Treatment

Gert-Jan Oskam was paralyzed in a biking accident in 2011. After rehab with an implant, he's been able to walk more than 330 feet at a time and climb stairs.

Paralyzed Man Walks Again With Brain and Spinal Cord Implants

The experimental technology translates the patient's thoughts into voluntary movements

A death cap mushroom, the most poisonous mushroom in the world. Around 90 percent of all mushroom-related fatalities are caused by the fungus.

Possible Antidote to World's Deadliest Mushroom Discovered

A dye used in medical imaging appeared to make the death cap's toxin less fatal to mice in a new study

The DuPage County Health Department in Illinois made Narcan available for free from a vending machine at the Kurzawa Community Center last year. Health deparments in the U.S. have tried to reduce opioid overdose deaths by making the overdose-reversing treatment more widely available.

Opioid Overdose Treatment Might Soon Be Available Over the Counter

An FDA panel recommended the lifesaving nasal spray be distributed without a prescription

The experimental treatment inhibits an enzyme that is needed for sperm to move.

Male Birth Control Drug 'Stops Sperm in Their Tracks' in Study of Mice

The drug served as a quick-acting, temporary contraceptive with no noticeable side effects, researchers say

A brain scan of a person with Alzheimer's disease

Second Death Tied to Experimental Alzheimer’s Treatment

While the new drug is seen as a breakthrough, these deaths highlight a possible risk to patients on blood thinners, experts say

Close to two million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

First Drug to Delay Type 1 Diabetes Approved by FDA

The treatment held off disease onset by an average of two years in a clinical trial, but it won’t be cheap

A sonogram of a human fetus. 

Doctors Treated a Child for a Genetic Disease Before She Was Born

Treating fetuses for the enzyme deficiency might prevent early disease progression

Human red blood cells at 1,000 times magnification. 

Scientists Perform First Transfusions of Lab-Grown Blood

A clinical trial is testing how lab-grown cells might help patients with blood disorders and rare blood types

Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, a species of psychedelic mushrooms

Psychedelic Mushroom Chemical May Help Treat Depression

A new study found the drug temporarily relieved symptoms for some patients, but it needs to be tested in larger and longer trials, experts say

Illustration of Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria

Could a Morning-After Pill Prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections?

San Francisco has formally recommended doxyPEP, which works like Plan B but targets STIs

Visitors looking at sculpture by Skellon Studio in “Cancer Revolution” at the Science Museum.

Exhibition Explores the Art and Science of Cancer—and the Hope of a Future Without It

The Science Museum in London explores the past and future of the disease, and the resilience of its survivors

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders could affect between 1 and 5 percent of children in the United States.

New Tools May Help Diagnose Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

If conditions stemming from exposure to alcohol in-utero can be better identified, then scientists can more effectively research treatments

100,000 people die from venomous snakebites each year, a problem the Instituto Clodomiro Picado seeks to address with its antivenoms.

The Lab Saving the World From Snake Bites

A deadly shortage of venom antidote has spurred a little-known group of scientists in Costa Rica to action

A man who recovered from COVID-19 donates plasma in Bogota, Colombia.

Covid-19

The Peculiar 100-Plus-Year History of Convalescent Plasma

Blood has been considered a viable treatment for infectious disease for over a century, but it has rarely proven to be the best solution.

Llamas, alpacas and other camelids produce a special kind of antibody called nanobodies, which may be used to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Covid-19

Llama Cells Could Help Scientists Create a COVID-19 Treatment

Scientists are re-engineering llama antibodies to neutralize the virus

Bioluminescent "sea fireflies," a species of ostracod crustacean, covering the rocks on the coast of Okayama, Japan.

How Studying Bioluminescent Creatures Is Transforming Medical Science

The natural light of insects and sea creatures can help doctors illuminate H.I.V. and even kill cancer cells

By genetically modifying a patient's own immune cells to target and kill cancer cells, CAR-T therapy offers a whole new way to fight cancer.

The Possibilities and Risks of Genetically Altering Immune Cells to Fight Cancer

Of the ten or so patients I’ve treated with CAR-T, over half developed strange neurologic side effects ranging from headaches to seizures

“I didn’t sleep at all,” says Albert Maguire, recalling the night after he and Jean Bennett treated their first gene therapy patient. The operation was a success.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

A New Treatment for Blindness Comes From Gene Therapy

A wife-and-husband research team cracks the code to allow certain patients to see again

Soft tumors make life hard for sea turtles.

Should We Share Human Cancer Treatments With Tumorous Turtles?

They may be key to saving wild sea turtles from tumors associated with turtle-specific herpes

An image of cells showing Zika virus (highlighted green) targeting the cancerous stem cells (highlighted red) of a human glioblastoma tumor

New Research

How Zika Virus Could Be Used to Fight Brain Cancer

The same properties that make Zika virus devastating to fetal brains could be turned against cancer cells

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