Sign in Subscribe
Weekly Reading List

Weekly Reading List: May 26, 2025

Brian Krueger

• 7 min read
Weekly Reading List: May 26, 2025

Covid 2020: An intimate look at health worker’s lives amid a global crisis
Theatre nurse David Collyer wanted to shoot a documentary photography project in the last years of the Welsh hospital he worked in. Then Covid-19 appeared.
BBCStephen Dowling
In its flagship journal, the CDC keeps publishing papers after firing scientists who made the research possible
In its flagship journal, the CDC keeps publishing papers after firing scientists who made the research possible.
STATEric Boodman
New Trump vaccine policy limits access to COVID shots
Federal health officials will no longer routinely approve annual COVID-19 shots for younger adults and children who are healthy.
AP NewsMATTHEW PERRONE
Clive Brown At ONT: A Belated Retrospective
on Calling is imminent, and this is a notable one: the first held without Clive Brown in an official capacity at Oxford Nanopore. I started…
Keith Robison
Cervical cancer remains a major global health concern for women. Current screening methods are either invasive or lead to low participation and over-referral for colposcopy, particularly among high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive women. This study analyzes 613 participants with varying cervical lesions using mass cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) to identify disease-specific peripheral immune signatures. A diagnostic model based on 23 immune features achieves ∼91% sensitivity and specificity for detecting precancerous and cancerous lesions.
Cell Reports Medicine
Delivery of a sebum modulator by an engineered skin microbe in mice - Nature Biotechnology
An engineered skin microbe produces a therapeutic molecule that reduces sebum in mice.
NatureNastassia Knödlseder
Moderna pulls application for combo COVID, flu shot
The announcement, which followed the FDA setting new guidelines on COVID vaccine approvals, erased the stock’s gains from yesterday.
BioPharma DiveDelilah Alvarado
Watch these 9 small molecule drug discovery companies in 2025
Discover 9 promising small molecule drug discovery companies that recently raised funding for their potentially breakthrough approaches.
Labiotech UGWillow Shah-Neville
Large-scale plasma proteomic profiling unveils diagnostic biomarkers and pathways for Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Aging
Heo, Xu et al. used comprehensive plasma proteomics to identify 416 plasma proteins (294 new) associated with Alzheimer’s disease and applied machine learning to select 7 proteins that were highly predictive of Alzheimer’s disease across multiple cohorts.
NatureGyujin Heo
Not Just for Kids Anymore: Diagnostic Whole-Genome Sequencing Reaches Adults
As part of his neurology genetics practice, Changrui Xiao sees plenty of children. At Children's Hospital of Orange County and across the country, kids with suspected genetic conditions are able to get whole-genome sequencing tests to help diagnose their genetic diseases, paid for by private insurance or by state Medicaid programs.
GenomeWeb
How We Pioneered Next Generation DNA Sequencing At Solexa -V
A Challenge from an Unexpected Quarter
MediumNick McCooke
Oxford Nanopore Should Spin Out Protein Sequencing
I’ve toyed with writing something on these lines for a long time but never quite pulled the trigger. But the more I think about it, the mor…
Keith Robison
Lab Stakeholders Decry Trump Administration's Decision to Terminate CLIAC
With its recent decision to discontinue the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shut down one of the laboratory industry's main conduits for providing the agency feedback on the functioning of the CLIA program.
360 Dx
A guide to navigating AI chemistry hype
If you plan to use machine learning for research, consider ChatGPT’s shortcomings and inquire about AI tools’ training data and benchmarking performance
American Chemical SocietyAndy Extance, special to C&EN
In Biotech’s ‘Moribund’ Market, What Does It Take To Survive?
BioSpace’s NextGen companies are rising in one of the most confounding biotech markets ever experienced. Executives sounded off on how to keep your head above water during our webinar, Are We There Yet?
BioSpaceAnnalee Armstrong
As a laid off postdoc, I turned to a side hustle—and found a new career
We came to the end of our regular weekly lab meeting and were about to leave when our principal investigator (PI) announced he had something important to share. “I’m sorry team. We’ve run out of funds, and I have to let you all go.” Looking around the room I saw a mix of confusion and shock on the faces of the other lab members—another postdoc, a lab technician, and a handful of graduate students.
Science
Sequence diversity lost in early pregnancy - Nature
Around 1 in 136 pregnancies is lost due to a pathogenic small sequence variant genotype in the fetus.
NatureGudny A. Arnadottir
Roche taps Broad Institute to test SBX sequencing in the clinic
Roche raised the curtain on its novel approach to DNA sequencing earlier this year, and now it’s working with the Broad Institute to explore its use cases, ahead of a full public launch s | Roche tapped a subsidiary of the MIT and Harvard research center to apply sequencing-by-expansion tech in screening newborns and their parents.
Fierce BiotechConor Hale
Programmable control of spatial transcriptome in live cells and neurons - Nature
CRISPR-TO, a system for programmable control of spatial localization of cellular RNAs, is presented and enables functional investigation of endogenous RNA localization in diverse living cells.
NatureMengting Han
GitHub - cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends: Friends don’t let friends make certain types of data visualization - What are they and why are they bad.
Friends don't let friends make certain types of data visualization - What are they and why are they bad. - GitHub - cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends: Friends don't let friends make certain ty…
GitHubcxli233
Akoya Receives Unsolicited Acquisition Offer, Possibly Upending Quanterix Merger Deal
Akoya Biosciences said in a notice filed Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has received an unsolicited acquisition proposal from an unnamed party.
GenomeWeb
The genomics layoff wave in the US: What is happening and why
Genomics layoffs are sweeping the US in 2025. Explore the key reasons behind job cuts and what they signal for the biotech industry.
Labiotech UGRoohi Mariam Peter
Global Observatory Gathers to Expand Debate on Human Genome Editing
This week a group of researchers, bioethicists, publishers and theologians are discussing the merits of human heritable genome editing.
GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology NewsKevin Davies, PhD
Court extends block on HHS RIF after Trump’s Supreme Court appeal
Updated: May 23 at 10:30 a.m. ET | Recent lawsuits from nonprofits, state attorneys general, unions and local governments say the reorganizations and reductions in force imposed on federal agencies like the HHS were unconstitutional.
Fierce HealthcareNoah Tong
Novo pressures GLP-1 compounders as FDA ban takes hold
The Danish drugmaker unveiled a series of initiatives to increase access to Wegovy and clamp down on use of the knock-off versions that have dented its sales forecasts.
BioPharma DiveKristin Jensen