STAT+: Charles River loses a battle over harvesting horseshoe crabs used for testing bacteria in drugs
In a setback to Charles River Laboratories (CRL), a federal judge temporarily blocked its contractors…
Category: diagnostics
STAT+: Telehealth companies are fueling a lobbying frenzy to protect their Covid boom
WASHINGTON — Telehealth companies, flush with cash after the Covid-19 pandemic spiked both demand and…
How blackouts, fires, and a pandemic are driving shortages of pipette tips — and hobbling science
The humble pipette tip is tiny, cheap, and utterly essential to science. It powers research…
Opinion: What’s next for diagnostic labs, a ‘bright spot’ during Covid-19?
As U.S. diagnostic labs began confronting the Covid-19 pandemic in early March 2020, they faced…
Could a souped-up version of existing Covid-19 tests be our shortcut to tracking variants?
Genomic sequencing is one of the best defenses against potentially deadlier or more transmissible variants…
STAT+: Amazon established a foothold in diagnostics during Covid-19. Now it’s doubling down
Vin Gupta’s hiring in January 2020 could not have come at a better time for…
Opinion: CRISPR rivals put patents aside to help in fight against Covid-19
In early January 2020, Feng Zhang, a gene-editing researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT…
Opinion: Dear NHS: You need a control arm for Grail’s cancer test
A simple blood test able to detect 50 different cancers is the grail of cancer…
STAT+: ‘A natural experiment’: Pandemic-driven drop in cancer screening may aid research on overdiagnosis
It’s counterintuitive, but catching cancer early isn’t always for the best. And the coronavirus pandemic…
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STAT+: 3 biotech trends to watch
For biotech companies, 2020 could have been a lot worse than it was, all things…
FDA allows first rapid coronavirus test that gives results at home
WASHINGTON — U.S. regulators on Tuesday allowed emergency use of the first rapid coronavirus test…
Opinion: Personalized medicine is the future of health care. Two Trump administration proposals could stymie it
“It is more important to know what kind of patient the disease has than to…
STAT Plus: Liquid biopsy startup Grail files for an IPO
Liquid biopsy company Grail has filed for a $100 million initial public offering, according to…
U.S. needs 193 million Covid-19 tests per month to reopen schools and keep up with pandemic, new report says
The U.S. may need up to 193 million coronavirus tests each month in order to…
STAT Plus: Foundation Medicine wins FDA approval for first liquid biopsy able to detect multiple cancers
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first comprehensive “liquid biopsy” platform that…
Opinion: Even Covid-19 tests that aren’t perfect can help control the pandemic
A key component to managing the Covid-19 pandemic is frequent, rapid, and routine testing of…
This California company has a better version of a simpler, faster Covid-19 test
In some parts of the U.S. right now, it can take weeks to get results…
This tiny Texas company is running most of the drive-thru Covid-19 testing in the U.S.
On March 13, President Trump stood next to the CEOs of LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics, Walgreens,…
Ginkgo Bioworks, Mammoth Biosciences among winners of NIH’s ‘Shark Tank’ for Covid-19 tests
The National Institutes of Health selected Ginkgo Bioworks, Mammoth Biosciences, Quidel, and four other companies…
STAT Plus: Cepheid is accused of overcharging and undersupplying its Covid-19 test to poor countries
As controversy rises over equal access to Covid-19 medical products, a manufacturer of rapid, point-of…
STAT Plus: A test you can breathe in: Scientists are developing synthetic biosensors to monitor lung disease
Imagine inhaling a sensor that could monitor lung disease patients’ response to therapy, emitting a…
U.S. must spend $75 billion to fix flawed Covid-19 testing, report says
The U.S. should invest $75 billion in order to fix its badly flawed system of…
Scientists create a speedy finger-prick test to scan for radiation exposure in mice
Researchers have developed a simple finger-prick test that scans a single drop of blood to…
Opinion: It’s time to begin a national wastewater testing program for Covid-19
As the Covid-19 pandemic marches across America, causing record-breaking numbers of cases, almost every solution…
Safer reopening will require millions more Covid-19 tests per day. One solution: ‘pool testing’
If the country wants to crank up its Covid-19 testing capacity into the millions —…
Opinion: Lack of rapid diagnostic tools contributes to Covid-19 deaths
SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus that humans have never before encountered, is causing hundreds of thousands of…
Experts decry FDA’s halting of a high-profile Covid-19 study over approvals
Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration told STAT the agency’s decision last week to…
AI systems are worse at diagnosing disease when training data is skewed by sex
The artificial intelligence model showed great promise in predicting which patients treated in U.S. Veterans…
FDA says Abbott’s 5-minute Covid-19 test may miss infected patients
The Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday that the Abbott ID Now rapid test…
7 questions about Covid-19 testing and what it means for reopening the country
Pressure to perform widespread Covid-19 testing is growing as public health experts and ordinary citizens…
NIH announces $1.5 billion, ‘Shark Tank’-like initiative to accelerate Covid-19 testing
WASHINGTON — The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday announced a new $1.5 billion initiative…
STAT Plus: For the first time, a blood test helped doctors find and treat cancers in seemingly healthy people
For the first time, doctors have used the results of a liquid biopsy test to…
Opinion: Home testing for Covid-19 will provide the combination to unlock the U.S.
As the government struggles to help Americans move from lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders to a…
FDA clears first Covid-19 test with at-home sample collection
Regulators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized the first coronavirus test…
To speed coronavirus testing, FDA approves a new type of nasal swab
One of the biggest bottlenecks in testing people for the novel coronavirus has not involved…
Rapid coronavirus test, commonly used in U.S., may miss infections in some situations
A rapid test for the novel coronavirus that was unveiled by President Trump on the…
Scientists tap CRISPR’s search-and-detect skills to create a rapid Covid-19 test
It cuts genomes, edits DNA, and holds the potential to treat a vast range of…
Opinion: We’ll see more shortages of diagnostic tests if the FDA has its way
February was a frustrating month for my laboratory. We wanted to make tests to detect…
Startups spar with FDA over what constitutes a home coronavirus test
Federal regulators and health tech startups are increasingly at odds over the permissibility of at-home…
‘Smart toilet’ could monitor for signs of illness in urine and stool, study finds
Analyzing urine and stool to get a picture of health has traditionally been the work…
Opinion: Covid-19 testing: overcoming challenges in the next phase of the epidemic
Which is a better proxy for estimating the Covid-19 infection rate in the United States:…
Test makers are moving fast, but the coronavirus may be moving faster
In Lake Success, a village on the border of suburban Long Island and the New…
CRISPR pioneer Doudna opens lab to run Covid-19 tests
A team of academic and industry researchers led by Jennifer Doudna, the researcher best known…
Roche backpedals and agrees to provide a solution for Covid-19 tests in the Netherlands
In a startling about-face, Roche (RHHBY) has agreed to release the recipe for a liquid…
The next frontier in coronavirus testing: Identifying the full scope of the pandemic, not just individual infections
Scientists are starting to roll out new blood tests for the coronavirus, a key development…
Startups touting at-home coronavirus tests suspend plans after FDA warning
In a rapid about-face, a handful of startups that had already rolled out at-home coronavirus…
Opinion: We need smart coronavirus testing, not just more testing
Despite three weeks of assurances, most Americans who have symptoms of Covid-19 still can’t get…
FDA moves to boost coronavirus testing capacity by giving states more power
In response to a dire shortage of tests for detecting the fast-moving coronavirus, the Food…
Trump administration says it will launch mobile coronavirus test system this week
WASHINGTON — The federal government will roll out a nationwide coronavirus testing system at mobile…
Thermo Fisher to produce millions of coronavirus diagnostic tests
Thermo Fisher, the largest maker of scientific tools, said Friday it plans to produce up…