2024 Schedule

In less-developed countries, parasitic roundworms can colonize the gut and cause significant intestinal problems. But autoimmune diseases, the devastating package of disorders in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells, are rare in those places. By contrast, in the United States, where roundworm infections are no longer part of the ecosystem, as many as 50 million people suffer with a...

At the edge of innovation, government initiatives like the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) are pursuing moonshots, venture capitalists are looking for impact and profits in the health space, and dedicated researchers are confronting diseases such as cancer in novel ways. All are eager to accelerate high-value, scalable breakthroughs that fill treatment gaps and could finally...

AI is transforming health, with implications for early disease detection, diagnostic accuracy, medical decision making, precision surgery, and personalized treatments. By speeding data collection and analysis, it can accelerate research, refine drug development, identify disease outbreaks, and enhance remote patient monitoring. But efficiency is not a substitute for empathy, and AI cannot replicat...

From in vitro fertilization (IVF), which combines human eggs and sperm outside the body, to in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), which uses stem cells to create gametes, pregnancy is becoming possible in remarkable new ways. As innovative fertility treatments evolve, so do the surrounding ethical and legal questions. Some businesses now pay for IVF treatments, positioning coverage as a key recruitment to...

The first drug in a class known as GLP-1 agonists was approved in 2005 to treat diabetes. GLP-1 drugs subsequently proved their mettle to treat obesity and prevent major cardiovascular events and will likely soon be available to treat sleep apnea as well. Looking ahead, their action on the brain is prompting research to gauge their value in curbing drug, alcohol, and nicotine cravings. But these s...

Artificial intelligence is generating enormous excitement for its potential to predict health risks, speed diagnoses, and guide medical decision making. At the same time, the algorithms that make AI so powerful carry an inherent danger of bias, as some models are known to return lower accuracy results on risk assessment or even exclude certain populations from clinical studies. Lack of diversity i...

From the measles vaccine to the origins of COVID, the speed at which disinformation spreads and the harms it can do have become painfully familiar. Communicators are fighting back, leveraging the same digital tools as myth purveyors—podcasts, TikTok, X, and other social media channels—to share scientific information in new ways, engage diverse audiences, combat falsehoods, and promote trustworthy...

In polite conversation, we don’t share much information about our gastrointestinal tract or daily bathroom rituals but gut health is crucial to overall wellbeing. Knowledge of the microbiome, which consists of microorganisms that are especially prevalent in the intestines, reveals how inextricably the gut is linked to brain health, inflammation, and the immune system. Learning about those connecti...

Scientific investigation is laser focused on psychedelics to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), ease end-of-life anxiety, and address mental health challenges, including addiction. The FDA has issued draft guidelines to drug sponsors studying psychedelic-assisted therapy as it considers an application for MDMA-assisted therapy for use in PTSD care. As regulators ponder, policymakers are...