TS Picks: October 13, 2016

Forgotten bacterium; talc and cancer risk; innocuous mutations

| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

Selections from The Scientist’s reading list:

  • Can an overlooked bacterium (Rickettsia helvetica) cause Lyme disease-like condition? STAT News spoke with infectious disease experts who reviewed papers from late Wilhelm “Willy” Burgdorfer, discoverer of Lyme disease–causing Borrelia burgdorferi. “While the evidence is hardly conclusive, patients and doctors might be mistaking under-the-radar Swiss Agent [R. helvetica] infections for Lyme,” the infectious disease specialists said. “Or the bacteria could be co-infecting some Lyme patients, exacerbating symptoms and complicating their treatment—and even stoking a bitter debate about whether Lyme often becomes a persistent and serious illness.”
  • “Most research finds no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene,” the Associated Press (AP) reported last month (September 26). But that hasn’t stopped juries from siding with those who have sued Johnson & Johnson. “It is very hard to establish causal relationships,” Nicolas Wentzensen of the US National Cancer Institute told the AP. “A lot of ovarian cancers occur in women who have never used talc, and many women have used talc and not gotten ovarian cancer.”

See “Can Talc Cause Cancer?

  • “Many disease-association studies, particularly in recent years, have identified mutations as pathogenic simply because scientists performing analyses on a group of people with a disorder found mutations that looked like the culprit, but didn’t see them in healthy people. But it’s possible that they weren’t looking hard enough, or in the right populations.” —Nature News on ongoing work from the Exome Aggregation Consortium

See “Largest Human Genetic Variation Repository Yet

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Tracy Vence

    This person does not yet have a bio.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio