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SAVANNAH, Ga. — For Nikolas Indigo, the road to freedom was lined with warnings against a life of sin. Neither the road nor the message was a metaphor. Along nearly 250 miles of highway from Savannah to Atlanta, billboards preached: “turn from sin,” “Jesus is the way,” “repent.” It’s a common pilgrimage for transgender people, […]

Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54. Allison DeAngelis is the East […]

WASHINGTON — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a delicate task ahead of him as he heads to Capitol Hill to testify about the fiscal 2027 budget request: Stick to the White House’s script on Make America Healthy Again “wins” while avoiding politically divisive topics like vaccines.  How he navigates lawmakers’ questions over at […]

For most of my life, my family has been advocating for therapies to help my twin brother. While the recent approval of a new drug should give us reason to celebrate, there is still more work to do. My twin brother is 28 years old and has severe Hunter syndrome, also known as mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) […]

First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and provocative articles about the life sciences writ large, written by biotech insiders, health care workers, researchers, and others. To encourage robust, good-faith discussion about issues raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to them. You can submit a […]

The past few weeks have been nothing but discouraging for those of us who helped create the Make America Healthy Again movement, including a silly executive order on glyphosate that feels anathema to what we have fought for. I’d be lying if I said that my heart hasn’t been bent toward repentance for my part […]

Ahead of Monday’s NCAA men’s basketball final, much of the news coverage focused on two overlapping dynamics: what bets to make, and how the rise of sports betting is causing damage. According to Isaac Rose-Berman, a fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men, the skyrocketing popularity of sports betting is a burgeoning public […]

From a scan of its job openings, it would be easy to mistake UnitedHealth Group for Silicon Valley’s latest artificial intelligence juggernaut. Hundreds of postings seek applicants with expertise in data science and artificial intelligence, part of a sweeping campaign to embed AI in the company’s core business operations. Already, UnitedHealth employs 22,000 software engineers […]

Megan Molteni reports on discoveries from the frontiers of genomic medicine, neuroscience, and reproductive tech. She joined STAT in 2021 after covering health and science at WIRED. You can reach Megan on Signal at mmolteni.13. The White House is asking Congress to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health and to downsize the […]

My patient Claire and I were at odds. She was 44 years old and came to my clinic for a second opinion. The diagnosis was stage 3 rectal cancer. It started with blood in her stool and quickly turned to weight loss and abdominal pain. I agreed with her previous doctors’ recommendations of surgery, radiation, […]