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ZoBio Introduces DNA-Encoded Library Service for Exploratory Drug Discovery Programs

Officials at Leiden, Netherlands-based CRO ZoBio say the company has launched a DNA-Encoded Library (DEL) discovery service, which is designed to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies generate validated, progressible hits against novel and challenging drug targets.

The new offering combines structure-grade protein production, quantitative biophysics, DEL screening, off-DNA hit validation and X-ray crystallography into a single workflow, according to a company spokesperson, who explains that it enables clients to move beyond hit identification toward high-confidence starting points for drug discovery programs.

ZoBio maintains that unlike transactional DEL screening approaches that focus solely on hit generation, its platform is designed to deliver biologically relevant, structurally characterized hit matter with clear potential for progression. The service is particularly suited to exploratory and difficult-to-drug targets, including protein–protein interactions (PPIs) and targets with poorly defined binding pockets, where conventional screening approaches often fail, notes Gregg Siegal, CEO of ZoBio.

“Drug discovery teams today are increasingly focused on highly validated but technically challenging targets, where traditional screening approaches can struggle to deliver meaningful starting points,” he continues. “Our approach combines DEL technology with the structural biology, biophysics, and assay expertise needed to generate hits that clients can confidently progress.”

Siegal also points out that the DEL service is library-agnostic, enabling clients to access commercially available DEL collections or apply ZoBio’s workflow to proprietary client-owned libraries. The integrated platform reportedly includes:

  • Structure-grade protein production and characterization
  • Quantitative biophysical assay development using techniques such as SPR
  • Biophysically informed DEL selection design
  • Interactive DEL data analysis and hit prioritization
  • Off-DNA hit resynthesis and orthogonal validation
  • Structural characterization through X-ray crystallography
  • Mechanistic insight to support downstream optimization

The workflow is designed to support collaborative decision-making throughout the discovery process, helping clients rapidly establish whether difficult or exploratory targets are viable for further development, according to Siegal, who says that members of the ZoBio team will be available for meetings during the BIO International Convention in San Diego to discuss the new service.

 

 

 

 

The post ZoBio Introduces DNA-Encoded Library Service for Exploratory Drug Discovery Programs appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Health Care Providers’ Perspectives on a Hybrid Outpatient Stroke Telerehabilitation Program: Qualitative Implementation Study

Background: Although patient outcomes are improved by stroke rehabilitation, the suggested amount of therapy is rarely maintained. The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated this situation further due to disruptions in health care. One solution was the rapid and extensive transition to virtual care. A hybrid outpatient stroke telerehabilitation program (HOSTP) was introduced by St John’s Rehab—a tertiary rehabilitation hospital in Toronto, Ontario. The HOSTP integrated in-person and virtual care in an effort to alleviate long-standing obstacles that challenge stroke rehabilitation. Objective: This study explored health care providers’ (HCPs) experiences with the HOSTP and their perspectives on its implementation, quality, and impact to determine the modifications needed to optimize its delivery and sustainability. Methods: A qualitative implementation study was conducted, with semistructured interviews conducted among HCPs involved in the HOSTP. The interview guide was informed by the CFIR (Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research). In total, 14 HCPs were recruited and interviewed from St John’s Rehab outpatient program. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a 2-stage analytic approach involving inductive thematic analysis, followed by deductive categorization using CFIR. Results: Four main themes were identified across CFIR domains: (1) adaptability and flexibility of the hybrid care model (intervention characteristics), (2) alignment with patient needs and resources (outer setting), (3) the impact of organizational resources and infrastructure (inner setting), and (4) variability in provider confidence and perceptions of virtual care (characteristics of individuals). Key determinants were identified as adaptability, patient-related factors, resource availability, and provider beliefs about virtual care. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that, from HCPs’ viewpoints, optimizing virtual care processes and resources may support access and care quality within hybrid outpatient stroke rehabilitation. HCPs viewed maintaining virtual care as important for supporting ongoing access and patient-centered care. Lastly, optimizing the benefits and mitigating the drawbacks of hybrid care can ensure future integration of virtual care into standard outpatient stroke rehabilitation.
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Examining the Efficacy of a Telehealth-Based Virtual Reality Clinic in Treating Adults With Specific Phobia: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to enhance telemental health care (TMH) by enabling accessible, engaging, and personalized treatment from home. Although VR is well-supported for in-person treatment, evidence for telehealth-based VR is limited. Moreover, no prior research has demonstrated the feasibility of therapists and clients conducting therapy sessions remotely within a shared (ie, multiuser) VR experience. Objective: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled efficacy trial (RCT) comparing exposure therapy delivered via Doxy.me VR (Doxy.me Inc)—a multiuser, telehealth-based VR app—to standard TMH in adults with clinically elevated fear of dogs, snakes, or spiders. A secondary objective was to preliminarily examine clinical (ie, specific phobia symptom severity) and treatment-related outcomes (ie, therapeutic alliance, client satisfaction, system usability, presence, cybersickness, and treatment fidelity). Methods: This study used a single-site, fully remote, parallel, feasibility RCT design. Participants were randomly assigned using a 1:1 ratio to receive 12 weekly exposure therapy sessions over 3 months, delivered via either standard TMH or Doxy.me VR. Assessments were conducted at baseline, each session, midtreatment, and posttreatment. All therapy sessions were audio recorded, 20% of which were randomly selected and rated for treatment fidelity. Feasibility benchmarks during the 12-month trial included: (1) enrolling 30 participants during Months 1‐9 of the trial; (2) collecting 70% of midtreatment self-report data; (3) collecting 70% of posttreatment self-report data; (4) collecting 70% of weekly self-report data; and (5) achieving treatment fidelity ≥80%. Between-group differences in clinical treatment-related outcomes also were examined preliminarily. Results: A total of 54 participants were enrolled between October 25, 2023 and July 26, 2024, and randomly assigned to the Doxy.me VR (n=29) and TMH (n=25) conditions, exceeding our recruitment target by 180%. Among the 30 participants targeted for completion, data were obtained from 29 (96.7%) at midtreatment and 28 (93.3%) at posttreatment. Participants completed 86.5% (180/208) of weekly self-report assessments. Treatment fidelity was 90% based on ratings of 41 session recordings. There were no significant between-group differences in clinical outcomes (all >.05) or most treatment-related outcomes. However, client satisfaction improved significantly more for the Doxy.me VR condition compared to TMH (=.04). Power analyses indicated that a sample of 160 participants would ensure adequate power for a fully powered trial. Conclusions: Telehealth-based, multiuser, synchronous VRET is feasible and shows preliminary evidence of efficacy. These findings are promising, and opportunities to improve procedures identified in this feasibility trial will directly inform the protocol for a fully powered RCT evaluating telehealth-based VR and its potential to improve treatment of mental health disorders. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06302868; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06302868 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/65770
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mRNA Flu Vaccine Shows Stronger, Longer-Lasting Immune Response

Flu shots reduce hospitalizations and deaths for the roughly one billion people worldwide that get the flu each year. But they are less effective when the vaccine strains don’t closely match the viruses circulating in the community. Today’s vaccines are made months in advance of the flu season due to a long manufacturing process. When projections are off, strain mismatch can reduce the efficacy of the flu vaccines from about 60% (in a good year) down to 19%. A broader immune response could translate to a more effective vaccine even when the virus is changing faster than vaccine makers can update their shots.

Now, an investigational mRNA influenza vaccine, developed by Moderna, helps the immune system recognize a wider range of influenza viruses than today’s standard flu shot, offering stronger and potentially longer-lasting protection. The vaccine is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and, if approved, would be the first mRNA vaccine against influenza.

The findings are published in Nature Immunology in the paper, “mRNA-based influenza vaccine expands the breadth of the B cell response in humans.”

“We are seeing that the mRNA flu vaccine doesn’t just boost the immune system’s response to what it has already seen, it can help expand and diversify the antibody response, covering a broader range of flu strains,” said Ali Ellebedy, PhD, professor in the department of pathology and immunology at WashU Medicine. “If we can make flu immunity broader and more durable, that could mean fewer hospitalizations and deaths, which translates into a major impact on public health.”

In a separate Phase III clinical trial, Moderna found that its mRNA-based flu vaccine reduced the risk of illness by 26.6% more than the standard flu vaccine in older adults. Seeking to understand possible causes of this improved protection, the new study examined how immune responses to the mRNA-based flu vaccine differ from those of the standard vaccine.

The researchers followed 75 adults ages 20 to 50 over either the 2022-2023 flu season or the 2023-2024 flu season. About half received the investigational mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1010). The other half got Fluarix, an approved flu shot containing inactivated influenza viruses. Both vaccine platforms targeted the same strains recommended by the World Health Organization for the two flu seasons.

Analyzing blood samples, the researchers found a stronger immune response in participants who received the mRNA vaccine compared with participants who received the standard flu shot. Specifically, those given the mRNA vaccine produced more flu-specific antibodies and more flu-specific memory B cells.

“Influenza is constantly evolving to evade our immune system,” said Hanover Matz, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate working in Ellebedy’s laboratory. “But if we can develop vaccines that activate diverse B cells that target a broad portfolio of flu viruses, we have a better chance of avoiding strain mismatches and potentially even reducing the frequency with which the vaccine is needed.”

To investigate the vaccine’s ability to diversify B cells, the researchers studied germinal centers—where B cells improve their ability to recognize the virus and generate slightly different versions of themselves—in a subset of participants. It had not been previously understood if mRNA-based influenza virus vaccines can induce a superior germinal center (GC) response.

Among 13 people receiving the mRNA flu vaccine, five developed flu-specific germinal center responses in the lymph nodes that persisted for the 26 weeks of the study. In contrast, persistent immune responses were not seen in the 15 participants who received the traditional flu shot.

In addition, from four weeks after vaccination until the six-month mark, antibodies from mRNA vaccine recipients recognized and bound to many diverse flu strains across many decades of viral evolution, especially those known to cause the most widespread illness. Antibodies from standard vaccine recipients bound to fewer divergent virus strains.

These findings, the authors note, reveal a key role for persistent GC responses in broadening the repertoire of vaccine-induced antibodies. “We are seeing that the mRNA flu vaccine is driving strong, persistent germinal center responses,” said Ellebedy. “This can broaden the antibody response and better arm the immune system against an ever-changing virus.”

The post mRNA Flu Vaccine Shows Stronger, Longer-Lasting Immune Response appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Genetics of How Steroids Are Metabolized Impacts Adverse Events

Research led by the University of Exeter on a large group of people from the UK Biobank shows that carriers of certain genetic mutations are more likely to have an adverse reaction to oral corticosteroid medications.

The researchers found that a variant in the CYP3A4 gene raised osteoporosis risk and a variant in the CTLA4 gene increased the risk for multiple adverse outcomes including stroke and cataracts.

People with these variants were also more likely to have a higher cumulative exposure to corticosteroids over time, suggesting that genetic differences may blunt the clinical benefit of standard steroid doses, so they end up needing more treatment over time and therefore being at even higher risk of adverse events.

“We were also able to show a clear relationship between the dose of steroid and side effects,” said Deniz Turkmen, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter, who presented the work at the European Society of Human Genetics conference in Gothenberg this week. “This precise analysis shows the increased risk associated with long-term treatment.”

Oral corticosteroids are an effective and very common medication used to target excessive inflammation. They are widely used to treat conditions such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases, as well as severe allergies and some acute respiratory infections.

In the U.S., millions of people take oral steroid tablets each year, and roughly one in 100 adults is on them at any given time. However, even short courses can increase the risk of health problems like infections, fractures and blood clots, and long‑term use is linked to osteoporosis, diabetes, weight gain and cataracts, among other adverse effects.

Around one in 10 people are estimated to have side effects to these medications, but it has been difficult to predict who will respond poorly, which triggered Turkmen and colleagues to look into the genetics of how these drugs are metabolized.

In this study, the team evaluated information from almost 38,000 participants from the UK Biobank. These individuals had primary‑care prescriptions for oral corticosteroids for inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.

For each person, Turkmen and colleagues calculated cumulative steroid dose up to the point they had an adverse event or a follow‑up appointment. They also modelled dose–response relationships with outcomes such as osteoporosis, stroke and cataracts. In total, 21 candidate pharmacogenetic variants were assessed.

Median cumulative exposure to corticosteroid in the study was around 1.5 g. Increasing this dose from 1.5 g to 4.0 g was associated with an approximate 50% higher risk of osteoporosis. Variants in the genes CYP3A4 and CTLA4 were associated with higher cumulative dose and increased risk of adverse outcomes, but only in steroid‑treated individuals, consistent with pharmacogenetic effects on steroid metabolism and immune regulation.

Adding polygenic scores to the evaluation including multiple variants for osteoporosis‑related traits significantly improved prediction of steroid‑related osteoporosis beyond age and sex, with particular improvements seen in individuals under the age of 40 at first prescription.

A genome wide association study identified an area on the genome (HLA‑DQA1) where the allele linked to lower cumulative oral corticosteroid dose was not associated with adverse outcomes, hinting at biology that reduces steroid need without obvious toxicity signals.

“It was reassuring that the genetic findings involving CYP3A4 and CTLA4 aligned with their roles in steroid metabolism and immune regulation, but the improvement in prediction of osteoporosis when we incorporated polygenic risk scores data was remarkable, especially in younger patients,” said Turkmen.

“We hope that, in time, greater availability of genetic data at population level will mean that it will be possible to integrate genomics into everyday healthcare and hence into prescribing decisions. That will be a major step on the road to the provision of personalized medicine for all.”

The post Genetics of How Steroids Are Metabolized Impacts Adverse Events appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

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Cellular Biological Age Test Can Predict Disease Risk and Survival

A research team at the Stanford Medicine-based Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute has developed a blood-based method that can determine the biological age of more than 40 different cell types throughout the body, providing a new way to assess disease risk and longevity years before symptoms emerge. The method, published in Nature Medicine, combines plasma proteomics with machine learning to develop estimates of the biological age of cell types including neuronal, immune, glial, endocrine, epithelial and musculoskeletal systems.

“With this indicator, we can assess the age of an organ today and predict the odds of your getting a disease associated with that organ 10 years later,” said senior author Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences and director of the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

Developing this new cellular aging estimate was driven by the understanding that aging is the largest driver of a range of chronic diseases.

“Over 50% of the global disease burden can be attributed to aging,” the researchers wrote noting that while aging increases the risk of neurodegenerative disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses, “aging itself remains poorly understood, and quantifying its biology is therefore an important priority for improving prevention and treatment.”

This new model builds on the lab’s previous work in which the team developed a blood test capable of estimating the biological age of 11 organs and organ systems: the brain, muscle, heart, lung, arteries, liver, kidneys, pancreas, immune system, intestine and fat. In that study, published last July, the investigators analyzed blood samples from 44,498 participants in the UK Biobank and measured nearly 3,000 proteins circulating in the bloodstream. By identifying proteins associated with specific organs and comparing individual protein signatures with age-adjusted population averages, the researchers created algorithms that assigned biological ages to each organ.

Those organ-specific aging profiles revealed that organs age at different rates within the same person. Approximately one-third of participants had at least one organ classified as “extremely aged” or “extremely youthful,” while one in four had multiple organs falling into those categories. The biological age of a person’s organs was strongly associated with future disease risk. For instance, people with an aged heart were more likely to develop atrial fibrillation or heart failure, while aged lungs predicted a greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. An aged brain was linked to a substantially higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

“The brain is the gatekeeper of longevity,” said Wyss-Coray. “If you’ve got an old brain, you have an increased likelihood of mortality. If you’ve got a young brain, you’re probably going to live longer.”

Participants with extremely aged brains experienced a 182% increase in mortality risk over roughly 15 years of follow-up in the study, while those with extremely youthful brains had a 40% reduction in mortality risk.

This new research goes beyond organ-level measurements to evaluate aging at a cellular level. For this research, the team analyzed more than 7,000 plasma proteins from 60,542 people across three independent cohorts. Using protein signatures mapped to their likely cellular origins, they constructed machine-learning models capable of estimating the biological age of more than 40 cell types.

The findings showed substantial variation in cellular aging patterns. Between 20% and 25% of people showed accelerated aging in a single cell type, while 1% to 3% showed accelerated aging in 10 or more cell types. These cellular aging signatures were associated with disease status and predicted disease development and mortality over a 15-year follow-up period.

One important finding centered on the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The data showed that people carrying two copies of the APOE4 genetic variant, a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, tended to have older astrocytes in the brain. Extreme astrocyte aging tripled the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease among APOE4 homozygotes, whereas youthful astrocytes appeared to reduce that risk. “Youthful astrocytes seem to powerfully attenuate the detrimental effects of APOE4,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers also found strong links between cellular aging and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Individuals with extremely aged skeletal muscle cells had a 12.7-fold higher risk of developing ALS than those with youthful muscle-cell profiles. According to the researchers, this elevated risk could be detected more than three years before a clinical diagnosis.

Other findings suggest potential applications in cancer prevention and metabolic disease monitoring. The researchers reported that extreme aging of respiratory epithelial cells identified smokers at higher risk of lung cancer, while aging of myeloid immune cells was associated with elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

“Our findings suggest that specific cellular vulnerabilities and cumulative aging burden influence survival,” the researchers wrote. Skeletal muscle-cell aging showed the strongest association with mortality, followed by neurons, fibroblasts, alveolar type 2 lung cells and myeloid lineage immune cells.

The investigators believe these new findings could begin to shift medicine toward earlier intervention. “This is, ideally, the future of medicine,” Wyss-Coray said. “Today, you go to the doctor because something aches, and they take a look to see what’s broken. We’re trying to shift from sick care to health care and intervene before people get organ-specific disease.”

The post Cellular Biological Age Test Can Predict Disease Risk and Survival appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

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<![CDATA[Explore how digital reminders boost prospective memory in aging and dementia, plus practical sleep habits that turn health knowledge into real behavior changes.]]>
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Why do South Koreans love AI so much?

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

When I landed in Seoul after a grueling 12-hour flight from San Francisco, I walked through an unmanned immigration checkpoint, where a machine scanned my face and passport. On the subway home, people were glued to their phones (powered by flawless 5G even underground), as we raced past platforms lined with LED screens of ads celebrating K-pop idols’ birthdays. When I got off the station in Gangnam, a cartoon-eyed robot on wheels was waiting patiently at a crosswalk to deliver someone’s dinner. Internet cafés dotted the sidewalks, crammed with teenagers playing computer games, maybe hoping to become the next legendary pro gamer.

I stood at a bus stop with interactive touch screens showing real-time bus schedule updates. It will soon become an “AI bus stop,” the Gangnam district announced in June, with a kiosk that answers riders’ questions in multiple languages. The news didn’t surprise me. Having grown up in the city, I’ve watched Seoul transform from a scrappy boomtown into the gleaming tech capital it is today.

South Korea loves AI.

While a public backlash against AI is brewing across the US, South Koreans are optimistic. Only 16% say they are more concerned than excited about AI—the lowest of any of the 25 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center—while 50% of Americans were more worried than excited. A majority of Koreans use AI every day, either as a sort of personal assistant or to do tasks at work, according to surveys by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

One of the most wired countries in the world, South Korea loves to street-test every new technology on the block—AI webcomics, virtual K-pop idols, and humanoid monks. And the appetite for experimentation doesn’t stop with ordinary citizens. Government agencies are early adopters too, deploying AI textbooks in schools and AI eldercare robots in welfare centers. South Koreans share a deep conviction that embracing technology is integral to modernizing the country and cementing its place in the global order. Their fascination with AI is just the latest incarnation of that ethos—and it’s making them anxious to stay ahead.

Engineered enthusiasm

All this techno-optimism has largely been engineered by South Korea’s national agenda to make AI a motor of economic growth. “The South Korean government has designated an AI-powered Fourth Industrial Revolution as the country’s path forward and aggressively promoted and invested in it,” says Chihyung Jeon, a professor of science and technology policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. “South Koreans have consistently and relentlessly been told by the government about AI’s potential to create a better future.”

As South Korea rose from the ashes of the Korean War, technology lifted the nation from poverty into an economic powerhouse. In the 1970s, South Korea manufactured steel and ships, then semiconductors in the 1980s, broadband in the 1990s, and smartphones in the 2000s. Today, Samsung and SK Hynix supply most of the world’s high-bandwidth memory chips, which power the cutting-edge Nvidia hardware used to train AI models. South Korea’s economy now orbits these two semiconductor giants: The country’s main equity index, Kospi, surged to record highs in 2026, powered by the soaring share prices of both companies, each valued above $1 trillion.

Lee Jae-myung, president of South Korea, has pledged to vault the country into the ranks of the “top three AI powers” alongside the US and China. After taking office in 2025, he launched the Presidential Council on National AI Strategy to help buy massive amounts of computing power and a sovereign AI foundation model project that funds Korean companies to develop homegrown AI models. The government has also supported semiconductor titans, including Samsung and SK Hynix, through generous tax credits and low-interest financing. 

South Korea’s policy posture also prioritizes accelerating AI development over safety considerations. In 2024, South Korea’s legislature passed the AI Basic Act, one of the world’s first comprehensive AI laws, to promote AI development and establish light-touch regulatory guardrails. Seventy percent of South Koreans say advancing science and medicine through AI innovation is a bigger priority than protecting industries through regulation, according to the 2026 Stanford AI Index.

All of that effort might be paying off. The same index ranked South Korea as having the third largest number of notable AI models in the world, based on criteria such as state-of-the-art advancements or high citation rates. For many small countries like South Korea, AI is a chance to punch above their weight.

The blind spots

But that single-mindedness can crowd out critical reflection on AI’s broader societal impacts. “Because the national agenda on AI prioritizes economic development,” says Jeon, the professor of science and technology policy, “there isn’t much reflection on the social, political, ethical dimensions of the technology.” In 2025, the South Korean government faced a fierce backlash for rolling out AI textbooks riddled with factual inaccuracies and data privacy risks without testing them first in a pilot program to evaluate how they affect student learning.

And despite their optimism, South Koreans are still worried that AI could displace them from their jobs. After Hyundai announced in January that it will deploy Atlas humanoid robots across its car factories, the Hyundai Motor Group union protested vehemently. “Without labor-management agreement, not a single robot using new technology will be allowed to enter the workplace,” the union said. Sixty-four percent of South Koreans fear AI could displace human labor and exacerbate inequality, although 52% believe it could also increase productivity. 

On a recent Friday night in the Seoul Central Market, I went out with my cousins to a pocha, a late-night restaurant that serves fish cakes stacked in neat pyramids. As we clinked our cups of soju cut with beer—the scrappy staple cocktail of every Korean night out—one cousin asked me if I’d asked ChatGPT about my saju, a traditional Korean fortune-telling practice. A 29-year-old insurance agent in Seoul praying for a new job and a boyfriend, she said asking ChatGPT about work and dating was her favorite pastime. She pulled up her phone and punched my birth date into the chatbot. 

Addicted to their screens, trapped between unemployment and dead-end jobs, and priced out of marriage and homeownership, 46% of South Koreans in their 20s have used a chatbot to read their fortunes, according to a survey by Korea Gallup. 

My cousin said she also asks ChatGPT for tips on trading stocks, dreaming big about making bank on her investment accounts into which she’s been pouring her salary. ChatGPT, she believes, is her portal out of reality into a better future.

Despite how fond she is of the chatbot as her shaman and financial advisor, she fears losing her job to AI. She still uses ChatGPT feverishly at work, as all her coworkers do, afraid of falling behind. 

“I sometimes fear AI, but for now, it’s just so useful,” she said.

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STAT+: FDA approves Colorado’s plan to import cheaper drugs from Canada

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it will allow Colorado to import certain prescription drugs from Canada in an effort to bring prices down for residents, making it the second U.S. state to be granted such authorization. 

For more than a quarter of a century, Americans have sought drugs from Canada for relief from the ever-rising costs of medicines, sometimes taking widely publicized bus trips across the border. It wasn’t until 2020, though, that the first Trump administration officially endorsed the practice, when it published a regulation allowing states and Indian tribes to propose import plans. The Biden administration affirmed this rule with an executive order in 2021. And Florida became the first state to earn FDA approval in 2024. 

But state importation programs have proved extremely difficult to carry out, even with bipartisan support. Florida has yet to actually import any drugs from Canada, in part due to pushback from the Canadian pharmaceutical industry and fears the program will affect Canada’s drug supply. In May, the FDA extended its approval by six months to give the state more time to get its program up and running. 

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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<![CDATA[New research links better NREM sleep to slower Alzheimer disease changes: zolpidem restores brain rhythms, cuts amyloid, and boosts memory in mice models.]]>