News Feature

Two years ago, Gyanendra Nath Singh was tasked with overseeing India's drug regulatory agency. Despite the US having temporarily suspended a suite of trials in India and banned drug imports from several manufacturers there over the last couple of years, Singh says progress is being made. Killugudi Jayaraman reports.

The only vaccine ever approved to protect against Lyme disease was pulled off the market in 2002, and drugmakers have yet to offer an alternative. What's taking so long? Cassandra Willyard investigates.

About 90% of the people in the world carry a latent virus known to cause cancer. On the fiftieth anniversary of its discovery, researchers are considering joining up their experimental treatments against these malignancies. David Holmes reports.

Patients have long received cancer treatments at the maximum tolerated dose on a regular schedule. Could a more sophisticated approach save lives? Elie Dolgin meets one mathematical biologist whose theories are now being tested in the clinic to see if they can improve the efficacy of today's anticancer arsenal.

People infected with HIV who control the infection without antiretroviral drug therapy have often served as foot soldiers for science, but now science owes them some answers. If the rare good fortune of being a so-called 'HIV controller' comes with a price—namely, immune activation that raises a person's risks of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other health problems—might antiretroviral medications give these patients' overactive immune systems a much-needed break? Alla Katsnelson investigates.

In the era of big data, biomedical databases are brimming with protein structures, image collections and genomic sequences. As the data mount, new 'cave automatic virtual environments', or CAVEs, are being built to help researchers pick through the files. Dyani Lewis meets the pioneers behind these large-scale visualization labs to see whether immersive virtual worlds can cut through the complexity.

After decades of decline, South Africa's Medical Research Council has undergone a dramatic turnaround in recent years, with a more than 50% increase in government funding. But as the leader credited with this turnaround prepares to step down at the end of next month, onlookers worry about what lies ahead for the institute. Linda Nordling reports.

Insulin-producing islet cells could hold the secret to curing type 1 diabetes—if only scientists could figure out a way to encapsulate and transplant them into the body. But first, the right biocompatible material must be found to hold these precious cells. A team of bioengineers thinks it has discovered one. Elie Dolgin reports.

Co-working spaces in which many entrepreneurs share a common environment have been a hallmark of the computer startup industry for decades. Now, the life sciences sector is beginning to do the same. Elie Dolgin talks with the pioneers helping to bring affordable wet-lab space—plus the infrastructure and support needed to launch a successful commercial enterprise—to the next generation of biotech innovators.