a crime? — he shifted nervously in his seat.
11/06/2014
Drugmakers look to push the boundaries of old age
Google’s ambition to defy the limits of ageing has fired up interest in the field, drawing in drug companies who are already quietly pioneering research, despite the regulatory and clinical hurdles that remain.
11/06/2014
Gene patent lawsuit aims to clear up confusion in Canada
Canadian courts have not yet ruled on whether genes can be patented. A lawsuit filed Monday over cardiac disorder Long QT aims to clear that up.
11/05/2014
How Long Have I Got Left?
The path forward would seem obvious, if only I knew how many months or years I had left. Tell me three months, I’d just spend time with family. Tell me one year, I’d have a plan (write that book). Give me 10 years, I’d get back to treating diseases.
11/05/2014
A conversation with a cancer patient about palliative care
Palliative care expert Timothy Quill held an intimate conversation with a Stanford neurosurgeon suffering from advanced lung cancer as an example of how physicians should talk to patients with serious illnesses about quality-of-life care.
11/04/2014
Human-subjects research: The ethics squad
Bioethicists are setting up consultancies for research — but some scientists question whether they are needed.
11/04/2014
The buddy system Veterans help veterans combat PTSD
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System have designed a pilot program based on veterans supporting veterans.
11/03/2014
White House to Cut Funding for Risky Biological Study
Prompted by controversy over dangerous research and recent laboratory accidents, the White House announced Friday that it would temporarily halt all new funding for experiments that seek to study certain infectious agents by making them more dangerous.
11/03/2014
Does Your Average Scientist Need an Ethicist on Call?
Bioethicists are setting up consultancies for research — but some scientists question whether they are a necessity.
10/28/2014
The Ethics of Experimenting on Yourself
Ethicists have long worried about protecting patients from the researchers who experiment on them. But today, with more patients contributing to experiments and sometimes running their own—in what’s known as citizen science—ethicists are asking: Do patients need to be protected from themselves?
10/28/2014
JONAS SALK: Google says ‘thanks’ to the heroic polio-vaccine developer with birthday Doodle
As so many tens of thousands of children suffered from polio into midcentury, his vaccine began as the stuff of dreams; by the mid-’50s, it was the substance of a profoundly life-altering reality.
10/27/2014
African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered Species Act Protection
The African lion (Panthera leo leo) faces the threat of extinction by the year 2050, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe warned today. The sobering news came as part of the agency’s announcement that it has officially proposed that African lions receive much-needed protection under the Endangered Species Act.
10/27/2014
Health Officials Expect to Start Vaccine Trials in West Africa as Early as December
Public health authorities said on Friday that they hoped to begin trials of Ebola vaccines in disease-ravaged West Africa as early as December and could know around April whether they were effective, clearing the way for possible mass inoculations to stem the epidemic.
10/20/2014
U.N. Group Urges China’s Wealthy to Fight Ebola
Chinese corporations and wealthy individuals aren’t contributing enough to help fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa, despite the nation’s deep ties to the region, said the United Nations World Food Program’s China representative.
10/20/2014
Scientist catches spider the size of a puppy
Harvard zoologist Piotr Naskrecki was taking a nighttime walk in a rainforest in Guyana when he happened upon a rare Goliath birdeater spider.