Nathan Seppa

Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)

All Stories by Nathan Seppa

  1. Health & Medicine

    Determined at Birth? Kidney makeup may set hypertension risk

    People lacking a full complement of blood-filtering nephrons in their kidneys at birth are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Researchers target sickle-cell cure

    Using stem cell transplants and a compound called antithymocyte globulin, researchers in Paris have cured 59 of 69 children of sickle-cell disease.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Double cord-blood transplant helps cancer patients

    Two umbilical-cord-blood transplants may work better than one for cancer patients.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Clear Skin: Injections counteract psoriasis in patients

    Injections of an immune system protein called interleukin-4 can alleviate skin problems in people with psoriasis.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Getting the iron out

    A new oral drug called ICL670 works as well as an injectable treatment in relieving iron overload in the blood.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Protein vaccine slows leukemia

    A cancer vaccine fashioned from a piece of a compound called proteinase-3 shows promise against leukemia.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Herpes vaccine progresses

    A new vaccine for genital herpes protects some women but not men.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Herpes vaccine progresses

    A new vaccine for genital herpes protects some women but not men.

  9. Health & Medicine

    First-Line Treatment: Chronic-leukemia drug clears a big hurdle

    In its first large-scale test on newly diagnosed leukemia patients, the drug imatinib—also called Gleevec and STI-571—stopped or reversed the disease in nearly all patients receiving it.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Visionary science for the intestine

    A tiny disposable flash camera that a person swallows can detect problems in the small intestine.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Bone scan reveals estrogen effects

    Using a scanning technology called microcomputerized tomography, scientists have a new way to look at the difference between bone exposed to estrogen and bone deprived of it.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Imaging Parkinson’s

    A new brain-imaging technique can supply proof of Parkinson's disease in people whose symptoms fall short of the standard definition of the disease.