Closer Look
Female athletes fight for an even playing field in their sports — and in sports medicine
Molly Ferguson for STAT
For decades, there's been a push in pediatrics to test drugs for children because they aren't just small adults. That thinking has been applied more recently to women, particularly in sports, with a better recognition that they're not just smaller men. From equipment (just "shrink it and pink it") to athletic competition (late to the game for World Cup soccer or the Olympic marathon) to scientific research (few and far between), women are still fighting for an even playing field.
"It's a paradox," said Rachel E. Gross, author of "Vagina Obscura." "Science has considered women's bodies as too different and weird to include in clinical trials, yet not so different that we can't just extrapolate male data." There's a clear lack of knowledge, an editorial in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine points out this month. STAT contributor Amanda Loudin has more on where progress has been made and where it's still needed.
research
First ARPA-H project focuses on bone regrowth
It's here: The first project from a new multibillion-dollar federal agency designed to accelerate research will explore how to help people regenerate bone and cartilage worn away by osteoarthritis. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, launched a little more than a year ago and known as ARPA-H in an echo of the Pentagon's nimble research arm DARPA, said yesterday Ross Uhrich, a surgeon and former naval officer, would lead the new effort.
More than 32 million Americans have bone and joint damage from osteoarthritis, a condition most common among women and highly prevalent among Black and Hispanic people. If the NITRO project succeeds, patients wouldn't need joint replacement surgery to reverse damage or alleviate pain. Instead, the body would regenerate those tissues. Or, they would have one-and-done replacements. The goal is to complete Phase 1 clinical trials in five years. STAT's Sarah Owermohle and Brittany Trang have more.
health
WHO recommends updates to Covid vaccines reflecting new variants
Because SARS-CoV-2 is still with us and evolving, vaccines to combat the virus must evolve, too, the WHO said yesterday, calling for updated formulations of Covid vaccines that reflect newer variants that are circulating, such as XBB.1 descendant lineages. The global health agency still recommends people get the currently available vaccines if they haven't already. Some data points:
- Despite gaps in surveillance around the world, the available sequencing data indicates the original virus and early variants (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta) are no longer detected in people.
- Blood samples from people who got two, three, or four doses of the original Covid vaccines or a bivalent mRNA booster show substantially lower neutralizing antibody levels against XBB.1 lineages compared to levels for the antigens included in the vaccine.
- People with hybrid immunity from any SARS-CoV-2 infection show higher neutralizing antibody levels against XBB.1 lineages compared to vaccinated people with no evidence of infection.
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