Since 2012, when the first leukemia patient was treated with engineered versions of her own T cells, scientists have tried to make the therapy more accessible by using donor cells instead. So far, they have failed. Read my deep dive and decide for yourself if 2026 is the year they turn it around!

For people who don't follow the FDA closely: this is insane. Like my jaw hit the floor when I saw this. The FDA is flat out refusing to even consider Moderna's application for a new flu vaccine? The federal health apparatus is fully compromised by anti-vax conspiracy. THIS IS NUTS! BAD

Devastating news for patients and their families. This gene therapy has been on a wild ride--a delay, a clinical hold, and now rejection. Also troubling that the FDA is rejecting the use of a biomarker that is widely accepted by the research community 💊🧪 my story:

Absolutely devastating

CRAZY diversity of sea stars fr NEW CALEDONIA! I describe 28 NEW SPECIES,3 NEW GENERA! #echinoday #goniasteridae #openaccess. My thanks to colleagues at the @MNHN.fr in Paris! for my many visits in order to complete this research! Will share some of my favorites herein! mapress.com/mt/article/v...

Just filed a massive story with minutes to go before a Friday afternoon deadline that I for some reason forced upon myself

The Washington Post gutted the health team which I helped to lead despite our stories being among the most widely read, impactful and adept at reaching new audiences.

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis, "who has already earned a reputation for showing up late to work when he showed up at all, did not join the Zoom" about the staggering cuts.

continue to think that if instead of "raw milk" we called it "doodoo milk" people would understand the risk proposition

American Academy of Pediatrics still recommends vaccinating kids against 18 diseases. Why? Because all 18 can potentially kill your child. www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

Just experienced the most intense tear gassing of my life by federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland where marchers gathered. There was no fast exit as they indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs. Children were in the crowd screaming. @oregoncapitalchronicle.com

I'm at the Willard Hotel where I've been denied entry and kicked out of the Reclaiming Science event with NIH director Bhattacharya & other top agency leaders. @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social and I registered for the event months ago yet were told capacity was full, even as they let in dozens of others.

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

Don Lemon is not the only reporter who was arrested by federal agents overnight — local independent journalist Georgia Fort just went live on FB to say federal agents were also at her door to take her into custody over her protest coverage in Minneapolis.

We're officially fundraising for laid-off Vox workers. Please share and donate if you can! www.gofundme.com/f/support-la...

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in court filings Tuesday that the agency intended to build a temporary holding and processing center in Newport, Oregon, confirming rumors that have swirled through the coastal community for months.

If you, like me, are desperate for good news: Scientists have found a molecule that shrank brain tumors in mice with basically no side effects, and are now working to reshape it into a form fit for human trials. The result could be a pill to treat aggressive brain cancers (!!!!) 🧪💊 my story:

EXCLSUVIE: The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules and shared them with the companies they're meant to regulate, without making the new rules publicly available. We've obtained a copy of the new rules and here's what we found. www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...

In response to announcement that he will be a new CBS contributor, Andrew Huberman tweeted “I’ve always gone issue-by-issue on health & science, spoken to experts w/a range of takes & presented where I see the center of (data) mass pointed. I’ll do the same with @CBSNews”. In Sept he posted this:

The phrase "heart attack" conjures images of clogged arteries, but scientists are starting to understand how the most damage comes from the nervous system run amok--and targeting the heart-brain connection could lead to new meds 🧪💊 my story:

YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents** substack.com/@gelliottmor...

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him. White. Hot. Rage.

"The federal government is killing people in the streets, so sports are canceled," is the point we have reached.

NYT video analysis confirms victim’s gun was removed before he was shot. So he was unarmed. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/us/minneapolis-shooting-federal-agents-video.html

"abolish ICE and prosecute everyone involved" is the moderate position

Once again, immigration is not even a problem. Immigrants are not more criminal, they don't cost jobs, they don't harm the economy. There is no reason for any of this. It is hurting ourselves to hurt them.

There is video circulating on social media of a group of ICE agents beating a man near 26th and Nicollet in south Minneapolis, then one of the ICE agents shoots the man while he's on the ground numerous times. A witness can be heard yelling that the victim is dead.

The clergy just keep coming to this anti-ICE protest. Genuinely unclear where they all will go — it’s packed outside on the sidewalk already.

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

The 5-year-old arrested by ICE In Minnesota is detained at Dilley. We reported on conditions there in the below article. Parents said the food was contaminated with mold and worms & that children were so under so much stress that they were hitting their own faces & wetting themselves.

Just like in Trump's first term, the NIH has banned the use of fetal tissue from abortions in research--more fully this time. The move "will likely delay discoveries and delivery of therapeutics to patients in need" 🧪 my story (and yes, of course this connects to vaccines):

The Columbia Heights school district says ICE detained four of its students, including a 5-year-old boy, as "bait" to draw out family members.

If you tell investors your clinical trial succeeded after the FDA tells you no, it didn't, you're gonna have a bad time

Asked about government cuts to vaccine research, the new director of ARPA-H said new tech may one day render the "vaccine debate" a thing of the past 🤔 a very interesting conversation with Dr. Alicia Jackson, my latest:

via the article for the album "a thousand suns"

Put some respect on Chugai's name--my latest on the Japanese company that brought us a blockbuster hemophilia drug and a buzzy weight loss pill only to remain in obscurity in the US

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

"The arduous nature of secret police work offers underachievers the opportunity to signal their value to the regime and get ahead of competitors for higher positions."

It’s official! Members of the Science News Media ratified their first contract. 🎉 🎊 Together, we won: ✅ Guaranteed cost-of-living raises ✅ Separate sick leave ✅ Equity raises for some employees ✅ Just-cause rights ✅ Paid parental leave of 6 weeks

Multnomah Country, Oregon, has posted warnings to residents that ICE agents are impersonating utility workers. You read that right. ICE is now impersonating utility workers in order to gain access to people's homes and businesses without a warrant. www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

BREAKING: 2 shot by federal immigration agents in Portland Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2026/01/portland-police-responding-to-report-of-shooting-by-federal-immigration-agent.html 

"Secret police" is often misunderstood to mean a force that operates covertly, with all their operations secret. But a secret police force's actions are often public. The secret part is hiding their identities, because they're breaking laws to hurt politically disfavored people, and fear reprisals.

Mayor Jacob Frey: “To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”

HIV can evolve resistance to Gilead's star medicine lenacapavir, but doing so hurts the virus' ability to reproduce--meaning HIV may be unlikely to develop widespread resistance to the drug. Important implications for len's growing use as PrEP and for the invention of new HIV meds. My story:

I continue to be enraged by everything the secretary of health and human services is doing www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Absolutely horrific details about an ICE shooting in Minneapolis. A witness says a woman was trying to drive away from an ICE operation and the ICE agent "reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times." Bovino was there. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...