Blue-Collar Cell Therapy
It’s possible now to grow cartilage cells in the lab and reintroduce them into human joints. Skiers and quarterbacks, take heart.Among high-concept forms of medicine, few approaches have as much...
View ArticleMiracles of Saint Judah
When it comes to reporting on cancer “breakthroughs,” journalists fall back on the same old myths.One of the more amusing aspects of the recent flurry of stories about two promising new cancer...
View ArticleScience-Fiction Policy
In an exaggerated response to a work of science fiction, the U.S. govenment is set to spend hundreds of millions to fight “bioterrism.” Is this any way to make public policy?At a time when hollywood...
View ArticleScience Triumphs, Market Fails
A new vaccine will guard American children agains rotavirus. But much of the world will be unable to afford the protection. What to do?Rotavirus is a ubiquitous, equal-opportunity pathogen that infects...
View ArticleThat's Immortality!
Embryonic stem cells could someday work like micoscopic fountains of youth. Then again, what’s so great about immortality?What’s so great about immortality?
View ArticleMissing the Story
Something is seriously amiss when “experts” identifying the century’s greatest journalism overlook coverage of science and technology.The eradication of smallpox.
View ArticleCare for Steak TATA?
Public rejection of “cloned” beef may seem like a knee-jerk reaction to a loaded work. But biotech has a problem that isn’t going away.It seems like only yesterday that Alfred Vellucci, the crusty...
View ArticleThis Is No Fish Story
The tale of Centocor is the latest reminder that the road to biotech success is seldom straight. Despite the best business plans, something keeps getting in the way. It’s called biology.When big fish...
View ArticleA Death in Philadelphia
An experimental gene-therapy treatment kills an eighteen-year-old volunteer in a clinical trial. Is this the final blow for a much-beleaguered technology?As many would-be biotech entrepreneurs have...
View ArticleStrategic Patience
Bob Swanson, the founder of Genentech, embodied virtues that today’s venture capitalists are badly in need of.Back in 1985, while researching my first book, Invisible Frontiers, I had a lunchtime...
View ArticleDucking the Virus
Drug companies make millions on lifestyle potions. Is R&D on more vital therapies lagging?I happened to be watching a New York Knicks game on television the other night when the revolving billboard...
View ArticlePharma's Blockbuster Habit
Genomics will make possible the kind of customization that undermines the drug industry’s blockbuster mentality. But can Big Pharma kick the habit?About 15 years ago, I traveled to Nutley, N.J., to...
View ArticleBotstein's Caveat
Scientists have declared the human genome completely decoded. But a look back at the beginnings of their quest reveals how far we still have to go.We’ve come a long way from the Babbling Brook Inn....
View ArticleFabulous Science
Telling a good story has become essential to today’s biotechnology enterprise. But truth still matters.Stop the presses! Sharks do get cancer. This normally wouldn’t qualify as big medical news, and I...
View ArticleBrain Pacemakers
Hearts have long been regulated by electronic implants. Now it’s the brain’s turn.It had been more than six hours since Joan Sikkema first laid her shaven head on the operating table, six hours since a...
View ArticleAdult Stem Cells
With research on embryonic stem cells mired in controversy, adult stem cells are quietly providing the basis for striking advances toward new therapies. The morning began with a first gamy whiff of...
View ArticlePersonalized Medicine's Bitter Pill
Drugs tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup promise to be safer and more effective, but they raise tricky economic and ethical questions.If it were not for the great variability among...
View ArticleRevitalizing Drug Discovery
Hoping to squeeze more products out of a sputtering drug pipeline, pharmaceutical makers are Aiming to exploit advances in molecular biology. That means changing everything from their corporate...
View Article2007 TR35: Innovator of the Year
David Berry at Flagship Ventures is creating genetically engineered organisms that make biofuels.David Berry is sitting in a midtown Manhattan coffee shop, taking a break from a carbon-trading...
View Article2007 TR35: Innovator of the Year
David Berry at Flagship Ventures is creating genetically engineered organisms that make biofuels.
View Article
