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Editor: Bijal Trivedi

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Copy-editing the Genome: Extreme Personalized Medicine?

COOL TOOL. See how the TALE protein (rainbow colored) recognizes the target DNA site and wraps around the double helix. When this TALE protein is fused to a nuclease (the scissors), creating a TALEN, the hybrid protein will clip the DNA at the target site. Credit: Jeffry D. Sander, Massachusetts General Hospital

If I

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Tackling the Bottlenecks in the Drug Development Pipeline

Can you believe the average length of time from target discovery to approval of a new drug currently averages about 14 years? That is WAY too long. Even more shocking is that the failure rate exceeds 95 percent, and the cost per successful drug surpasses $2 billion, after adjusting for all of the failures.

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Mobile Health: Figuring Out What Works

Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, NIH

This week, I was excited to join some of the world’s top experts on technology and health at the 2012 mHealth Summit. It’s a booming field, with a recent Pew survey finding 11% of cell phone users and 19% of smart phone users now have at

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How Influenza Pandemics Occur

Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

Flu season is upon us! Check out this NIH video to see how these pandemics emerge and spread new flu viruses around the globe.

Lung-on-a-Chip Reveals Disease Secrets

Lung-on-a-chip. Source: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Tissue engineering is turning into a very powerful tool to learn about biology. We haven’t quite figured out how to grow full sized replacement organs, but we’re able to cultivate miniature versions on a chip. These organs-on-a-chip are poised to revolutionize and fast-track drug discovery and development.

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