Rae Ellen Bichell
Rae Ellen Bichell is a reporter for NPR's Science Desk. She first came to NPR in 2013 as a Kroc fellow and has since reported Web and radio stories on biomedical research, global health, and basic science. She won a 2016 Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award from the Foundation for Biomedical Research. After graduating from Yale University, she spent two years in Helsinki, Finland, as a freelance reporter and Fulbright grantee.
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NewsIn people with hemochromatosis, iron builds up and can overload the heart and other organs. Geneticists looking at 5,000-year-old human remains say the disorder may have had evolutionary advantages.
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NewsThe mites that live on our faces may help reveal where our ancestors came from. It wouldn't be the first time that creepy crawlies have revealed something more than skin deep about the human past. -
NewsEveryone has a set of genes that keeps the body on a 24-hour rhythm. As we get older, though, the main clock can malfunction. Researchers say a backup clock may try to compensate. -
NewsEbola's physical legacy doesn't end when a patient leaves the hospital. A follow-up of the small group of patients treated in the U.S. finds many experienced various symptoms for months. -
NewsClinical trials are too white, with less than 2 percent of cancer studies including enough minority people to provide information that could be useful for health, a study finds. -
Despite striking ethnic disparities in the incidence and mortality of diseases like cancer and respiratory disease, minorities are not well represented in clinical trials. A paper out in the journal PLOS Medicine says two main barriers to achieving diverse clinical trials are the expense of recruiting minority subjects, and fears of exploitation in medical research.
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It typically causes fever and joint pain. A new study looks at a possible link to encephalitis, a brain infection. -
Scientists worldwide face a yearly challenge in deciding what goes into the annual flu vaccine to make it effective. The job requires keeping tabs on a massive group of speedy, shape-shifting viruses.
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An NPR poll finds nearly two-thirds of adults got this year's flu vaccine or plan to get it. Many of those who are skipping vaccination cite a lack of need and worries about side effects.
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NewsMaybe. A nine-year study in Bolivia found an unexpected association between the parasitic worms in a woman's guts and her fertility.
