The Readout Loud

Rick Berke, STAT’s executive editor and veteran health journalist, remembers pioneering infectious disease reporter Helen Branswell. He recounts hiring her, her prescient early COVID warnings, fearless questioning of officials, and evidence-first reporting. Colleagues, family, and public health leaders reflect on her mentorship, credibility, humility, and lasting legacy.

Sarah Todd, a STAT reporter covering health care and medicine, explores longevity medicine’s multitrillion-dollar boom. She visits Northwestern’s clinic and examines hospitals’ push into cash-pay aging care, pricey testing batteries, biological-age scores, whole-body scans, and personalized lifestyle guidance. The conversation also tackles uncertain evidence, patient risks, and how luxury longevity services could deepen health inequality.

Heather Pierce, Association of American Medical Colleges science policy leader, and Anil Oza, STAT’s NIH reporter, unpack turmoil surrounding U.S. biomedical research funding. They discuss political influence, grant delays, career disruptions, and the future of the scientific workforce. The conversation also explores Caribou Biosciences’ closure, optogenetics’ Nobel recognition, gloomy biotech markets, and Boston’s essential movies.

Nicholas Florko, an investigative health journalist at STAT, examines America’s unraveling trust in science. He explores vaccine skepticism, measles, political influence, medical misinformation, and why fact-checking alone falls short. The discussion also covers UniQure’s wavering Huntington’s gene-therapy results, Beam Therapeutics’ trade-secret lawsuit, and pharma’s shift toward lifestyle-focused GLP-1 marketing.

Jason Mast, STAT’s biotech and pharma reporter, joins from Shanghai to explore China’s rise as a drug-development powerhouse, shifting dealmaking, and troubling clinical-trial oversight. Margaret Manto, STAT’s FDA reporter, examines Heidi Overton’s nomination, the agency’s upheaval, and possible policy battles. Plus, osteoporosis returns to biotech’s agenda and Telix’s $1.65 billion ITM acquisition challenges Novartis.

Fanta Av, NAFSA’s international education leader, and Jonathan Wosen, a STAT reporter covering biomedical research, discuss a court reprieve for international researchers and the visa uncertainty driving scientists abroad. They explore the stakes for U.S. medical research, Definium’s promising Phase 3 LSD trial for anxiety, Scholar Rock’s muscle-loss treatment, and pharma’s increasingly consumer-focused marketing.

Ethan Weiss, a UCSF cardiologist and biotech entrepreneur, examines why two billion-dollar heart drug programs failed. He discusses Lp(a), residual cardiovascular risk, genetic validation, and the future of clinical trials. The conversation also covers FDA approvals, safety transparency, and renewed excitement around personalized cancer vaccines from Merck and Moderna.

A deep dive into a controversial FDA review of a Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment and why changing trial plans raised eyebrows. Discussion of repeated FDA rejections for a melanoma immunotherapy and broader questions about approval consistency. A sensational tale about a fugitive who assumed a biotech executive identity. Coverage of industry shakeups, leadership moves, and staffing changes.

Matt Wilsey, founder of Grace Science and father fighting to develop a gene therapy for his daughter with NGLY1 deficiency. Matthew Herper, senior biotech reporter at STAT who covered the story. They discuss building a therapy for an ultra-rare disease, tough dosing and safety tradeoffs, regulatory hurdles for individualized treatments, and questions around telehealth GLP-1 prescribing practices.

Jonathan Kimmelman, a McGill bioethicist who studies clinical trial prediction, discusses Kalshi’s move to let people bet on trial outcomes and the ethical risks that could bias research. He also weighs in on the controversy around Biogen’s tau‑lowering Alzheimer’s drug and whether its mixed phase 2 data justify larger trials.