Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Being Overweight As A Child Affects Memory Skills In Mid-Life, Study Finds
Having cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to adulthood is linked to poor cognitive performance in a person's 30s, 40s and 50s, according to new research that followed children over three decades. Researchers said the study was the first to highlight the impact of lifelong cardiovascular risk factors on the brain at midlife. (LaMotte, 5/10)
In other science and research developments —
Carlene Knight would love to do things that most people take for granted, such as read books, drive a car, ride a bike, gaze at animals in a zoo and watch movies. She also longs to see expressions on people's faces. "To be able to see my granddaughter especially — my granddaughter's face," said Knight, 54, who lives outside Portland, Ore. "It would be huge." Michael Kalberer yearns to be able to read a computer screen so he could get back to work as a social worker. He also hopes to one day watch his nieces and nephews play soccer instead of just listening to them, and move around in the world without help. But that's not all. (Stein, 5/10)
Scientists have started to test whether natural killer, or NK, cells can be trained to go after hard-to-cure blood cancers in human patients. But making these sentinels of the innate immune system a potential boon to human health spans might be simpler: Rather than needing to be genetically engineered or primed with synthetic antibodies, they just need to be turned on. (Molteni, 5/10)
In 2017, scientists at Flagship Pioneering were exploring different kinds of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, focusing on an unusual form of the molecule that had a circular shape, rather than a linear strand with two ends. “When I saw that, I got excited,” said Avak Kahvejian, a general partner at the Cambridge venture capital firm. “I thought it was a way the cell was making really robust, stable RNAs, which are usually very unstable.” (Gardizy, 5/10)
In the last six months, Pear Therapeutics has raised $100 million, inked a bevy of new deals, and launched a sweeping study of its app to treat substance use disorders. It has also seen a high-profile study on its digital treatment for schizophrenia fail. The frenetic pace of developments is a reflection of the ambitions at Pear, an eight-year-old health tech company which gained prominence by winning Food and Drug Administration clearance for prescription digital therapeutics. (Aguilar, 5/11)
