Closer Look
'Synthetic embryos,' real beef: Stem cell research is in the midst of a chaotic coming out party
Scientists creating so-called synthetic embryos in hopes of unlocking the secrets of early human development are getting more attention than they might've bargained for. Between heated competition that boiled over at a meeting earlier this month, overhyped press, and public blowback, some worry too many eyes on the field will lead to a regulatory crackdown. STAT's Megan Molteni describes it as "exactly the kind of chaotic coming out party the still-small but expanding field had hoped to avoid."
This week, the International Society for Stem Cell Research even urged researchers to move away from the term synthetic embryos altogether, emphasizing that the clumps of cells can't develop into fully formed humans. And the hope is that these models could elucidate more than just embryo growth — potentially helping to demystify miscarriage and infertility, or to make organs and tissues for transplantation. Read more.
research
Scientists find clues about brain chemicals underpinning OCD behaviors
Compulsive and habitual behaviors, which are common in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and other conditions, might have neurochemical underpinnings. In a small study published yesterday in Nature Communications, researchers found a link between compulsivity and certain neurotransmitters.
The study of 61 people, half with OCD, suggests a relationship between the neurotransmitter glutamate, which excitedly passes messages along, and the calming GABA neurotransmitter (which blocks certain messages to the central nervous system). When the interaction becomes unbalanced, it might feed into harmful levels of compulsive behavior. Both groups of participants exhibited this dynamic in a brain region that controls movement, meaning compulsivity might be a "universal phenomenon" in parts of the brain. But researchers found that those with OCD might also have a push-and-pull between glutamate and GABA in the anterior cingulate cortex, which plays a role in cognitive and emotional processing.
long Covid
WHO: 36 million people in Europe have experienced long Covid
Over three years into the pandemic, we still don't know a lot about long Covid. Estimates of long Covid prevalence have varied widely, blurring the true impact on a population's health. Yet the burden of long Covid on those who struggle with the condition has become clear. In Europe, approximately 36 million people have experienced long Covid since 2020, Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said yesterday.
Kluge cited data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, which suggests nearly 1 in 30 people across 53 countries in the WHO European Region may have experienced long Covid in the first three years of the pandemic. The staggering numbers are more than double what WHO officials said last September, when they estimated at least 17 million Europeans had experienced long Covid in the first two years of the pandemic.
On this week's episode of the "First Opinion Podcast," STAT's Torie Bosch chats with oncologist Kristen Rice about the shortages of lifesaving cancer drugs that have been happening for several years but have been progressively worsening in the past few months. Listen now.
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