Nathan Seppa

Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)

All Stories by Nathan Seppa

  1. Health & Medicine

    Nice Shot: Hepatitis E vaccine passes critical test

    An experimental vaccine for hepatitis E has proved nearly 96 percent protective in a test in Nepalese soldiers.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Virus Stopper: Herpes drug dampens HIV infection

    An antiviral drug commonly taken for genital herpes seems to suppress HIV in people harboring both pathogens.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Inside job dissolves blood clot pronto

    An experimental procedure that delivers a clot-busting drug directly to the brain can bring on a remarkable turnaround in some stroke patients.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Aspirin resistance carries real risks

    Some people are resistant to the blood-thinning effects of aspirin, making them more vulnerable to stroke or heart problems.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Aneurysm risk may get passed down

    A heightened risk of having a brain aneurysm seems to be passed down in some families, and the life-threatening rupture of an aneurysm appears to strike earlier in a succeeding generation.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Brains carry odd load after strokes

    People who die from a stroke have accumulations of a protein called amyloid beta in the thalamus, a part of the brain involved in motor control and sensory processing.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Clear the Way: Stenting opens jammed arteries in the brain

    Using a tiny mesh cylinder called a stent, doctors can prop open narrowed arteries in the brain much as they do in the heart.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Fatal Flaw? Antibleeding drug faces new safety questions

    The drug commonly used to slow bleeding during heart surgery increases a patient's risk of dying during the next 5 years.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Early Fix: Prion disease remedied in mice

    Diseases caused by misfolded proteins called prions can be reversed if caught early enough, experiments in mice suggest.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Old cure may offer new malaria option

    An herbal-tea remedy for malaria contains a component that may form the basis of a novel drug against the disease.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Trade-offs in fibroids treatments

    A minimally invasive procedure to cure uterine fibroids is less expensive, but also appears to be less effective, than surgery.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Good Poison? Carbon monoxide may stifle multiple sclerosis

    A study in mice suggests that small amounts of carbon monoxide might alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis.