Richard Harris

By making E. coli dependent on an artificial amino acid, scientists hope to show that engineered organisms can be safer and more useful for industrial processes like drug production.

Children who live in cities in the Northeast are much more likely to have asthma. But a wider look finds that poor children in the suburbs are at high risk, too.

Though the United States is still leading the world in research related to diseases, it is rapidly losing its edge, according to an analysis in the American Medical Association's flagship journal JAMA.

If you look at biomedical research around the globe, the United States funded 57 percent of that ...

Ebola vaccine developers are on track to start testing their products in West Africa in about a month, the World Health Organization said at a press conference today.

And it's a race against the clock — testing will become more challenging if the number of new Ebola cases continues to ...

A natural compound kills germs that have become resistant to antibiotics, researchers say. If it works in humans, it could help combat diseases like tuberculosis.

Researchers have developed a powerful method for growing human cells in the laboratory that has led to some unusual findings. Cell tests suggest a malaria drug might work against cervical cancer.

Scientists are growing mock organs made of human cells to better study diseases and help test drugs. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are working on a gut-on-a-chip.

Ants that live in a rocky maze-like setting prefer to turn left when they enter a space. Ants aren't as symmetrical as they appear. Their left eye may be better than the right for detecting predators.

Two potential Ebola vaccines are currently being tested in people, to see if they're safe and to figure out the best dose.

Both trials have encountered some of the typical travails of vaccine research.

One vaccine, which uses a modified chimpanzee virus, was associated with some mild fevers at ...

Scientists have published thousands of studies using immortal cell lines, but in many cases the cells in the experiments have been misidentified or contaminated. The problem could be avoided easily.

A line of immortal cells, supposedly from a breast cancer patient, turned out to be from a type of skin cancer. The mix-up wasn't discovered until experiments around the world had been contaminated.

Shoppers flocked to the malls on Thanksgiving, but the rush didn't impede Black Friday sales. Protesters are also trying to put a mark on this day, but their actions haven't taken a bite out of sales.

Vultures consume toxic bacteria that would sicken or kill humans. Stouter immune systems, colonies of helpful microbes and potent stomach acid may help the carrion eaters gorge with abandon.

It's now Goliath versus Goliath in the quest for an Ebola vaccine.

Until now, the two leading candidates for a vaccine to protect against the Ebola virus were being led by global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline on the one hand, and a tiny company in Ames, Iowa, that was virtually unknown, ...

Researchers gear up tests in West Africa to see whether blood from Ebola survivors can help people who are sick with the disease. This is part of a broader effort to test therapies in West Africa.

Grocery stores and restaurants serve more than 400 million pounds of food each year, but nearly a third of it is never eaten. Demand for pre-cooked meals and pristine produce creates much waste.

Health officials in Switzerland say they're planning to test some experimental Ebola therapies in West Africa next month. The tests will take place at Ebola clinics set up by Doctors Without Borders.

Can you run a clinical trial without a placebo group? That's one of the questions facing researchers in West Africa.

A highly sensitive blood test for Ebola exists, so why isn't it being used to test all returning health workers from West Africa? Because the virus isn't in the blood in the first stages of infection.

A physician who had returned to New York from Guinea, where he treated Ebola patients, has tested positive for the virus. David Greene speaks with NPR's Richard Harris about the case.