In the largest genetic study of schizophrenia published to date, researchers have identified 50 new gene variants, and half a dozen functionally related groups of genes, that affected schizophrenia risk. They also showed that schizophrenia risk variants were more likely to be found in the relatively small fraction of the genome that is essential for normal development and function.

Excessive standardization of preclinical conditions has been identified as a cause of poor reproducibility, because it made it more likely that results were valid only under the exact experimental conditions in which they were obtained. While most causes of poor reproducibility, including low statistical power, "p" hacking and publication bias, are poor scientific practice, standardization of experimental conditions is considered a desirable scientific practice. 

After the 2017 approvals of Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel, CTL-019, Novartis AG) and Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel, Gilead Sciences Inc., Kite Pharma Inc.), the American Society of Clinical Oncology named chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy the clinical cancer advance of the year, and said that CAR T cells are "poised to transform" the treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

In their rapid division, cancer cells have some similarities to early development, and cells often have embryonic cell-like features. Researchers from Stanford University have shown that those parallels can be exploited to make autologous therapeutic vaccines from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

Researchers have identified a new target that reduced asthma symptoms in mice without the major shortcomings of current therapy, namely, immunosuppression and desensitization.

Despite the fact that metastases are responsible for 90 percent of cancer deaths, what drives and enables metastatic spread remains little understood. One metastatic mechanism is the reversal of cells to a more primitive phenotype, the so-called epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Now, researchers from the French Institute Gustave Roussy have shown that one subtype of colorectal tumor cells retained its epithelial phenotype when such cells metastasize to the peritoneum. 

By comparing the proteomes of affected and unaffected family members, researchers have gained new insights into the rare genetic disorder Menkes disease, and found that it has molecular connections to Parkinson's disease (PD).

Data from the phase II SUMMIT basket trial of HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor neratinib (Puma Biotechnology Inc.) in patients with HER2 or HER3-mutated tumors across multiple anatomical locations have shown that targeting HER2 can have therapeutic value in tumors beyond breast cancer, but also reaffirmed that for most targeted therapies, the anatomical location as well as the molecular mutation play a role.