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Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?
Investigations suggest that, in some fields, at least one-quarter of clinical trials might be problematic or even entirely made up, warn some researchers. They urge stronger scrutiny.
- Richard Van Noorden
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News |
Do you take part in genetic studies? That might be in your genes
Findings could help researchers to better understand ‘participation bias’ in studies that link genomics with health, behaviour and other traits.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Explainer |
Aspartame is a possible carcinogen: the science behind the decision
More research is needed to investigate a potential link between the common sweetener and cancer.
- Miryam Naddaf
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Article
| Open AccessA framework for individualized splice-switching oligonucleotide therapy
Whole-genome sequencing analyses in a cohort of individuals with ataxia-telangiectasia are used to identify genetic variants that might be amenable to treatment with splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), and develop ASOs with therapeutic potential.
- Jinkuk Kim
- , Sijae Woo
- & Timothy W. Yu
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News & Views |
Regulatory T cells aid stem-cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease
Inflammation caused by surgical trauma limits the survival of transplanted stem-cell-derived neurons in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease. Co-transplanting immune cells called regulatory T cells improves the therapy’s efficacy.
- Qizhi Tang
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News & Views |
A sustainable way to control the parasitic disease schistosomiasis
A trial in Senegal has tested an innovative method for tackling a common human parasitic disease. The approach reduced infection numbers and also offered agricultural and economic benefits.
- Nathan C. Lo
- & Benjamin Arnold
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News & Views |
The immunology that underlies picky eating
Humans can be picky eaters. One such behaviour is an aversion to food associated with food allergy. The immunological basis for this response has been uncovered in mice, revealing the role of neuroimmune connections.
- Marc E. Rothenberg
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Article
| Open AccessLarge language models encode clinical knowledge
Med-PaLM, a state-of-the-art large language model for medicine, is introduced and evaluated across several medical question answering tasks, demonstrating the promise of these models in this domain.
- Karan Singhal
- , Shekoofeh Azizi
- & Vivek Natarajan
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News |
Gene linked to long COVID found in analysis of thousands of patients
The first genome-wide search for long-COVID risk factors could pave the way for larger studies.
- Heidi Ledford
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News & Views |
Viruses trick bystander cells into lowering their defences
The microenvironment of virus-infected cells and uninfected adjacent cells influences infection. Human cytomegalovirus dampens the immune response of neighbouring uninfected cells, but distant cells can mount an antiviral defence.
- Timothy M. White
- & Felicia D. Goodrum
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Research Highlight |
Mini-antibodies given mighty powers can stave off influenza
Complexes formed from ‘nanobodies’ and an antiviral drug halt infection in its tracks.
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Research Briefing |
Insights into the genetic architecture of multiple sclerosis severity
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system and a common cause of chronic neurological disability in young adults. A systematic search identifies genetic variants associated with differences in severity and confirms resilience of the central nervous system to be an important determinant of outcome.
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News Explainer |
Long COVID: answers emerge on how many people get better
Studies are shedding light on rates of recovery as well as the prevention and treatment of the complex condition.
- Michael Marshall
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Book Review |
Why phage viruses could be the key to treating deadly infections — if they can be harnessed safely
Interest is growing in how little-known viruses could be used to overcome drug-resistant bacteria.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
Beyond Ozempic: brand-new obesity drugs will be cheaper and more effective
Hormone mimics offer advantages even beyond those of the potent weight-loss jabs on the market now.
- Saima Sidik
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Research Highlight |
A CRISPR-based method makes T cells that thwart teens’ cancer
A technique called base editing has been used for the first time to treat human disease.
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News |
How the Y chromosome makes some cancers more deadly for men
Two studies help to explain why colorectal and bladder tumours take a bigger toll on men than on women.
- Heidi Ledford
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Career Q&A |
Pay, perks and culture shocks: a toolkit for scientists moving to industry
Don’t underestimate the steep learning curve involved when you switch sectors, says Jonathan Bowen.
- Anne Gulland
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Nature Index |
Nature Index Annual Tables 2023: first health-science ranking reveals big US lead
The Netherlands punches above its weight in the country list, and a Canadian institution demonstrates the strength of its clinical collaborations.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News & Views |
Polio endgame finish is in sight
Efforts to eradicate polio globally have been under way for more than 35 years. The development of modified versions of a vaccine in current use now makes eradication a real possibility.
- Alan D. T. Barrett
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News & Views |
A mitotic glue for shattered chromosomes
Two studies now shed light on how chromosomes that undergo catastrophic shattering are transmitted to daughter cells during cell division, thereby enabling them to be reassembled for the benefit of cancer cells.
- Yibo Xue
- & Daniel Durocher
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News |
Could endometriosis be caused by bacteria? Study offers fresh clues
Link to bacterial infection suggests a potential way to treat the painful disorder.
- Heidi Ledford
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News & Views |
From the archive: hay fever, and the transit of Venus across the Sun
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Nature Video |
Neurotech DIY: fixing your own implant
As the neurotechnology market expands, what happens to those left behind?
- Dan Fox
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Outlook |
The battle against tobacco is not yet won
Efforts to discourage new smokers and help people to quit are bringing smoking rates down in many places, but it’s going to take more to put an end to tobacco smoking altogether.
- Richard Hodson
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Outlook |
Smoking: an avoidable health disaster explained
Statistics show that, despite some progress towards smoking cessation, tobacco continues to place an extraordinarily heavy burden on global health.
- Richard Hodson
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Outlook |
Is nicotine bad for long-term health? Scientists aren’t sure yet
As e-cigarettes grow in popularity, the lack of knowledge about whether nicotine contributes to the damaging health effects of smoking is becoming more worrying.
- Anthony King
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News & Views |
Ultraviolet light shapes the evolution of precancerous cells
Much remains to be discovered about how premalignant cells become cancer cells. An analysis of the development of a type of human leukaemia implicates ultraviolet light in triggering a rare form of cancer.
- Elli Papaemmanuil
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Article
| Open AccessHealth system-scale language models are all-purpose prediction engines
A clinical language model trained on unstructured clinical notes from the electronic health record enhances prediction of clinical and operational events.
- Lavender Yao Jiang
- , Xujin Chris Liu
- & Eric Karl Oermann
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Book Review |
Why we can thank a polio emergency for the birth of intensive care
An outbreak of polio in 1950s Denmark led one hospital to pioneer mechanical ventilation, constant monitoring of vital signs and other innovations that are saving lives to this day.
- Eric Topol
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Arts Review |
Surgical wonders and dodgy medical ethics: the Hunterian Museum reopens
The London museum is a treasure chest of medical specimens both fascinating and ghoulish — now with a renewed focus on questions about how its collections came to be.
- Nisha Gaind
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News & Views |
Patterns of tumour transcriptional variability
The compilation and analysis of a compendium of single-cell RNA-sequencing studies across various cancers reveals recurring gene-expression programs that underpin tumour heterogeneity.
- Raymond W. S. Ng
- & Sydney M. Shaffer
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Article |
The effects of cash transfers on adult and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries
A survey of mortality data from low- and middle-income countries shows that government-led cash transfer programmes are associated with decreased mortality among women and children under five years of age.
- Aaron Richterman
- , Christophe Millien
- & Harsha Thirumurthy
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Article
| Open AccessEngineered tRNAs suppress nonsense mutations in cells and in vivo
Suppressor tRNAs adapted to the amino acid that they carry enable readthrough of premature termination codons introduced by nonsense mutations and show potential for the treatment of genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
- Suki Albers
- , Elizabeth C. Allen
- & Zoya Ignatova
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Outlook |
Bioglue breakthrough
A nature-inspired adhesive offers hope for wound healing and haemorrhage control.
- Elie Dolgin
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Clinical Briefing |
A digital bridge between brain and spinal cord restores walking after paralysis
Spinal-cord injury interrupts communication between the brain and spinal cord, leading to paralysis. An implant that decodes the brain signals that control movements and drives electrical stimulation of the spinal cord re-establishes this communication, enabling an individual with spinal-cord injury to walk naturally.
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News |
Brain–spine interface allows paralysed man to walk using his thoughts
The device provides a connection between the brain and spinal cord, allowing thought to control movement.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
Game-changing obesity drugs go mainstream: what scientists are learning
Studies tackle who’s most likely to lose weight on the new generation of anti-obesity medications.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
Why is COVID life-threatening for some people? Genetics study offers clues
Immune genes could play a part in the risk of needing intensive care when infected with SARS-CoV-2.
- Heidi Ledford
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Article
| Open AccessGWAS and meta-analysis identifies 49 genetic variants underlying critical COVID-19
An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).
- Erola Pairo-Castineira
- , Konrad Rawlik
- & J. Kenneth Baillie
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Correspondence |
Chronic pain: try new routes to more tailored treatments
- Pablo R. Brumovsky
- , Mariano Asla
- & Marcelo J. Villar
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News |
Menopause therapy: Brain-based treatment for hot flushes approved by FDA
Investigations into the impact of menopause on the brain have yielded a potential way to treat troublesome symptoms without hormones.
- Heidi Ledford
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Career Q&A |
How my training helps me to address health disparities in multiple myeloma
Irene Ghobrial’s research on early detection of this type of bone-marrow cancer aims to improve patient outcomes, especially among African Americans.
- Frances Gatta
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News & Views |
Vaccine boosts T cells that target pancreatic tumours
Efforts to tackle pancreatic cancer by harnessing immune cells have had limited success. A clinical trial reports promising results from testing a personalized approach to boosting immune responses to such tumours.
- Amanda L. Huff
- & Neeha Zaidi
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News & Views |
Molecular basis for muscle loss that causes cachexia
Muscle loss during chronic disease is a life-threatening condition for which there is no effective treatment. The identification of an underlying molecular mechanism might offer new therapeutic targets.
- Laura Antonio-Herrera
- & Andreas Bergthaler
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News Feature |
‘I am not a broken version of normal’ — autistic people argue for a stronger voice in research
Despite broader acceptance of neurodiversity, autistic advocates and scientists are still fighting for a chance to set clinical and scientific priorities.
- Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
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News & Views |
How thought itself can drive tumour growth
Tumour cells can form connections with neurons in the brain. Examination of a variety of types of evidence concerning human brain cancer sheds light on how these tumour–neuron interactions affect cognition and survival times.
- George M. Ibrahim
- & Michael D. Taylor
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News Feature |
How menopause reshapes the brain
Researchers are starting to learn how the early stages of menopause affect brain health — and what that could mean for treatment.
- Heidi Ledford
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News Feature |
Women’s health research lacks funding — these charts show how
Conditions that affect women more than men garner less funding. But boosting investment could reap big rewards.
- Kerri Smith