Senior health care editor at @axios. abettel.bsky.social Signal: oradea.10
Washington, D.C.
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Adriel Bettelheim retweeted
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration uses rare and contested authority to claw back nearly $1B in spending approved by Congress.
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Older Americans at risk for drug interactions axios.com/newsletters/axios-… #axiosfutureofhealthcare
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Adriel Bettelheim retweeted
FDA nominee Heidi Overton says MMR vaccine is "not lethal" and is "safe and effective."
Under questioning from Cassidy
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FTC's warning on hospital mergers axios.com/newsletters/axios-… #axiosfutureofhealthcare
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1 big thing: Biotech has a lot riding on Trump's FDA pick axios.com/newsletters/axios-… #axiosfutureofhealthcare
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1 big thing: Biotech has a lot riding on Trump's FDA pick axios.com/newsletters/axios-… #axiosfutureofhealthcare
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Adriel Bettelheim retweeted
The White House has backed away from a plan to issue an executive order that would subject billions of dollars in federal health and biomedical research spending to heightened political scrutiny. trib.al/IqTJNNa
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A few thoughts on Anthropic’s ART discovery, since it’s close to the work we do:
The biology is intriguing. In phages, an unusual reverse transcriptase sits next to a partner gene and an array of DNA repeats. The team found that the array produces distinct short RNAs.
It’s tempting to compare this with CRISPR or retrons, but we don’t yet know what ART does. Whether the RNAs guide anything, or whether the system is programmable, remains an open question.
I’m just as interested in how they found it. About 950 Claude agent sessions ran over 21 hours, surveyed ~200,000 reverse transcriptases, and produced 19 reports. One agent looked at the DNA next to an RT and spotted a repeat array outside the features the search had set out to examine.
It followed that observation, compared it with known systems, checked the literature, and gave the scientists something concrete to investigate.
To me, that’s the opportunity: scaling scientific attention. We have more biological data than any team can inspect closely. Agents can help us notice the odd cases and show their work.
There’s still reason to be careful. Repeat-rich regions in assembled phage genomes can be tricky, so I’d want to see raw read support across the arrays and their boundaries in independent isolates. And the most important experiment is still ahead: what does ART actually do?
I think discovery will become a tighter loop. Agents propose hypotheses, predictive models help choose experiments, and automated labs generate results that inform the next round.
We’re working toward that at @Xaira_Thera, bringing agentic workflows together with models such as X-Cell and wet lab experiments. I’m excited by how much more biology we may be able to explore when each experiment helps us decide what to test next.
Claude has discovered a previously unknown enzyme system hidden in the DNA of bacteriophages. Beside the enzyme’s gene sits a long array of repeating DNA—a structure that looks somewhat similar to CRISPR.
We don’t yet understand what this system does, but only a handful of known systems share its features, and all of them are able to cut, copy, and paste DNA. Historically, the discovery of such programmable systems has helped revolutionize medicine. CRISPR, for instance, is now the foundation of genetic medicines. But it will take much more work to learn what this system does, and whether it can be put to similar use.
Read more: anthropic.com/news/claude-di…
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McDonald's is exploring ways to attract GLP-1 users axios.com/2026/09/23/mcdonal…
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HHS moved money from a minority health office to help pay security costs for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to people familiar with the matter and a document reviewed by the WSJ wsj.com/politics/policy/rfk-… via @WSJ
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Adriel Bettelheim retweeted
New story:
In 2024, sitting inside the U.S. attorney's office in Honolulu, the former CEO of a defense contractor made a stunning confession to two FBI agents.
He alleged that was the ringleader of a massive pay-to-play operation, bribing senators with campaign contributions in exchange for government contracts.
He said his most important patron was Maine Senator Susan Collins.
propublica.org/article/fbi-s…
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Midterms' new populism: Candidates vow to take on health industries axios.com/2026/09/22/health-…
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Adriel Bettelheim retweeted
Great work by @Public_Citizen to get the Pfizer MFN contract, seemingly promising the govt a share of revenue from raised prices abroad:
citizen.org/wp-content/uploa…
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Anthropic begins physical biology experiments axios.com/newsletters/axios-… #axiosfutureofhealthcare
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Trump administration wades into mental health parity with new guidance axios.com/2026/09/21/mental-…
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Adriel Bettelheim retweeted
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received more than $250,000 worth of free flights to Fiji and Greece as well as use of a vacation home in Washington, D.C. wsj.com/politics/rfk-jr-got-… via @WSJ @neilmhta
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Trump announces cheaper drugs for state Medicaid programs axios.com/2026/09/18/trump-d…
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Exclusive: HHS launches PPE demand forecast axios.com/newsletters/axios-… #axiosfutureofhealthcare
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