Biotech

An international project is set to detail how every cell type in the body functions

Vaccines composed of DNA or RNA, instead of protein, could enable rapid development of preventives for infectious diseases

Ultrasensitive blood tests known as liquid biopsies promise to improve cancer diagnosis and care

Short answer: it depends

The effort completed in 2003 used the best technology available but now scientists could do more

Vital signs information and images aren’t enough for a fully automated device that can tell you what’s actually wrong with a patient

If we want to be prepared for the worst, Bill Gates says, we have to build an arsenal of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. Some scientists are now using computers to do just that

The computational immunologist Purvesh Khatri embraces messy data as a way to capture the messiness of disease. As a result, he’s making elusive genomic discoveries

Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria are unable to transmit viruses to humans—and could curb the spread of viral disease. Karen Hopkin reports.

The technique, tested in rodents, could yield better sensation and control of prosthetic limbs

Journalist Bonnie Rochman talks about her new Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux book, The Gene Machine: How Genetic Technologies Are Changing the Way We Have Kids—and the Kids We Have.

Scientists remain skeptical about an experimental approach to reverse brain death