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Researchers at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan have designed a small 'body-on-a-chip' device that can test the side effects of drugs s on human cells. The device solves some issues with current, similar microfluidic devices and offers promise for the next generation of pre-clinical drug tests.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the critical need to better understand the human immune system and how to unleash its power to develop vaccines and therapeutics. Much of our knowledge of the immune system has accrued from studies in mice, yet vaccines and drugs that work effectively in mice do not always translate into humans. Pulendran and Davis review recent technological advances that have facilitated the study of the immune system in humans. They discuss new insights and how these can affect the development of drugs and vaccines in the modern era.

Having started his career critiquing the drug companies, Gøtzsche's circle of scorn has since widened to take in mammographers, psychiatrists, scores of his own colleagues, and, now, seemingly every single doctor in the world. According to him, he has another book - "Vaccines: Truth, Lies, and Controversy," coming out in February.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for robust scientific evidence to support policy decisions, such as around the effectiveness of various social distancing measures and the safety of drug therapies. Yet this need arises at a time of growing misinformation and poorly vetted facts repeated by influential sources. To address this gap, a group of scientists led by Kai Ruggeri, a professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and James Green, chief scientist at NASA, has introduced a new framework to help set standards for the quality of evidence used in policymaking.

If a COVID-19 vaccine went on the market before Election Day, Kamala Harris said she's not sure she'd take it. And she's not alone. In a recent poll, a majority of Americans - 62 percent - said they were worried that the Trump administration would pressure the Food and Drug Administration to release a vaccine before it's ready, and 54 percent said they simply wouldn't take that hypothetical vaccine at all, even if it were free.

BY NOW THERE'S little doubt about hydroxychloroquine: It doesn't work for treating Covid-19. But there's a bigger, more important lesson hidden in the story of its failure-a rarely-mentioned, but altogether crucial, error baked into the early research. The scientists who ran the first, promising laboratory experiments on the drug had used the wrong kind of cells: Instead of testing its effects on human lung cells, they relied on a supply of mass-produced, standardized cells made from a monkey's kidney. In the end, that poor decision made their findings more or less irrelevant to human health. Worse, it's possible that further research into novel Covid-19 cures will end up being compromised by the same mistake.

For protein molecules that contribute to metabolism, interactions with other components of their metabolic pathway can be crucial. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen have now investigated a natural enzyme complex that comprises 10 enzymes with five distinct activities. They found that the molecular architecture is surprisingly compact, yet offers individual enzymes maximum free moving space, which opens up novel perspectives for drug discovery. The scientists have published their results in Nature Chemical Biology.

While scientists still don't fully understand the diverse nature of RNA molecules, it is believed that the proteins binding to them, called RNA-binding proteins, are associated with many types of disease formation. Research led by biomedical scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has led to a novel detection method, called CARPID, to identify binding proteins of specific RNAs in living cells. It is expected that the innovation can be applied in various types of cell research, from identifying biomarkers of cancer diagnosis to detecting potential drug targets for treating viral diseases.