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New York City issues Legionnaires' disease warning for Upper East Side
Two to 10 days after picking up the disease, symptoms could include coughing, muscle aches, and a high fever, health officials said.
Cancer Health: HIV raises hepatitis C liver disease risk in women more than men
Women with HIV and HCV face higher odds of cirrhosis and liver decompensation but not liver cancer.
Former CDC chief medical officer says RFK Jr. caused ‘irreparable harm’
Dr. Debra Houry, the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), decried the direction of the agency under Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Se…
RFK Jr.’s latest overhaul aims to boost preventive care. It could get expensive.
The health secretary wants insurers to cover Alzheimer’s tests. Some in the health industry hope he’ll back routine testing for many more diseases.
Scientists may have finally found how Alzheimer's kills brain cells
Researchers have identified a previously overlooked mechanism of brain cell death that appears to play a major role in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. The finding could lead to new treatments aimed at slowing neuron loss by interrupting the process before cells are destroyed.
Business People
Mikel Dashtipour has joined Renal Specialists of Northwest Arkansas, where he provides care for patients with kidney disease, including those with chronic and end-stage kidney disease, electrolyte imbalances, fluid overload and other related conditions, and those receiving dialysis.
Business People
Mikel Dashtipour has joined Renal Specialists of Northwest Arkansas, where he provides care for patients with kidney disease, including those with chronic and end-stage kidney disease, electrolyte imbalances, fluid overload and other related conditions, and those receiving dialysis.
Scientists discover the deep sleep circuit that builds muscle, burns fat, and boosts the brain
Researchers have identified the brain circuitry that links deep sleep with the release of growth hormone, revealing how the two regulate each other. The newly discovered feedback loop helps explain why poor sleep can interfere with growth, muscle repair, fat metabolism, and brain function. Understanding this system could pave the way for new therapies for sleep disorders and diseases tied to metabolism and the brain, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Cases of Legionnaires’ Disease on Manhattan’s Upper East Side jumps to 10: NYC health officials
Council Speaker Julie Menin and other city officials were alerted to the significant increase as the city continues to check cooling towers in the affected areas to see if the potentially deadly bacteria has spread.
Smoke from fireworks adds a July Fourth health challenge for these groups
Where there are fireworks, there’s smoke — and a greater risk of breathing difficulties for people with asthma, emphysema and other lung diseases.
10 Legionnaires' disease cases on NYC's Upper East Side under investigation, health officials say
The New Anthropic Tool That Could Change How Drugs Are Developed
Introducing Claude Science, the AI platform designed to expedite the discovery of promising new therapies. Anthropic will also use it in-house to pursue innovative treatments for 'neglected' diseases.
'Mad Max' star Kjell Nilsson, known for playing Lord Humungus, dies at 76
Kjell Nilsson, memorable 'Mad Max' villain, died from kidney disease on Thursday, July 2, 2026. He was 76.
Two stricken with Legionnaires Disease on Upper East Side, cluster investigated: NYC health officials
The patients were found in the Yorkville and Carnegie Hill neighborhoods of the Upper East Side, in zip codes 10028 and 10128, city officials said.
Anthropic Wants to Make Its Own Drugs With Help from Claude
The AI company is launching preclinical drug programs for overlooked diseases.
News of disease outbreaks can warp our brains in strange and subtle ways
The "behavioural immune system" can drive harsher moral judgement and may even contribute to xenophobia.
Legionnaires' disease cluster on NYC's Upper East Side under investigation
Health forum gives East Texans steps to prevent heart disease death
Nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. died of heart disease in 2023, but experts say many cardiovascular problems are preventable.
First human case of West Nile detected in Sacramento County, health officials say
A woman in her 60s tested positive for the disease and is still recovering, the county said Thursday.
Could your gut bacteria really slow Alzheimer’s? Scientists reveal a surprising link - Futura-Sciences
European researchers previously demonstrated that transferring stool samples from human Alzheimer’s patients into healthy rats triggered symptoms like spatial memory issues. Other models show that altering gut microbes changes the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau proteins, the two main hallmarks of the disease. Scientists have even found that certain...
Patient enrolment begins in a scientific trial to identify the first effective treatments for Bundibugyo virus disease
In a major international effort to evaluate potential treatments for Ebola disease due to Bundibugyo virus (BVD), the PARTNERS clinical trial has opened enrolment today for patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
4 surprising (and evidence-based) health benefits of drinking coffee
Hundreds of studies have shown that a cup of joe — or more! — every day may protect against some major diseases.
WHO, Member States discuss expanding South-East Asia Emergency Health Fund SEARHEF
With climate-related disasters, disease outbreaks and other health emergencies becoming more frequent and complex across South-East Asia, WHO and Member States today discussed measures to strengthen and expand the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (SEARHEF) to ensure countries have rapid access to life-saving support when crises strike. "Health emergencies are becoming more frequent, more complex and more costly. Countries need rapid, flexible financing that can be mobilized immediately when lives are at risk. SEARHEF represents regional solidarity in action, enabling Member States to support one another when emergencies strike," said Dr Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge WHO South-East Asia Region. She was addressing the Fifteenth Meeting of the Working Group on the Governance of SEARHEF.
Trump Health Cuts Spark Concerns Over ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria
Scientists say deadly beach bacteria are expanding just as the Trump administration scales back disease-monitoring programs.
2026 World Cup Public Health Guide: Expert Safety Tips for Fans
With the World Cup in full swing, the influx of fans is bringing enthusiasm, passion and potential pathogens. An estimated 6.5 million fans are converging across Canada, Mexico and the United States in 16 host cities, and while it’s possible serious diseases can spread during this event, the risk ...
Study Reveals Biology Underlying Oral Health Issues in Down Syndrome
Low saliva from calcium signaling dysfunction, microbiome changes may contribute to high rates of gum disease
Africa CDC: Uganda health ministry confirms isolated Marburg case
Africa's top public health agency said on Wednesday that Uganda's health ministry had confirmed an isolated case of Marburg virus disease.
Danny Glover Reveals Alzheimer’s Diagnosis on TODAY: EXCLUSIVE
The 79-year-old “Lethal Weapon” star shared with Lester Holt that he was diagnosed with the progressive neurodegenerative disease a few years ago.
Two siblings joined forces for pest control. Business is booming in CT as bugs bedevil residents
“Locally, ticks are the most dangerous pest for us. Mosquitoes certainly carry diseases, but when people call about nuisance pests, they call with a little more urgency,” Joe Clark said.
Would Hunters Take A Lyme Disease Vaccine? We Asked
By Bram Sable-Smith and KFF Health News HealthDay ReportersWEDNESDAY, July 1, 2026 (HealthDay News) — It’s tick season, possibly the worst in a decade. More and more Americans are being exposed to these parasites as climate change expands the range where they can survive. That means more people are also exposed to the bevy of health conditions they can ...
New disease threats follow Trump administration's health program cuts
Quakes strain Venezuela’s health system
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela -- Aid groups warned Tuesday that Venezuela's fragile healthcare system is being pushed to its limits nearly a week after two powerful earthquakes, with damaged and understaffed hospitals getting overwhelmed by the injured and infectious diseases flaring in the disaster zone.
Public-Health Officials Cross Their Fingers During World Cup
Despite a challenging nationwide climate for disease prevention and control, officials in Texas are stepping up their efforts at the 2026 World Cup.
Anthropic unveils drug discovery plans alongside Claude Science, an AI tool for drugmakers
At an event on Tuesday, the AI heavyweight said it plans to target "neglected" diseases.
PAHO expands health response as Venezuela faces mounting health risks after devastating earthquakes
Caracas, Venezuela/Washington, D.C., 30 June 2026 (PAHO) – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is expanding its support to Venezuela's Ministry of Health following the two powerful earthquakes that struck the country on 24 June, deploying technical experts, coordinating international Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), assessing damaged health facilities, and mobilizing emergency medical supplies to support lifesaving care and reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.
What are the Numbers for Ideal Heart Health?
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States so Dr. Roshini Raj, associate professor at NYU Langone Health, joins TODAY with a look at the five categories, and the ideal numbers for each, linked to optimal heart health.
N.I.H. Announces World’s Largest Integrated Health Database
It contains more than half a million people’s genomes, paired with clinical records and wearable tech data. That gives researchers unmatched power to study both diseases and treatments.
A New Way to Uncover How Science Is Under Attack
Science is being threatened at a pace and scale we’ve never seen before in the federal government. It’s nearly overwhelming—but we’ve built a new system to help us monitor and explain what’s happening, looking both incident by incident and at the larger pattern. Last week, the Union of Concerned
Venezuela quake: key services crippled and health workers missing
Search and rescue operations continued in Venezuela on Tuesday as thousands of displaced people struggled to find shelter and humanitarians warned about the spread of infectious disease.
Top GLP-1 prescription indications include sleep apnea, depression and kidney disease, study finds
A report from Trilliant Health looking at payer data found that, as prescriptions for the popular weight loss drugs spike, so rises the number of approved benefits.
Gaining biological insights through supervised data visualization
Nature Computational Science - This study introduces RF-PHATE, a supervised visualization method that preserves data structure while revealing biological patterns, enabling insights into disease...
Scientists cured sickle cell. Then their next challenge began.
Gene editing has delivered remarkable results against sickle cell disease. Now researchers are working to make these personalized treatments faster, cheaper, and available to far more patients.
Scientists may have finally found how Alzheimer's spreads through the brain
A common brain protein may be giving Alzheimer’s disease an unexpected way to spread, carrying toxic Tau proteins from damaged neurons into healthy ones. By blocking these harmful protein packages before they reach new cells, researchers believe it may one day be possible to slow the disease's relentless progression.
Parents charged with murder after 7-year-old son died of heart disease at 255 pounds
The young boy was allegedly living on a diet of potato chips, French fries and other unhealthy snacks. One prosecutor described the case as "extraordinary, terrible neglect."
Connie Cepko: A Life in Science Mapping the Retina — and Working to Save It
Over a five-decade career, HHMI Investigator Connie Cepko has reshaped our understanding of how the retina develops and forged new paths toward treating blindness and inherited retinal disease. This story is part of a series exploring the careers of HHMI scientists.
Vaccine Confidence Strategies and Emerging Vaccinology Science
With vaccine confidence top of mind for many infectious disease experts, the 2026 Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research covered communication challenges as well as the latest in vaccine science.
How a Brain Messenger Protein Drives Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease
In mice, a brain protein called Arc helps spread toxic molecules from sick brain cells to healthy ones. If therapies could be designed to target the spread, they could be a powerful tool to stop disease progression.
The World Cup is a stress test for our public health system. We failed it even before kickoff.
Soccer matches across North America are attracting people from around the world who are crowding stadiums and public transit, places where infectious diseases can be easily and widely spread.
Liver health is the latest wellness obsession
Interest in liver health and sales of liver-focused supplements is soaring as people become more aware of the organ's role in overall health, and rates of liver disease rise.
Talawar Therapeutics and JATT II Acquisition Corp. Announce Definitive Business Combination Agreement to Create Publicly Listed Biotechnology Company Developing Potentially Best-in-Class Bispecifics for I&I Diseases
Oversubscribed $225 million concurrent private investment in public equity ("PIPE") with available cash to the combined company at closing anticipated to fund...
AB Science reports completion of the step 3 of phase 1, evaluating the combination of AB8939 with venetoclax for the treatment of refractory or relapsed AML
PRESS RELEASE AB SCIENCE REPORTS COMPLETION OF THE STEP 3 OF PHASE 1, EVALUATING THE COMBINATION OF AB8939 WITH VENETOCLAX FOR THE TREATMENT OF REFRACTORY OR RELAPSED ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA THE COMBINATION OF AB8939 WITH VENETOCLAX GENERATED A 67% OVERALL RESPONSE RATE (ORR) AND A 100% DISEASE CONTROL RATE (DCR), WITH NO DOSE-LIMITING TOXICITIES (DLT) OBSERVED, IN A POOR-PROGNOSIS POPULATION WITH ADVERSE GENETICS TREATED IN THE SECOND - TO FOURTH-LINE RELAPSED OR REFRACTORY SETTING Paris, June 2
America's lifespan has doubled since 1776
U.S. life expectancy has doubled since 1776 thanks to vaccines, antibiotics, sanitation and clean water that reduced infectious disease deaths.
Multiple sclerosis affects social life and work beyond physical health
Multiple sclerosis (MS) can have a substantial impact on many aspects of life beyond physical health, with 51% of people reporting that the disease affects their social life and 48% reporting that it affects their work, according to new research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2026.
Aligning patient and planetary health: planetary health diet adherence and inflammatory bowel disease prognosis across Western and Eastern cohorts
npj Science of Food - Aligning patient and planetary health: planetary health diet adherence and inflammatory bowel disease prognosis across Western and Eastern cohorts
Efzimfotase alfa demonstrated improvements in bone health in treatment-naïve pediatric patients with hypophosphatasia achieving median difference of 1.67 vs placebo in RGI-C Score at week 25 in MULBERRY Phase III trial
Positive results from the MULBERRY Phase III trial showed that efzimfotase alfa (ALXN1850), an investigational enzyme replacement therapy, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in bone health in children (2 to
Common pesticide linked to more than double the risk of Parkinson’s disease
Scientists at UCLA have linked long-term exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos with a sharply increased risk of Parkinson’s disease. People exposed to the chemical near their homes were more than twice as likely to develop the condition. Laboratory studies showed that chlorpyrifos damages dopamine neurons and interferes with the brain’s ability to remove toxic protein buildup.
The sky is not falling. Americans are getting healthier.
Despite declining obesity and heart disease rates, increasing cancer survival rates, and a record high life expectancy, politicians from both parties are pushing costly and ineffective policies to …
Scratching that bug bite might feel good at first but science explains why it's a bad idea
You’ve likely heard it since childhood: Don’t scratch that bug bite or rash, you’ll make it worse. A lot of things can cause itchiness, sometimes serious diseases. Whatever the cause, doctors have l...
If a Lyme disease vaccine gets approved, how would it go over? We asked hunters
Drugmakers are working on a potential new shot to prevent the tick-borne illness. How might it fare in the era of vaccine skepticism?
Just 2 Hours of Strength Training May Lower Heart Disease Risk in Women
Researchers say that just 2 hours of weekly strength training may help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in women, especially when paired with 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise.
Heat can worsen certain health conditions | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
People with chronic diseases may face flare-ups or worsening symptoms during very hot weather, according to experts.
Medical miracles that changed how we treat disease
We've come a long way since \
OHSU advances massive leap in medical science with cellular therapies
Patients are benefiting from CAR-T to treat neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, lupus and other autoimmune conditions.
Priscilla Chan on science, disease prevention and the future of medicine
CNBC's Becky Quick sits down for a conversation with Dr. Priscilla Chan, co-founder of Biohub, at Aspen Ideas: Health.
Shockwave Medical announces new studies evaluating carotid IVL platform
Carotid artery disease causes up to 30% of all strokes, but severely calcified lesions can make treatment quite complex. The hope is that IVL can be as successful in this area as it has been in the treatment of coronary and peripheral artery disease.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
HOMETOWN HEALTH: “My whole body hurt” : Botetourt man gets unusual tick disease
A Botetourt County man is sharing his experience with "Ehrlichiosis"
Gillings-supported center helps public health teams prioritize infectious disease risks, from measles to the World Cup - UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
June 25, 2026 When public health workers prepare for infectious disease threats, the question is rarely whether risk exists. It is where to focus first.
UNM Project ECHO Works Closely with World Health Organization on Disease Outbreaks
When a major disease outbreak occurs, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls on Project ECHO at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to help support the transmission of accurate, timely health information to clinical health workers and...
Measles exposure reported at Hollywood Burbank Airport, county health officials say
Los Angeles County health officials announced Wednesday they are investigating a confirmed case of measles involving a traveler who may have exposed people to the highly contagious disease at Hollywood Burbank Airport and elsewhere in the county.
Where health begins
Dean Bernadette Boden-Albala has spent her career exploring the factors that affect well-being long before disease develops
20 everyday habits that affect your heart health
Cardiovascular disease is the world's leading cause of death — and most of its risk factors are behavioral, not genetic. These are the daily habits that matter most
First patient receives neural stem cell therapy in groundbreaking UCI Health Huntington's disease clinical trial
World’s first neural stem cell phase 1b/2a clinical trial for condition leverages innovative technology
FDA clears AI software for flagging signs of vascular disease
The newly cleared software alerts clinicians when it detects a suspected vascular occlusion.
Meet the doctor building tiny tools for big science breakthroughs
UCLA's Steven Jonas uses nanotechnology in his lab to explore cancer and other disease-fighting tools.
Ebola Symptoms in Current Outbreak May Be Milder Than in Previous Ones
That is good news for patients, but officials fear it will make controlling the spread of the disease harder.
Even ‘safe’ air pollution levels may affect heart health
An imaging study found early signs of coronary artery disease in people in Canada breathing air that regulators consider clean.
OpenEvidence will add FDA-cleared AI to detect heart disease
In this edition of STAT Health Tech: OpenEvidence adds AI to detect heart disease, and Cadence raises $100 million, and more.
Cadence raises $100 million to automate chronic disease care with regulated AI
Digital health startup Cadence has raised $100 million at a $1.23 billion valuation to expand its chronic disease management program.
Tetanus cases are rising. How to prevent getting this potentially fatal disease
Recent CDC reports found dozens of tetanus deaths since 2011 and four cases in children in 2024. CNN’s Dr. Leana Wen explains how people can protect themselves.
A sweeping new AI to detect heart conditions is coming to OpenEvidence
EchoNext, a new AI tool cleared by the FDA, will let doctors use an EKG to easily screen patients for structural heart diseases.
Non-communicable diseases: how local coalitions can help
Place-based coalitions can help tackle NCDs. Community ownership is vital because prevention and behaviour change depend on trust and local legitimacy.
Breaking Business News: AbbVie To Acquire Apogee Therapeutics
AbbVie is set to acquire Apogee Therapeutics and its pipeline of multiple clinical-stage candidates in development across inflammatory and immunological diseases, including its lead asset, zumilokibart (APG777), a subcutaneous half-life extended monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin (IL)-13 in atopic dermatitis (AD). Under the terms of the transaction, AbbVie will acquire all outstanding shares of Apogee for $135.11 per share in cash. […]
Despite transplant referrals, most kidney patients don’t make the waitlist
An NIH grant proposal poses new threats, more cases of a livestock disease in Europe, and more health news from Morning Rounds
NAIRR Science Program Reshapes Scientific Research, Powered by NVIDIA AI Infrastructure
The U.S. National Science Foundation’s NAIRR pilot program has driven innovative research across the U.S. for over 700 projects — spanning protein prediction and infectious disease outbreak management.
A cloud-based miniscope for neurosurveillance of brain health and disease in freely behaving animals
Nature Methods - A miniscope with cloud-based operation and multicontrast capabilities enables continuous recording of neuronal activity, hemodynamics or cellular dynamics over multiple days. This...
UVA Health clinical trial works to target MAC lung disease
Research at UVA is working to find new treatment opportunities for a lung disease growing in prominence around the world.
The public health team watching the World Cup
As millions gather for the World Cup, a scrappy public health operation led by a team at Georgetown is tracking disease threats using surveys, wastewater and online chatter to spot outbreaks early.
Is hearing loss an Alzheimer’s warning sign? Research shows new risk factors
The number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to double by 2060. New research is shedding light on warning signs and risk factors that could signal cognitive decline ahead.
Long-lived families reveal a rare genetic clue to healthy aging
A study of long-lived families has identified rare genetic variants that may help people stay healthier for much longer as they age. One standout mutation appears to temper inflammation, potentially delaying disease and extending years of healthy living.
Tubulin prevents toxic brain protein clumps linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine may have uncovered a promising new way to combat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Instead of trying to stop Tau and alpha-synuclein proteins from gathering into tiny droplets inside brain cells, the researchers found that tubulin—the protein that builds the cell’s internal transport network—can redirect these proteins away from forming toxic clumps and toward healthy, productive work.
Long-lived families reveal a rare genetic clue to healthy aging
A study of long-lived families has identified rare genetic variants that may help people stay healthier for much longer as they age. One standout mutation appears to temper inflammation, potentially delaying disease and extending years of healthy living.
I love my father deeply — which is why I want him to die quickly
If there is one thing I’ve learned watching my father’s health disintegrate, it’s that our various approaches to end-of-life care are not working.
Two W.Va. health departments are offering a Lyme disease preventative antibiotic
Kanawha-Charleston, Fayette County health departments offer antibiotic to fight Lyme disease
Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Philadelphia in 1976 was mysterious and deadly – 50 years later, scientists know the cause but outbreaks continue
The source was a newly discovered bacterium called Legionella pneumophila that can thrive in household pipes, whirlpools, cooling units and outdoor fountains.
Conservatives are dying at higher rates than liberals. A new study points to mistrust in medicine
The health divide emerged over the last decade and has widened since 2020, according to research that links ideology to outcomes from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other internal causes.
Two health departments will offer preventative Lyme disease treatment due to ‘extreme tick season’
Amidst an increase in tick bites, two West Virginia health departments are offering medication that can prevent the onset of the disease.
Buildings May Soon Have ‘Immune Systems’ That Fight Airborne Disease
Following the pandemic, the federal government is spending $150 million on new technology to ensure clean indoor air. Here’s what scientists are pursuing.
This giant tropical fruit could help reverse gum disease damage
A new biomaterial made from jackfruit latex, pomegranate peel, and simvastatin could transform the treatment of severe gum disease. Early tests suggest it not only combats infection and inflammation but may also help rebuild lost bone and tissue around teeth.