John Travis

Managing News Editor for @NewsfromScience, former biology reporter @Science and @ScienceNews, Dee-troit loyal

[John Travis @johnstravis]

Here's my story on how Anthropic's Claude AI helped its small biology team tease out a few new clues to vaults 2/2 https://t.co/Ds1RwMKW4H

[John Travis @johnstravis]

"You must be psychic" That was the reply Lenny Rome, aka the Vault Guy, sent when asked him a few weeks ago if he has sought help from AI companies to solve the elusive function of the odd cellular structures he discovered decades ago. Rome hadn't, but Anthropic called him. 1/2

[Paul D. Thacker @thackerpd]

So ridiculous that girls need to spend money on lawyers to end this stupid ideology.

[John Travis @johnstravis]

@antonioregalado Yea but nytimes article made case his health improved on pig kidney over dialysis so depends on if you accept that was significant

[Charles Piller @cpiller]

“Magic or Realism?” Are recently discovered genetic variants that seem to protect against Alzheimer’s believable? My latest investigation –with Jennie Erin Smith– takes a deep dive to answer. https://t.co/DwtkBV7ais

[John Travis @johnstravis]

@BarredinDC Yea they haven't responded so far and guessing pricier but will see. Thanks

[John Travis @johnstravis]

@BarredinDC Any recs for a 30-40 person nonprofit company retreat happy hour with good food/drink options/view? Loved All-Purpose's Navy Yard roof patio option so could try Solace, El-Rey. Calico/HiLawn on list, but others?

[John Travis @johnstravis]

John Travis
Here's our earlier report. I suspect our story made the STAT writers' head explode given what they were already working on! But kudos to their own probe. https://t.co/qyxIaRPyeu

[John Travis @johnstravis]

Sadly, another tardy disclosure of a gene editing death in a Chinese clinical trial. Would the biotech have come clean without @Jasonmmast and Brain Yang's excellent reporting for @statnews ? Many parallels to our investigation 2 weeks ago 1/ https://t.co/os0Z1SNFfL

[John Travis @johnstravis]

📷
The entry now says: The single participant died on 31 March 2025 from thrombotic microangiopathy, a serious adverse event assessed as definitely related to the study drug. Planned follow-up was not completed, and the study was terminated. 2/ https://t.co/Mzz3v3Z2BA

[John Travis @johnstravis]

16 months after a young girl died in a gene-editing trial, the study's entry in clinicaltrial. gov has finally been updated to acknowledge the death. The move comes after @NewsfromScience and @retractionwatch.com
revealed the fatality 1/ https://t.co/qyxIaRPyeu

[John Travis @johnstravis]

@BarredinDC My wife and I could never understand the Duffy wings love. They were consistently mediocre to bad at hill east location for us. We kept trying different flavors and our disappointment became a running joke. Sad it closed still and wish new version success

[John Travis @johnstravis]

A quick response to our investigation into a hidden gene-editing death https://t.co/Gn6FmTVZqk

[John Travis @johnstravis]

More on today's big exclusive on a gene therapy death in China
https://t.co/WHrlNip1r0

[John Travis @johnstravis]

Here's the story link https://t.co/qyxIaRPyeu

[John Travis @johnstravis]

@NewsfromScience and @RetractionWatch have a feature today on a clinical trial death that the saddest, and longest, science story I've edited. But it's also one of the best IMO. Beautifully written and reported by @bborrell. We’re grateful to the parents of "Mei" 1/

[John Travis @johnstravis]

It also made me wonder how much the biomedical community has actually learned from the gene therapy death of Jesse Gelsinger decades ago and the more recent scandal of He Jianjui’s gene-edited babies. 3/

[John Travis @johnstravis]

UNC announced virologist Ralph Baric is retiring but @sciencecohen has the exclusive backstory--HHS wants to debar him and he's fighting it, calling BS on charges https://t.co/FNDlbsJjU9

[John Travis @johnstravis]

Small biotechs and other firms relying on U.S. research dollars can rejoice after Trump yesterday signed long-stalled SBIR/STTR reauthorization package. A Senate impasse was broken recently. See our @NewsfromScience story on the programs' importance https://t.co/QkpykugWDb