Genetics
In this image provided by AquaBounty Technologies Inc., company CEO Sylvia Wulf, poses for a photo with processing associates Skyler Miller, back left, and Jacob Clawson with genetically modified salmon from the company's indoor aquaculture farm, Wednesday, May 26, 2021, in Albany, Ind. These are the first such altered animal to be cleared for human consumption in the United States. (AquaBounty Technologies vis AP)
Genetically modified salmon head to US dinner plates

By Casey Smith May. 27, 2021 04:35 PM EDT

This January 2020 photo provided by the family shows Josselyn Kish of Las Vegas. As a baby, Josselyn suffered rashes, painful shingles and frequent diarrhea, said her mother, Kim Carter. “Day care was calling me a couple times a week to come get her because she was always getting fevers.” After the gene therapy, “she was better right away,” Carter said. Now, “she rarely, rarely gets sick at all” and has been able to recover whenever she has. (Family photo via AP)
AIDS virus used in gene therapy to fix 'bubble baby' disease

By Marilynn Marchione May. 11, 2021 06:00 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 25, 2021, file photo, diners eat in isolated dining rooms outside the Townhouse restaurant, in Birmingham, Mich. Nearly half of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states, including Michigan — a situation that puts pressure on the federal government to consider changing how it distributes vaccines by sending more doses to hot spots. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
US setting up $1.7B national network to track virus variants

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar And Zeke Miller Apr. 16, 2021 10:30 AM EDT

A lab assistant points at a picture of a cluster of Covid-19 RNA molecules on a computer screen at the Wellcome Sanger Institute that is operated by Genome Research in Cambridge, Thursday, March 4, 2021. Cambridge University microbiologist Sharon Peacock understood that genomic sequencing would be crucial in tracking the coronavirus, controlling outbreaks and developing vaccines, so she began working with colleagues around the country to put together a plan when there were just 84 confirmed cases in the country. The initiative helped make Britain a world leader in rapidly analyzing the genetic material from large numbers of COVID-19 infections, generating more than 40% of the genomic sequences identified to date.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
UK variant hunters lead global race to stay ahead of COVID

By Danica Kirka Mar. 28, 2021 02:25 AM EDT

A woman reacts as a health worker waits to take her nasal swab sample to test for COVID-19 at a bus terminal in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, March 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
New virus variant detected in India; experts urge caution

By Aniruddha Ghosal Mar. 24, 2021 11:43 AM EDT

This cover image released by Simon & Schuster shows "The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race," by Walter Isaacson. (Simon & Schuster via AP)
Review: Take a ride into the greatest frontier in science

By Jeff Rowe Mar. 10, 2021 08:41 AM EST

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, holds a "Green Pass," for citizens vaccinated against COVID-19, as he visits a fitness gym with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, right, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, to observe how the pass is used, in Modi'in, Israel, Thursday, March 4, 2021. Frederiksen and Kurz are on a short visit to Israel for to pursue the possibilities for closer cooperation on COVID-19 and vaccines. (Avigail Uzi/Pool via AP)
Israel, Denmark and Austria join forces against COVID-19

By Laurie Kellman Mar. 04, 2021 01:26 PM EST

Journalists and security personnel gather near the entrance of the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a visit by the World Health Organization team in Wuhan in China's Hubei province on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
WHO team visits Wuhan virus lab at center of speculation

By Emily Wang Fujiyama Feb. 02, 2021 08:59 PM EST

Security personnel move a barrier to clear the way for the World Health Organization team as they depart from the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital after a field visit in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. The World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited another Wuhan hospital that had treated early COVID-19 patients on their second full day of work on Saturday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
WHO team visits 2nd Wuhan hospital in virus investigation

By Emily Wang Fujiyama And Zen Soo Jan. 29, 2021 10:27 PM EST

Marion Koopmans of the World Health Organization team of researchers looks out from a car during a field trip in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. The World Health Organization team of researchers emerged from their hotel Thursday for the first time since their arrival in the central Chinese city of Wuhan to start searching for clues into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
WHO team visits Wuhan hospital that had early virus patients

By Emily Wang Fujiyama Jan. 28, 2021 10:25 PM EST

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, file photo, a Walgreens pharmacist prepares a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for residents and staff at the The Palace assisted living facility in Coral Gables, Fla. Scientists are reporting troubling signs that some recent mutations of the virus that causes COVID-19 may modestly curb the effectiveness of current vaccines but stress that the shots still remain protective. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
Some COVID-19 mutations may dampen vaccine effectiveness

By Marilynn Marchione Jan. 20, 2021 05:56 PM EST

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo a pharmacist draws saline while preparing a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in Sacramento, Calif. Mutations to the virus are rapidly popping up and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the more likely it is that a variant that can elude current tests, treatments and vaccines could emerge. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, Pool, File)
A new COVID-19 challenge: Mutations rise along with cases

By Marilynn Marchione Jan. 19, 2021 01:01 AM EST

Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team arrive at the airport in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. A global team of researchers arrived Thursday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
WHO team arrives in Wuhan to investigate pandemic origins

By Sam Mcneil And Huizhong Wu Jan. 13, 2021 10:54 PM EST

FILE - In this Dec. 22, 2020, file photo Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to receive his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool, File)
Fauci: US taking hard look at variant of coronavirus

Dec. 27, 2020 03:29 PM EST

A man walks past a closed shop on Regent Street in central in London, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. Millions of people in England have learned they must cancel their Christmas get-togethers and holiday shopping trips. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that holiday gatherings can’t go ahead and non-essential shops must close in London and much of southern England. Johnson imposed a new, higher level of coronavirus restrictions to curb sharply spreading infections in the capital and other areas. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
EXPLAINER: Are new coronavirus strains cause for concern?

By Marilynn Marchione Dec. 20, 2020 04:06 PM EST

FILE - In this Friday Nov. 6, 2020 file photo, Henrik Nordgaard Hansen and Ann-Mona Kulsoe Larsen kill their herd, which consists of 3000 mother minks and their cubs, on their farm near Naestved, Denmark. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has on Thursday, Nov. 12 issued new guidance to curb the spread of the coronavirus between minks and humans, warning that the transmission of COVID-19 among animals could speed up the number of mutations in the virus before it potentially jumps back into people. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, file)
EU agency: Coronavirus spread in minks could speed mutations

By Maria Cheng Nov. 12, 2020 11:34 AM EST

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 9, 2020 file photo, minks in a farm in Gjoel in North Jutland, Denmark. Denmark’s prime minister says the government wants to cull all minks in Danish farms, to minimize the risk of them re-transmitting the new coronavirus to humans. She said Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, a report from a government agency that maps the coronavirus in Denmark has shown a mutation in the virus found in 12 people in the northern part of the country who got infected by minks. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
North Denmark in lockdown over mutated virus in mink farms

By Jan M. Olsen Nov. 06, 2020 04:58 AM EST

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 9, 2020 file photo, minks in a farm in Gjoel in North Jutland, Denmark. Denmark’s prime minister says the government wants to cull all minks in Danish farms, to minimize the risk of them re-transmitting the new coronavirus to humans. She said Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, a report from a government agency that maps the coronavirus in Denmark has shown a mutation in the virus found in 12 people in the northern part of the country who got infected by minks. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
Denmark wants to cull 15 million minks over COVID fears

Nov. 04, 2020 11:17 AM EST

Study: Neanderthal genes may be liability for COVID patients

By Frank Jordans Sep. 30, 2020 08:20 AM EDT
BERLIN (AP) — Scientists say genes that some people have inherited from their Neanderthal ancestors may increase their likelihood of suffering severe forms of...

Houston sampling wastewater to track spread of COVID-19

By Juan A. Lozano Sep. 24, 2020 05:43 PM EDT
HOUSTON (AP) — Results from a program that’s testing Houston’s wastewater to monitor the local spread of the coronavirus have shown that it could be a faster...