At a Make America Healthy Again event, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Vice President JD Vance that artificial intelligence would free Americans from reliance on public health experts. Kennedy claimed AI tools are 'better informed than any doctor' and predicted they would contradict official guidance on masks, social distancing and vaccine transmission. A test of Google's Gemini chatbot on masks contradicted Kennedy's claim, confirming that masks do reduce spread of respiratory infections.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-30
A writer recounts their son's diagnosis at 18 with a disease typically seen in patients in their late sixties, describing how the experience reshaped their view of AI's role in medicine. The essay argues that despite growing public backlash against AI, the technology holds promise for personalizing healthcare, especially for patients whose conditions don't fit standard patterns.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-30
Scientists studying the 'exposome'—the sum of environmental and lifestyle exposures a person accumulates—are developing tools to measure chemical, pollutant, dietary and infectious exposures alongside genetic data. The concept, coined by epidemiologist Christopher Wild in 2005, aims to quantify environmental risk factors with the same precision now possible for genomics. Researchers note that environmental exposures account for an estimated 70-90% of chronic disease risk.
nature.com
· 2026-09-30
A published opinion column contends that artificial intelligence is already producing significant real-world benefits, citing its role in saving lives within medicine and boosting productivity in business. The author further argues that, contrary to widespread fears, AI has not yet caused substantial job losses.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-24
Researchers report that while most people on GLP-1 obesity drugs lose about a quarter of their body weight, 10-15% see minimal or no weight loss, according to endocrinologist Daniel Drucker of the University of Toronto. The Endocrine Society has called understanding this variation a research priority, citing early findings that biological sex, genetics and behavioral factors may all play a role, with women consistently losing more weight than men in trials and real-world data.
nature.com
· 2026-09-24
Stanford School of Medicine researchers report that the human brain forms from two separate types of stem cells rather than one uniform source. One lineage, marked by the Otx2 gene, produces the midbrain and forebrain responsible for higher-order thinking and speech, while a distinct stem cell type gives rise to the hindbrain, which governs basic functions like heartbeat and breathing. Researcher Kyle Loh says this finding allows scientists to grow hindbrain neurons in a lab dish for the first time.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-23
A Nature Index 2026 feature on regenerative medicine reviews progress in cell therapy and tissue engineering, including the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to pursue treatments for autoimmune diseases, Parkinson's disease and heart failure. It also notes clinical trials using stem-cell transplants to replace insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes have shown some success.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
An analysis by researchers including the article's author found that women make up around 41% of participants in cardiovascular disease clinical trials generally, but only 18-20% in regenerative-medicine trials for the same condition. Self-identified non-binary people were largely absent from these studies, according to the 2021 analysis.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
Nature Index analysis covering 2016-2025 ranks the United States first and China second among the top 10 countries by research Share in regenerative medicine. The data also identifies institutions with the highest proportion of output devoted to the field, led by the University of Cincinnati, and highlights the strongest bilateral country collaborations in the area over the same period.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
Stanford Medicine researchers discovered that the human brain is actually built from two distinct developmental lineages: a hindbrain system controlling breathing and heartbeat, and a forebrain/midbrain system responsible for higher cognition. The team found these two regions arise from separate progenitor pathways rather than one branching from the other, and used this insight to finally grow functional hindbrain motor neurons from human stem cells in the lab. They also traced this dual-origin pattern back over 550 million years, finding it in chickens, zebrafish, and acorn worms.
science.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-20
Researchers led by Kyle Loh at Stanford Medicine discovered that the forebrain and hindbrain arise from distinct progenitor cells rather than a single common origin, contradicting decades of neuroscience theory. The forebrain governs higher cognition like language and abstract thought, while the hindbrain controls vital functions such as heartbeat and breathing. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, was co-led by graduate students Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai.
med.stanford.edu
· 2026-09-19
Researchers led by Kyle Loh at Stanford University found that in mouse and human embryos, the front and back regions of the brain arise from distinct progenitor cells rather than a shared developmental origin. Cells expressing the OTX2 gene generate the forebrain and midbrain, while GBX2-expressing cells produce the hindbrain, a pattern confirmed in both mouse embryos and human cells grown in dishes.
newscientist.com
· 2026-09-18
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