The safety and efficacy of many stem cell treatments remain unproven by the FDA, yet state laws promote access and use of these unchecked and potentially harmful treatments. Fellow Kirstin R.W. Matthews summarizes her recent publication in a new commentary — outlining public health consequences of these state laws and calling for scientific societies’ advocacy in state policymaking.
The number of anti-vaccine bills filed in Texas has risen, yet many Texans support vaccine policy. Fellow Kirstin R.W. Matthews and nonresident scholar Rekha Lakshmanan examine the stakes of legislative engagement in public health initiatives and provide a call to action for Texans to embrace public health as an act of freedom.
For research involving human embryos and other controversial subjects, science journals should require ethics statements from researchers detailing research oversight, what embryos were used, how many and for how long. This will help increase transparency and improve communication with the public, writes Science and Technology Policy Fellow Kirstin R.W. Matthews.
Decades of bad policy have heightened the risks of drug use and created barriers to treatment. And while some states are now trying to reduce the harms caused by the drug war, Texas is doubling down on ineffective policies.
The rapid adoption of telemedicine is one of the few positive developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, writes fellow Katharine Neill Harris. She explains why the DEA’s recent proposal to change the rules for prescribing drugs via telemedicine would harm patients and increase demand for and exposure to unregulated and more dangerous drugs.
As false or inaccurate information about stem cell interventions continues to circulate widely, the authors write that immediate action is needed to improve patient education and safety — and to combat misinformation more broadly.
To better reflect the iterative collaboration necessary for scientific progress, the Nobel Prize must expand its recognition to the many contributors of winning discoveries as well as diversify the selection committee, thereby also expanding recognition of the work of underrepresented minorities, argues this Baker Institute Blog post.
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Kenneth M. Evans, Flora Naylor, Daniel MoralíOctober 13, 2021
On Monday, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.” Fellow Kirstin Matthews praises their research on how capsaicin and TRP affect nerve cells as an accomplishment made possible by U.S. federal funding for and support of science.