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How Genetics Is Changing Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Alzheimer’s disease research is changing how scientists understand the long path from early brain changes to memory loss. In this program, John Hardy, Ph.D., University College London Institute of Neurology, explains how genetics helps reveal where neurodegenerative disease begins, not only where it ends. Hardy traces how studies of inherited Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid, presenilin, tau,…
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Kyoto Prize: Three Laureates, Three Ways of Expanding Human Knowledge
The Kyoto Prize Symposium features three laureates whose work spans ethics, life sciences, and information technology. Across very different fields, the laureates highlight research that reshapes how we understand human behavior, biological development, and intelligent systems. As Dr. Kazuo Inamori, founder of the Kyoto Prize, puts it: “A human being has no higher calling than…
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Navigating SCN8A Epilepsy: A Scientist’s Personal Fight
Being a parent often brings unexpected challenges, but for Dr. Madeline Oudin, the journey has been especially profound. As both a scientist and a mother, she is navigating uncharted territory to help her daughter Margot, who was born with SCN8A-related epilepsy. This rare genetic condition causes severe seizures and developmental challenges, profoundly affecting Margot’s daily…
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Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cells
Every year, 15,000 – 20,000 Americans sustain a spinal cord injury (SCI). Another 200,000 – 500,000 are living in the chronic stages of SCI every day. Loss of movement and sensation, persistent pain, and depression are common. Could stem cells play a role in finding a cure? Dr. Mark Tuszynski shares his work using neural…
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Editing the Code of Life
You may not know what clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats means, but when you see or hear the word CRISPR it all takes on new meaning, thanks to the efforts of UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna and her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, who developed this revolutionary method of genomic editing. Her work has literally changed the…
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How a Year in Space Affects the Human Body
Science fiction has long promised an age of interplanetary human existence. Scenes of spaceships hopping from one galaxy to the next are so common, it seems almost inevitable that future generations will one day vacation on Mars. But, if we are ever going to achieve life on other planets, we first have to figure out…
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We Are All Africans
Svante Pääbo once said, “We are all Africans, either living in Africa or in recent exile from Africa.” It is now abundantly clear that Africa was the “cradle of humanity,” with multiple waves of hominins arising on that continent and spreading across the old world, eventually being effectively displaced by our own species, which also…
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Engineering Mosquitos to Fight Malaria
Mosquitos are the deadliest animal on Earth. They spread diseases like yellow fever, chikungunya, West Nile virus and malaria. Malaria alone killed 435,000 people and infected another 219 million in 2017 according to the World Health Organization. There are widespread efforts to combat mosquito-borne illnesses, including revolutionary new gene editing techniques. Ethan Bier and Valentino…