medicine stories

We're getting close to drive-through gene sequencing

Evan Ackerman
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - 1:37pm
 
The first human genome cost $3 billion to sequence back in 2003. By 2009, the cost to sequence someone's genome had dropped to more like $50,000. Next year, the target is a mere $1,000, and it'll only take two hours to completely identify all six billion of the base pairs in your DNA to tell you what you're likely to die from first.

New drug could destroy any viral infection you could ever get

Evan Ackerman
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 2:17pm
 
Ever since the accidental discovery of penicillin, we've had ways of being able to deal with bacterial infections. With viral infections, like when you get a cold, all we can really do is suck it up and treat the symptoms, but a new type of drug may be able to tackle any virus, even the ones we haven't met yet.

There is now a cure for 'feeling like crap'

Evan Ackerman
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - 9:07am
 
Being sick sucks. And while we can't always cure what ails us, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have figured out where that general feeling of lousiness we get when we're stick actually comes from, and they think they can make it go away.

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