Personal genetics company 23andMe will soon start developing pharmaceuticals, according to Bloomberg. After the Food and Drug Administration ordered the company to stop selling its direct-to-consumer spit tests in 2013, 23andMe has been figuring out where to go next; last month the FDA approved it to start selling a screening test for a rare genetic condition, and in January it announced a partnership with biotech company Genentech to develop new treatments for Parkinson's Disease. Now it has hired former Genentech executive Richard Scheller to undertake its own pharmaceutical endeavors.
A new test could help researchers understand how patients might respond to an unpredictable type of drug called a biologic. The test uses stem cells to give a more accurate prediction for how the drugs will affect a person's entire body, not just specific cells, and could make drug trials much safer in the near future.
To treat certain types of medical conditions, such as some forms of vision loss or cancer, patients have to receive drugs through periodic injections. These doctor visits can be time-consuming—sometimes happening once per week—and demoralizing, and the drugs affect the whole body instead of the place where they're most needed, decreasing their efficacy.
What's the difference between a working painkiller and a placebo? Well, you can see it in people's brains. Brain and pain researchers in the U.K. and U.S. report they've developed a prototype algorithm that is able to tell whether a patient took a working analgesic versus a placebo. The algorithm works by analyzing fMRI scans of the patient, made soon after he or she takes the medicine.
Antibiotic resistance poses a greater threat to public health than ever before. Over the next 35 years, an estimated 300 million people around the world could die because of bacteria's growing resistance to treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 2 million Americans fall ill and 23,000 die from antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, costing the U.S. about $20 billion in direct health care costs.
It's been over a year since the Ebola epidemic began in West Africa. Over the months, there have been some highs but mostly lows. The virus has not only touched the affected nations, but led to concern abroad in countries including Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Though the majority of infections have been limited to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the world has come to know the threat this dangerous virus presents to everyone.
The legal landscape for marijuana in the US has never looked this relaxed. Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. voted during the recent election season to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Other states reduced the punishments for possessing small amounts of the drug, a move the American Academy of Pediatrics just endorsed. According to polls, more Americans than ever support legalizing Cannabis.
