Nobel Prize in Medicine, memory of Sammy Basso

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Why do bad menstrual problems happen to good people? A study that answers this question would win the Gaffney Prize (from me). Until that happens, we have the Nobel Prizes. STAT's Drew Joseph reports on the first announcement of the week, in physiology or medicine, below.

Medical Nobel goes to the discovery of microRNA

A pair of scientists who discovered a type of RNA molecule that helps control the activity of genes and allows our cells to carry out all of their myriad functions in various tissues throughout the body won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology gained.

The prize went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their research on microRNA, which the Nobel Committee described as a “groundbreaking discovery (which revealed an entirely new principle of gene regulation that proved essential for multicellular organisms, including humans).”

Ambros conducted his award-winning research at Harvard University and is now at UMass Chan Medical School. Ruvkun worked at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he remains a professor of genetics.

The couple will share the prize of 11 million Swedish kroner, or just over $1 million. They join the ranks of Nobel Prize winners for medicine or physiology, which before this year numbered 227 people, including 13 women.

More here from Drew.

201.5

That's the average number of prescriptions for the two-drug abortion pill regimen that an online pharmacy filled daily in March 2023, nearly a year after the Roe v. Wade defeat, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. In March 2022, before the decision was leaked, the same pharmacy filled an average of 88.5 prescriptions per day.

Follow STAT's coverage of abortion and health technology.

Progeria advocate Sammy Basso has died

At 28, Sammy Basso was the oldest known survivor of progeria, an extremely rare disease. His life was completely different than other people's, but he lived it with the belief that he could connect with anyone, STAT's Eric Boodman wrote in an obituary. Basso died on Saturday from suspected cardiovascular complications of progeria.

He knew the disease made him look unusual – bald, eyebrowless, prematurely aged, a bit like ET – and he loved to joke about it. He did it outside a friend's house on Halloween and was delighted by the children's reactions as he handed out candy. He did it outside Area 51, the military base in Nevada that is synonymous with UFOs and extraterrestrial life. “He put on a pair of crazy sunglasses that looked like alien glasses and sat on a park bench, leading numerous tourists to believe they had discovered the real thing,” recalls Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health. Read more about Basso's remarkable life.

New data on substance use and adolescents in hospitals

Evidence on how substance use among youth may have changed during the pandemic is generally mixed. But a study of 10- to 18-year-olds in 47 pediatric emergency rooms published Friday in JAMA Network Open found that drug- and alcohol-related visits increased during the pandemic and young people with chronic illnesses were particularly at risk. Teens with chronic health conditions were nine times more likely to visit the emergency room for substance use during the pandemic than teens without chronic health conditions. Those with complex chronic illnesses had four times as many visits.

Another study, also published Friday in JAMA Network Open, examined differences in alcohol and drug screenings of injured adolescents at 121 pediatric trauma centers. Rates of both were disproportionately higher among black, Hispanic, Native American teens, girls and those with Medicaid or no health insurance. It may be a problem of physician bias, the authors write. However, screening certain populations less is not the solution – substance use is one of the leading causes of death among young people.

The authors of both studies emphasized the need for more standardized, universal screening protocols.

What a revolution in mental health funding might look like

In five years, the mental health treatment landscape will look radically different. So says Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at the charity Wellcome. Finding funding for innovation in mental health care can be difficult. But innovative funding mechanisms like philanthropic public-private partnerships could be the answer, Wolpert argues in a First Opinion essay.

In South Africa, a partnership is helping ensure psychological assessments for new mothers. In California, a commission has imposed a 1% income tax on wealthy residents to pay for mental health services. Read more from Wolpert about what change could look like.

What we read

• Here's why obesity has been increasing so quickly around the world and where that's starting to change: STAT

• A young doctor's final words are a warning to others about mental health, Washington Post

• Trump rejects proposal to lower prescription drug prices by pegging them to foreign countries, STAT
• Catholic hospital offered bucket and towels to woman who refused abortion, California AG says, The 19th
• Rwanda receives experimental vaccines and therapeutics to combat Marburg outbreak, STAT
• The activists fighting to abolish IVF and NPR