Every day on my Metro North commuter train to Grand Central, a group of friends (strangers to me) travel together. They always sit in the same "five-seater," talking and laughing among themselves. I couldn't tell you what they talk about most mornings, although certainly when one of them had twins,...

Many people have seen the announcement this week that Sergey Brin is subsidizing 23andMe's development of a Parkinson's disease community. Our Foundation, along with The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center, is assisting in this effort by distributing information about the community to our constituents who have Parkinson's disease....

On Monday I had the honor of being in the East Room when President Obama signed the executive order reversing former President Bush's stem cell research restrictions. What an experience to witness history! The mood in the room was buoyant. Scientists and advocates watched with huge smiles and even...

Mr. President, what's taking so long on the stem cell executive order?

OK. That's not really fair. It's pretty clear that you're consumed by some very important things during your first few weeks in office. Between mortgages, financial services and auto industry bailouts, and completing your Cabinet team, the critical...

"It's really hard to turn a research dollar into a profit dollar."
--Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, commenting for a January 14, 2009, article in the New York Times on Pfizer's recent decision to fire 800 research jobs this...

Even in the midst of one of the most significant economic shifts this country has seen since the Great Depression, Sergey Brin's disclosure last week that he carries a genetic mutation increasing his risk for Parkinson's disease managed to put the genetics-driven revolution in health care back into the...

Last week I spoke on a couple of panels at the BIO Global Convention in San Diego. At one point I found myself seated next to Joshua Boger, the CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which recently announced the development of a new drug for cystic fibrosis. He told the...

This election campaign, there has been a lot of talk of change, and one area that has received its fair share of attention is health care reform. Unfortunately in my point of view, much of the reform rhetoric continues to be about how and whether we pay for health care...