The United States faces a biomedical funding crisis. The Trump administration has proposed budget cuts that would slash scientific research. Though Congress hasn't yet gone along, the fears that the process has generated are already causing tangible harm in the scientific community. Concern about cuts is stalling progress on drug discovery and other healthcare innovations. More
Bio & Life Sciences Community Insights Science
Elon Musk’s latest venture, the recently-launched startup Neuralink, aims to merge mind and machine using brain-computer interface technology. Some commentators are dismissing its vision as pure hype. But buzz matters—we need such hype for radical tech innovation. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
Unlike other tiny mammals, bats and mole-rats live especially long lives. Now scientists are starting to understand why. At a time when interest in longevity is massive and growing, their answers might point the way toward useful knowledge about how we ourselves could last a bit longer. More
Bio & Life Sciences Community Insights Healthcare
At IndieBio we see hundreds of biotech startups and technologies, and a few key themes are emerging for 2017. Fiction is becoming a reality with cell therapies. The era of the brain has arrived. And machine learning and AI are now a key part of biotech innovation. More
People are so opposed to GMOs that such food has often been banned, though studies find zero evidence it harms people. But paradoxically, when it comes to editing human genomes, many are eager to press forward. Yet here scientists themselves mostly call for caution, because little is known about long-term ramifications. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
Human Longevity Institute offers a $25,000 full-day full-body examination including genomic sequencing. It promises to uncover hidden health risks and enable potentially lifesaving interventions. The benefits, it says, are not just for you, but for society, as info is gathered about how our genome intersects with our health. The price is controversial, but co-founder Craig Venter is confident he's onto something big. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
Many countries in the Middle East see exciting opportunities in genomics. Yet they also face challenging questions about reconciling it with local moral and cultural traditions. At a meeting in Qatar global healthcare leaders debated guidelines for a region where, for example, more than 20% of marriages are between first cousins. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
People may have a "yuck response" when they hear about this new experimental technique for creating healthy babies. But it isn't as huge a leap from what we're used to as most reports would suggest, as Techonomy's genomics expert explains. Like a top medical source she quotes here, Salisbury will be continuing this conversation at Techonomy 2016 on November 10. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
In the last few years, the standard tests for fetal abnormalities have been largely replaced with new genetic tests. Since they launched, traditional procedures that confer a small risk of miscarriage have dropped by about 70 percent. Now we face a big ethical issue: these tests reveal much more about future diseases than those they replaced. What information should parents know, and what can and should they do about it? More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
People who practice meditation know it resets the mind and body, and there have been claims about its healing powers for centuries. Now scientific evidence backs them up. Researchers recently found that meditation does more than just relieve stress. It can literally change our DNA. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare Techonomy Events
The global biotech market is estimated to have a value of $604.40 billion by 2020. Techonomy program director Ross explains how central the theme is to us, and a bit of her own history of fascination with it. This year at TE16 we’re continuing this exploration into the industries being changed by life science, the technologies, the benefits and yes, the controversies. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare
If artificial organs, miniature robots, and advanced medications could keep you healthy, would you want to live for hundreds of years? Author Eve Herold's new book "Beyond Human" argues that we might as well get used to these ideas, because they are inevitably coming. Reviewer Salisbury finds this an important overview of a rapidly-developing field of medical science, but is not yet ready to join the immortals herself. More
Bio & Life Sciences Government Healthcare
Lost in a news cycle rife with heartbreak, the Obama administration made a major push last week for its Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). Also referred to as personalized medicine, precision medicine is based on the idea of using a trove of genetic and clinical information to determine ahead of time which drugs will work best for which patients, at which doses, and in which combinations. It could be the first step in an important breakthrough for American health. More
Bio & Life Sciences Business Healthcare
The American healthcare markethas undergone a period of rapid change in recent years. Chief among these changes has been a general shift towards consumer choice, prompting the rollout of new tech products in a bid to entice customers. But a new study suggests the best way to win over consumers is to bring things back down to earth. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare Startup Culture
Part incubator, part venture fund, part mentorship program, StartUp Health aims to create an ecosystem for digital health entrepreneurs. Backed by Steve Case, Mark Cuban, Jerry Levin, Esther Dyson, and GE Ventures, among others, five-year-old StartUp Health has 150 companies in its portfolio. More
Bio & Life Sciences Global Tech
On the list of misunderstood technology, genetically modified organisms might take the top spot. Now, more than 100 Nobel laureates have written an open letter asking the environmental group Greenpeace to reverse their stance on GMOs and promote potential breakthrough technologies like Vitamin A rich Golden Rice. Despite the pressure, Greenpeace remains skeptical. More
Bio & Life Sciences Global Tech Healthcare
Thanks to miraculous advances in public health and medical science over the past century, we can prevent and treat many common microbial infections.Yet some in the health industry fear that may be changing. We misuse and overuse antimicrobial drugs on a massive scale, and the bad bugs are beginning to evolve new resistance mechanisms. Data science can play a central role in the fight against the looming global threat. More
Bio & Life Sciences Healthcare Internet of Things
At Techonomy NYC last week, physician and author David Agus outlined a dazzling vision of a healthier society driven by digital and other tech innovations. But getting there requires leadership we now lack. We also need to aggressively engage consumers in their own health management. More
Bio & Life Sciences Security & Privacy
In the not-distant future, crime scene analysts will be gathering a lot more than DNA. The microbiome, or the universe of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on us, is the latest target in forensics. DNA evidence can be hard to find at a crime scene, but criminals (and all of us) have trouble keeping microbes to themselves. More
Bio & Life Sciences Government Healthcare
At a genomics conference last week, National Institutes of Health official Kathy Hudson provided an update on the government’s gigantic Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). NIH aims to make real progress before the next president takes over–and to enable any American who wants to to take part. More
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