Nathan Seppa

Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)

All Stories by Nathan Seppa

  1. Health & Medicine

    Cancer Link: Gene regulates progesterone effect on breast cells

    The BRCA1 protein regulates the effect of pro-growth progesterone, which could explain why having a mutated BRCA1 gene predisposes a woman to breast cancer.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Kidney Progress: Drug slows cyst growth

    The trial drug roscovitine has been shown to reverse polycystic kidney disease in mice.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Bug be gone

    An experimental device that combines a special comb with a forceful air blower kills head lice and their nits.

  4. Health & Medicine

    More Evidence of Protection: Circumcision reduces STD risk in men

    Circumcised men are less likely to get sexually transmitted diseases than uncircumcised men are.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Malaria Reversal: Drug regains potency in African nation

    An inexpensive drug that had lost much of its punch against malaria over the past 20 years is showing signs of regaining its strength in the African nation of Malawi.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Lung Scan: CT may catch some treatable cancers

    Computed tomography (CT) scans seem to catch lung cancer early in smokers, but questions remain about the screening procedure.

  7. Gene might underlie travelers’ diarrhea

    Travelers to Mexico who get diarrhea are more likely than healthy travelers to have a particular variant form of the gene for the glycoprotein lactoferrin.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Protecting against a difficult microbe

    By using DNA from the bacterium Clostridium difficile, scientists have fashioned a vaccine against the microbe.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Flu vaccine seems to work for kids under 6 months of age

    Babies younger than 6 months appear fully capable of responding to a flu shot.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Dengue strikes United States

    Texas has been hit with the first-ever outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the continental United States.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Prep Work: Bird-flu vaccine might work better with primer

    Giving people a vaccine against an existing form of avian influenza might help them respond better when given a shot for a future strain of the virus during a pandemic.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Antiviral drug may limit herpes spread

    In people with genital herpes, the drug famciclovir sharply reduces virus shedding from the genitalia.