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Laboratory medicine news

While exploring the cosmos, astronauts also fuel explorations of the biology of aging and cellular resilience

When the four-member crew of Axiom-2 launched into space in May 2023, their 10-day mission was chock full of experiments aimed at understanding human physiology. Results from some of those experiments, now online at Aging ...

ctDNA levels after neoadjuvant therapy may predict breast cancer recurrence better than pathologic complete response

The presence of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer after they received neoadjuvant treatment and surgery predicted worse outcomes than in ...

Blood test reveals risk of multimorbidity in older adults

A small set of common blood biomarkers predicts which older adults will develop specific combinations of chronic diseases—and how quickly, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Medicine.

Costs pose hurdle for promising new hepatitis C lab test

A new rapid test for hepatitis C could help identify many more patients who could be cured of the deadly disease, but its use may be limited unless insurers' reimbursement rises to cover its high cost, according to researchers ...

New ALS diagnostic blood test boasts 97% accuracy

ALS is a debilitating paralytic disease characterized as the death of upper and lower motor neurons. Fortunately, ALS is relatively rare, with an incidence rate of 1.6 per 100,000 adults, resulting in about 30,000 cases in ...

First detection of cannabis in breath from edibles

Cannabis has gained increased use in the United States, outpacing alcohol as Americans' daily recreational drug of choice. Nearly 20% of cannabis users have admitted to driving after using the drug. However, unlike for alcohol, ...

Swiss genome of the 1918 influenza virus reconstructed

Researchers from the universities of Basel and Zurich have used a historical specimen from UZH's Medical Collection to decode the genome of the virus responsible for the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic in Switzerland. The ...