DUBLIN – A novel real-world study methodology that marries digital technology with a citizen science or do-it-yourself approach to “drug” procurement, formulation and administration has found – yet again – that the placebo remains one of the great wonders of the medical world.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Collagen means well in pancreatic cancer; Astrocytes are more inflammatory in bipolar disease.

At the 2021 Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting, John Greally had some unusual advice with respect to confounders in epigenomic studies. Epigenomics, he told the audience in his talk on "Thinking beyond the creode: epigenomics and human disease," has real promise for understanding genomic mechanisms of disease. "But possibly not in the way we think."

"Nothing is undruggable!" was the bold claim at the European Society of Medical Oncology Targeted Anticancer Therapies Virtual Congress 2021 the (ESMO-TAT).

In the public mind, fat and unhealthy are more or less synonymous. But reality is more complicated, as reality often is. Even among individuals with a BMI of 30 or higher, somewhere between 15% and 45% have metabolism typical of much lower-weight individuals.

Scientists, despite their best efforts, have not been able to identify a way to inhibit the oncoprotein Myc. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli, though, has apparently figured it out. In the Feb. 11, 2021, online issue of Nature Biotechnology, researchers reported that an UPEC-produced protease depleted cellular Myc and improved survival in mouse models of bladder and colon cancer.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Neurons contribute to their own lack of regeneration.