‘Pretty wild’: Scientists create synthetic mouse embryos, just from stem cells

(COURTESY WEIZMANN INSTITUTE)

The mouse embryos looked as they should (above), developing as they should through day 8.5, even though they were in a bioreactor in a lab, made up entirely of stem cells cultured in a Petri dish. The experiments reported yesterday in Cell mark the first time fully synthetic mouse embryos have been grown without an egg or sperm or uterus, raising questions about whether other animals, including humans, might one day be cultured from stem cells in a lab.

“As soon as the science starts to move into a place where it’s feasible to go from a stem cell population in a Petri dish all the way through to organ development, … it’s a pretty wild and remarkable time,” Paul Tesar of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (not involved in the study) told STAT’s Megan Molteni. As study author Jacob Hanna told her, "these cells do have this incredible self-organizing capability that can be unleashed if given the right artificial settings." Read more, including important limitations of the new research.

High heat linked to nonfatal heart attacks in people taking certain medications

Extreme heat poses dangers for people with chronic conditions, STAT’s Isabella Cueto told us last month. A new study raises the possibility that the medications people take might put them at higher risk of a nonfatal heart attack. Writing in Nature Cardiovascular Research, the scientists report that people taking antiplatelet medications and beta-blockers — prescribed to prevent blood clots and control blood pressure — were more likely than people not taking them to have a nonfatal heart attack during high heat.

It’s hard to untangle whether the people taking the drugs were more vulnerable to heat-related heart attacks because of their conditions, and not the drugs themselves. But the researchers note the link wasn’t there for four other common drugs, and the connection between heat-related heart attacks and the two drugs was stronger among younger people, who were healthier, in the study.

Lyme disease diagnoses growing in rural U.S.

(FAIR Health)

With June and July in the rearview mirror, we’ve just passed the two months when Lyme disease diagnoses peak in rural areas, but it’s still high season everywhere for the tick-borne bacterial illness. A new report from FAIR Health, a nonprofit that studies health care costs and coverage, tells us that from 2007 to 2021, Lyme diagnoses rose 357% in rural regions and 65% in urban areas. The analysis, based on private insurance claims, says the highest proportion of Lyme claims were in the Northeast in 2021, led by New Jersey and then Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics, but some Lyme patients have long-term symptoms such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and cognitive issues. Malaise, fatigue, and soft-tissue-related diagnoses were more common among Lyme patients than in the total patient population, the report notes.

Closer look: Cities are vying to host ARPA-H. Why?

(adobe)

President Biden’s new high-stakes research agency, ARPA-H, is inspiring dreams. Some of them involve cities and states — Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas — lobbying to become the agency’s new headquarters, home to scientists who will seed a biomedical business boom in the local economy. There’s only one problem, STAT’s Lev Facher tells us. The people actually deciding ARPA-H’s future say the agency will look very, very different.

“This is a crazy and unnecessary bidding war. People don’t recognize: This is not a big, shiny building with a lot of lab equipment and clinical space,” said Francis Collins, the former NIH director and current White House science adviser, in a recent interview. Instead of transforming its host city, Collins and other experts told STAT, ARPA-H’s true impact will likely be felt elsewhere. Read why.

Paid sick leave tied to fewer ER visits

Fewer than one-quarter of Americans working in the private sector have paid sick leave, a policy whose importance to individuals and to society seems only more obvious during Covid-19. A prepandemic study out yesterday in Health Affairs explored what happened to emergency department visits in states that mandated paid sick leave.

From 2011 through 2019, in states that put paid sick leave policies in place, ED visits fell 5.6% — or about 23 fewer visits per 1,000 people per year. The biggest drops came from Medicaid patients, with big declines in visits that could have been handled in primary care: for adults, dental problems, mental health issues, and substance use disorder; and for kids, asthma. “Mandatory paid sick leave may be an effective policy lever to reduce excess ED use and costs,” the authors write.

Family stress early in Covid linked to problematic media use for kids

Think back to fall 2020 and families with school-age children trying to make it all work. Some parents could work from home but most kids were likely attending school remotely, adding to hours of screen time. A new study published in Pediatrics today looked at media use by kids and how it might become problematic when the family was less likely to follow guidelines to limit and monitor screen time.

From a survey of about 1,000 parents, the researchers conclude that about a third of kids had addictive media use, leading to social, behavioral, or academic troubles. But it wasn’t the amount of time spent on screens or where (i.e., at meals, in the bedroom) that tracked with the problems. Instead, it was the parents’ stress, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, that placed stress on the family, not relaxed rules about media.

What to read around the web today

White House to name FEMA’s Fenton as monkeypox coordinator, Washington Post
An Illinois abortion clinic on the Wisconsin border is a window into the post-Roe world, WBEZ
Inside the super-secure Swiss lab trying to stop the next pandemic, Reuters
Major European research funders often fail to set policies or monitor progress clinical trial transparency, STAT
One last trip: Gabriella Walsh’s decision to die — and celebrate life — on her own terms, Los Angeles Times
Hospitals win higher payments from Medicare after lobbying campaign, STAT