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The First Cohort

Medical research, with the receipts

Investigations

A Gene-Editing Trial Killed a 6-Year-Old. Nature Published the Science and Left Her Out of the Record.

Her parents paid $860,000 to base-edit their daughter's brain. She died of an immune reaction within a week, and the published paper never says so.

Mira Petrov  ·  9 min read

Illustration of a gene-editing trial record with a redacted section, evoking the scrubbed clinical history of a young patient
Editorial illustration of a tumor at its evolutionary weak point, referencing the two-strike drug-resistance model

The Evolutionary Fix for Drug Resistance Works Best on a Tumor Too Small to Find

City St George's mathematicians say hitting a tumor at its weakest moment can drive it extinct. Their own model shows the window closes as the tumor grows.

Lena Marshall  ·  6 min read

Nutrition & Food
All Nutrition & Food →
Illustration of a prebiotic soda can beside a sugar-to-fiber ratio, referencing the Poppi acquisition

Pepsi Paid $1.95 Billion for Poppi, in a Category That Averages as Much Sugar as Fiber

Lena Marshall  ·  5 min

Illustration of petroleum-based food dye bottles marked for revocation by the FDA

The FDA Revoked Two Petroleum Dyes That Industry Abandoned Before Most Americans Were Born

Marcus Chen  ·  5 min

Illustration of a children's juice box alongside a rising blood-pressure line

The Fruit Juice Sold to Parents as the Healthy Choice Tracks With Higher Blood Pressure 25 Years Later

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  6 min

Metabolic & Weight
All Metabolic & Weight →
Illustration of a molecule reaching into a brain's reward circuit, referencing orforglipron's dopamine effect

Orforglipron Reaches Deep Into the Brain's Reward Circuit and Turns the Dopamine Down

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  7 min

Illustration contrasting a scale and a strand of hair, referencing GLP-1 weight-loss speed and hair loss

The GLP-1s That Barely Move the Scale Don't Cause Hair Loss, and That's the Clue Everyone Missed

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  6 min

Illustration of a gut microbe releasing ammonia toward a liver, referencing the DT109 peptide trial in monkeys

A Gut Microbe Was Feeding Ammonia to Sick Livers. A Michigan Peptide Cut Off the Supply in Monkeys.

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  8 min

Brain & Aging
All Brain & Aging →
Illustration of artificial sweetener packets beside an accelerated brain-aging timeline

The Sweeteners Sold to Diabetics as the Safe Swap Tracked With Faster Brain Aging

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  5 min

Anti-Tau Alzheimer's Drugs Keep Hitting Their Target and Missing the Disease

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  5 min

Autoimmune & Inflammation
All Autoimmune →
Illustration of a bark-derived compound reaching the JAK pathway used by black-box arthritis drugs

A Chinese Bark Compound Reached the Black-Box Arthritis Drugs' Pathway From Upstream, in Rats

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  4 min

A Petri Dish of Angry Immune Cells, a Little Ultrasound, and a Very Big Headline

Sarah Okonkwo  ·  4 min

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The Sunday Cohort

One weekly dispatch. The stories that held up.