Sarah Anderson

Congress should use taxes to generate new revenue from Wall Street firms and executives and to curb excessive CEO pay, unproductive short-term financial speculation, and wasteful stock buybacks.

Munia Ganguli, a biochemist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, has dedicated her career to developing methods for delivering genes and other drugs to various organs. While presenting her research on skin delivery platforms at a meeting, a fellow scientist asked if she had considered applications in preventing damage to the skin from freezing temperatures. “We had no idea about frostbite at that point or cold-induced injuries,” Ganguli said. “So, this was kind of serendipitous…

For those requiring a new kidney, receiving a transplant marks the end of a stressful period of securing a donor organ. However, it also signals the beginning of another nerve-racking chapter of facing the potential for organ rejection. Lorenzo Gallon, a nephrologist at Northwestern Medicine, has seen his patients grapple with this complex emotional toll. “They feel that they are receiving a precious organ; they’re lucky to have received it,” Gallon said. “The patient has no connection with the…

Sometimes solving one problem creates another. Putting up a fence in the backyard may keep the dog from running away, but it could also block the view. Upgrading to a van may provide more room for legs and luggage on road trips, but it could also make it difficult to park. And for more than 140 million people worldwide, contact lenses offer a convenient alternative to glasses to correct vision. However, for 30 to 50 percent of wearers, contact lenses themselves trigger another problem within the…

When Christina Applegate fulfilled her lifelong dream of earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she sat barefoot in a chair, bedazzled cane in hand, as her plaque was unveiled. The actress was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the summer of 2021, shutting down production of her hit Netflix series “Dead to Me.” “There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better,’” Applegate told The New York Times. “And there is no better.” In people with MS, an autoi…

For the past 17 years, Ed Steger, president of the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders, has battled an invisible disorder. He appears healthy, leading to instances where people absentmindedly ask him to meet for lunch. “I may meet them, but lunch is not something I can do,” Steger said. When he does gather with friends and family at a restaurant, his unseen condition still stands in the way. If he does not order anything, the waitstaff typically repeatedly ask him if he would like someth…

My heart sank as my phone lit up with a call from a familiar number. It was my OBGYN informing me that I had failed my glucose tolerance test, indicating that I had developed gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. She told me that while we would try to manage the condition with diet and exercise, we would need to incorporate insulin if my blood sugar levels were too high. My mind raced as I frantically Googled how much insulin costs in Canada, where I recently mov…

From muscle contraction to nerve conduction, a wide range of physiological functions rely on ion channels, transmembrane proteins that shuttle charged species into and out of the cell. While these channels possess a well defined pore space through which ions travel, prolonged exposure to heat or certain ligands causes the pore to enlarge. Ion channels from the transient receptor potential (TRP) and P2X families exhibit this pore dilation phenomenon, resulting in an increased flow of ions, loss…

DNA provides the instruction manual for making proteins. This fundamental scientific tenet is a staple lesson in introductory biology classes everywhere. It is less widely taught, however, that only approximately one percent of the genome actually serves as a template for making proteins (1). While scientists previously considered the remaining noncoding regions to be useless, they have more recently come to appreciate that this once-termed “junk DNA” in fact regulates the expression of nearby g…

The first insulin injection in 1922 marked a breakthrough in the therapeutics available for diabetes (1). However, the delivery route has served as a formidable barrier to the immediate adoption of this life-saving treatment. One study reported that people with diabetes delayed injecting insulin an average of 7.7 years in favor of less effective oral medications (2). “Often, both the patient as well as the healthcare provider have limitations in starting medications that involve an injection,” s…

Robyn Tanguay “vividly recall[s] memories of isolation at Society of Toxicology meetings in the 1990s,” as she stated in an editorial for Toxicological Sciences (1). “Rodent systems predominated, and the appetite for new models such as zebrafish was scant.” “It was kind of a disruptive technology,” said Tanguay, a molecular toxicologist at Oregon State University who pioneered toxicology studies in zebrafish. “We were a threat to the status quo of in vivo data.”Robyn Tanguay recognized tiny tra…

Injecting healthy, exogenous mitochondria into the eye could combat mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy.

Amit Etkin embraces the diverse underpinnings of depression and other psychiatric disorders and pairs patients with drugs based on their unique biology.

Researchers captured a multicolored image of an aggressive colorectal tumor, revealing a unique biomolecular profile, growth mechanism, and drug target.

Aiming to preserve fertility for women undergoing cancer treatments, researchers are developing biomaterials that mimic the structure and function of the ovary.

Researchers are rooting through the concoction of compounds in exhaled breath vapor for metabolic manifestations of COVID-19 and cancer.

Researchers correcting the genetic causes of disease at the DNA or RNA level make their cases.

Histamine is released in response to physical activity, but that doesn’t mean that humans are allergic to exercise. John Halliwill investigates the intriguing role of histamine in exercise.

By addressing the challenges and harnessing the opportunities of miniaturized assays, researchers have unlocked powerful new applications in candidate screening.

The phrase “everything in moderation” applies even to essential amino acids. High phenylalanine levels due to impaired metabolism are the hallmark of the genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU). Scientists have hypothesized that an excess of phenylalanine disrupts signaling in the brain, resulting in developmental and cognitive disabilities. Those with PKU adhere to a specialized diet to avoid ingesting sources of phenylalanine. They may also undergo treatment with phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PA…