News & Publications

An article in Nature describes efforts by the US government to determine whether it should continue to ban federal funding for studies that could make some viruses more dangerous. Writer Sara Reardon notes, such research "can help scientists to answer important questions about how a… Read more

A team at Stanford University has developed a new drug to fight deadly Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections. Each year, the superbug kills 29,000 Americans and makes 450,000 sick. Rather than destroying helpful bacteria along with C. difficile toxins, as… Read more

An article in today's Wall Street Journal describes one family's struggles regarding how much DNA information to share with each other. Identical twins Kathy Giusti and Karen Andrews have been diagnosed with two different types of cancer and hold divergent opinions, leading to tough… Read more

Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker recently argued in a Boston Globe editorial that bioethicists need to "get out of the way" of research. His "live grenade thrown into the field of bioethics" and the reaction to it are outlined in an article in Pacific… Read more

Consortium member the National Center for Food Protection and Defense has changed its name to the Food Protection and Defense Institute. The new name reflects the center's expansion beyond its core research mission into education and training, information technology, and service delivery… Read more

An article in Nature outlines some of the dilemmas facing the NIH-funded Precision Medicine Initiative when it comes to deciding how much genetic data about disease risk will be shared with an expected one million participants in the project. While medical… Read more

The University of Minnesota has received a $12 million dollar award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bring together scientists, industry leaders, and policy partners committed to building better cities of the future. The project is led by Anu Ramaswami, director of Consortium… Read more

The University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute, a Consortium member center, has received a private grant in the amount of $2.4 million from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation that will help accelerate research into growing healthy, new skin for burn victims or patients… Read more

In an interview posted today on the University's home page, pancreatic cancer survivor Scott Nelson describes the ongoing importance of patient participation in clinical trials. When he was diagnosed in 2004, Nelson was part of an experimental eight-week chemotherapy and radiation… Read more

An article in Science Magazine describes a remarkable Ebola vaccine trial conducted by a team for the World Health Organization (WHO). The researchers' approach was partly dictated by an unexpected decrease in the number of Ebola cases, nullifying traditional vaccine research… Read more