FILE - This undated, colorized electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, indicated in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, indicated in blue/pink, cultured in a laboratory. The National Institutes of Health is opening a handful of studies to start testing possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition. The announcement, Monday, July 31, 2023 comes amid frustration from patients who've struggled for months or years with sometimes disabling health problems. (NIAID-RML via AP, File)

LAURAN NEERGAARD

AP Medical Writer

This photo provided by Pfizer in August 2024 shows a packaging for the company's updated COVID vaccine for ages 12 and up, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (Steven Decroos/Pfizer via AP)

FDA approves updated COVID-19 vaccines, shots should be available in days

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are on their way. The Food and Drug Administration approved new shots from Pfizer and Moderna on Thursday, and the companies are set to begin shipping millions of doses.

FILE - A doctor points to PET scan results that are part of a study on Alzheimer's disease at Georgetown University Hospital, on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Blood tests for Alzheimer’s may be coming to your doctor’s office. Here’s what to know

New research suggests certain blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease faster and more accurately.

David Ayares, president and chief scientific officer of Revivicor, holds a package of frozen meat during an interview at the company’s offices in Blacksburg, Va., on May 30, 2024. His company genetically modified pigs, known as GalSafe pigs, so they no longer carry a sugar responsible for alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

Pig transplant research yields a surprise: Bacon safe for some people allergic to red meat

Some people develop a weird allergy to red meat after being bitten by a lone star tick yet find they can still eat pork from a surprising source - certain pigs originally bred for human organ transplants.

A pig stands in a pen at the Revivicor research farm near Blacksburg, Va., on May 29, 2024, where organs are retrieved for animal-to-human transplant experiments. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

Meet some of the world’s cleanest pigs, raised to grow kidneys and hearts for humans

Some of the world’s cleanest pigs are being raised in the Virginia mountains to supply kidneys and hearts for animal-to-human organ transplants.

FILE - President Joe Biden, speaks during a presidential debate hosted by CNN with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. Political opponents, armchair pundits and even nervous supporters are demanding that President Joe Biden undergo cognitive testing after his dismal debate performance – even though his physician says he gets, and passes, an annual neurologic exam. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

What cognitive tests can show -- and what they can’t

Washington politics is drawing attention to cognitive testing, a 10-minute series of questions to assess different brain function.

FILE - Lisa Pisano looks at photos of her dog after her surgeries at NYU Langone Health in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. Pisano, who received a pig kidney transplant -- along with an implanted device to keep her heart beating – has died, her surgeon announced Tuesday, July 9, 2024. She was near death from dual kidney and heart failure when surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed the dramatic pair of surgeries. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum, File)

A woman who received a pig kidney transplant plus a heart pump has died

A woman who received a pig kidney transplant has died. Lisa Pisano received both the kidney and an implanted device to pump her failing heart in April at NYU Langone Health.

In this photo provided by the Mayo Clinic, Marty Kedian poses for a photo in Mayo Clinic’s Head and Neck Regenerative Medicine Laboratory in Scottsdale, Ariz., on June 12, 2024. Kedian regained his voice after surgeons removed his cancerous larynx and, in a pioneering move, immediately replaced it with a donated one. (Mayo Clinic via AP)

A rare voice box transplant helped a cancer patient speak again, part of a pioneering study

A Massachusetts man can speak again after surgeons removed his cancerous voice box and replaced it with a donated one, a pioneering move.

In this undated photo provided by Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Francisco Lopera, left, of the University of Antioquia, a neurologist who has spent decades caring for a large Colombian family plagued by early-in-life Alzheimer’s, confers with fellow researcher Yakeel Quiroz of Massachusetts General Hospital. (Massachusetts General Hospital via AP)

Colombian family’s genes offer new clue to delaying onset of Alzheimer’s

Scientists studying a Colombian family plagued by early-in-life Alzheimer’s have found a rare gene variant that seems to delay initial symptoms by about five years.

Man in Mexico died of a bird flu strain that hadn’t been confirmed before in a human, WHO says

Health authorities say a man in Mexico died from a type of bird flu called H5N2 that has never before been found in a human.

FILE - Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center nurse Maggie Bass, right, gives a COVID-19 vaccine to an unidentified person, Sept. 21, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. COVID-19 vaccines get updated each fall to match newer strains of the virus and government advisers on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, are urging that Americans' next shot target a strain called JN.1. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

FDA advisers urge targeting JN.1 strain in recipe for fall’s COVID vaccines

Government advisers say it’s time to update the recipe for the COVID-19 vaccines Americans will receive in the fall. They recommend targeting a version of the ever-evolving coronavirus called JN.1 But it was a tough choice.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus pandemic at Capitol Hill, Monday, June 3, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Fauci pushes back partisan attacks in fiery House hearing over COVID origins and controversies

Dr. Anthony Fauci was back before Congress, calling Republican allegations that he’d tried to cover up COVID-19’s origins “simply preposterous.”

FILE - Cows stand in the milking parlor of a dairy farm in New Vienna, Iowa, on Monday, July 24, 2023. The bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows is prompting development of new, next-generation mRNA vaccines — akin to COVID-19 shots — that are being tested in both animals and people. In June 2024, the U.S. Agriculture Department is to begin testing a vaccine developed by University of Pennsylvania researchers by giving it to calves. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Scientists are testing mRNA vaccines to protect cows and people against bird flu

The bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows is prompting development of new, next-generation mRNA vaccines — akin to the shots deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shots are being tested in cattle as well as in people. The U.S.

FILE - Lisa Pisano looks at photos of her dog after her surgeries at NYU Langone Health in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. Doctors had to remove a transplanted pig kidney from Pisano and put her back on dialysis just 47 days later – because the heart disease she also suffers damaged the new organ. Pisano was only the second patient ever to receive a kidney from a gene-edited pig, and NYU Langone Health announced Friday, May 31, that she is stable after removal of the kidney. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum, File)

Woman is back on dialysis after doctors remove transplanted pig kidney

Doctors say a woman who received a pig kidney transplant is back on dialysis after surgeons removed the gradually failing organ.

FILE - A section of a human brain with Alzheimer's disease is displayed at the Museum of Neuroanatomy at the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, N.Y., Oct. 7, 2003. A long-feared gene appears to do more than raise people’s risk of Alzheimer’s: Inheriting two copies can cause the mind-robbing disease, according to research published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

A gene long thought to just raise the risk for Alzheimer’s may cause some cases

For the first time, researchers have identified a genetic form of late-in-life Alzheimer’s disease. Most cases of the mind-robbing disease occur after age 65. A gene called APOE4 has long been considered a key risk factor.

Lisa Pisano looks at photos of her dog after her surgeries at NYU Langone Health in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. Doctors transplanted a pig kidney into Pisano, who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also included a fix for her failing heart. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

She was too sick for a traditional transplant. So she received a pig kidney and a heart pump

A New Jersey woman who was near death has received a transplanted pig kidney, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart. Doctors at NYU Langone Health say 54-year-old Lisa Pisano is recovering well.

Jazmin Evans, a student at Temple University, meets with a doctor at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia on Feb. 16, 2024. Evans had been waiting for a new kidney for four years when her hospital revealed shocking news: She should have been put on the transplant list in 2015 instead of 2019 — and a racially biased organ test was to blame. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It’s finally changing

A racially biased test delayed Black patients from getting a kidney transplant and now more than 14,000 are part of a move to make amends.

FILE - The U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba is seen on Jan. 4, 2023. An array of advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among U.S. diplomats and other government employees who suffer mysterious health problems once dubbed “Havana syndrome,” researchers reported Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, File)

New study finds no brain injuries among ‘Havana syndrome’ patients

An array of advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among U.S. diplomats who suffer mysterious health problems once dubbed “Havana syndrome.”

This combination of MRI scan images provided by the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2024 shows the progress of a glioblastoma patient who received CAR-T therapy which uses modified versions of T cells from a patient's own immune system. Studies published by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, signals a new strategy to fight glioblastoma by turning immune cells into “living drugs” that attack the brain cancer. (NEJM via AP)

A new strategy to attack aggressive brain cancer shrank tumors in two early tests

Researchers revved up immune cells that shrank an extremely aggressive type of brain tumor when tested in a handful of patients. The experiments are just first steps but they signal a new strategy to fight hard-to-treat glioblastoma.

FILE - A selection of vintage clocks are displayed at Electric Time Company, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, in Medfield, Mass. Most of America “springs forward” Sunday, March 10, 2024, for daylight saving time and losing that hour of sleep can do more than leave you tired and cranky the next day. It also could affect your health. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

How springing forward to daylight saving time could affect your health -- and how to prepare

Losing an hour of sleep as daylight saving time kicks in can do more than leave you tired and cranky the next day _ it also could harm your health.

FILE - A closeup of a human brain affected by Alzheimer's disease, is displayed at the Museum of Neuroanatomy at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., on Oct. 7, 2003. According to findings published Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Alzheimer’s quietly ravages the brain long before symptoms appear and now scientists are getting a closer look at the domino-like sequence of those changes _ a potential window to one day intervene. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

Silent brain changes precede Alzheimer’s. Researchers have new clues about which come first

A study of older adults in China offers a closer look at the dominolike sequence of brain changes that lead to Alzheimer’s. Scientists don’t know exactly how Alzheimer’s forms but it quietly ravages the brain long before symptoms appear.

President Joe Biden speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Verbal gaffe or sign of trouble? Mixing up names like Biden and Trump have done is pretty common

Any parent who’s ever called one of their children by the other’s name likely could empathize when President Joe Biden mixed up the names of French leaders Macron and Mitterrand.

This image provided by National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows the X and Y chromosomes. Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, illnesses like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks their own tissues. That gender disparity has baffled scientists for decades but new research may finally explain why. (Jonathan Bailey/National Institutes of Health (NIH) via AP)

Lupus and other autoimmune diseases strike far more women than men. Now there’s a clue why

Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, illnesses like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks their own bodies.

This photo provided by the University of Copenhagen in January 2024 shows the process of ancient DNA extraction at the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Center in Copenhagen. According to research published Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in the journal Nature, ancient DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have a higher risk of multiple sclerosis than other ancestries: It’s a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago. (Mikal Schlosser/University of Copenhagen via AP)

Ancient human DNA hints at why multiple sclerosis affects so many northern Europeans today

Northern Europeans are more prone to multiple sclerosis than other ancestries and now a study of ancient DNA hints at why. It seems to be a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago.

This family photo shows Hayden Fell, of Bel Air, Md. At 17-months-old, Hayden had become one of several hundred seemingly healthy U.S. toddlers and preschoolers a year who suddenly die in their sleep and autopsies can’t tell why. But Hayden’s crib cam was recording all night _ and offered a clue. (Family Photo via AP)

Crib videos offer clue to mysterious child deaths, showing seizures sometimes play a role

Crib cameras are offering a clue to a rare but devastating tragedy _ when seemingly healthy young children suddenly die in their sleep and autopsies can’t tell why.

In this photo provided by the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, an Alzheimer’s patient undergoes focused ultrasound treatment with the WVU RNI team in Morgantown, W.Va., on Oct. 17, 2023. Scientists have found a way to help Alzheimer’s drugs seep inside the brain faster _ by temporarily breaching its protective shield. (Victor Finomore/WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute via AP)

Alzheimer’s drugs might get into the brain faster with new ultrasound tool, study shows

Scientists have found a way to help Alzheimer’s drugs seep inside the brain faster — using sound waves to jiggle a temporary opening in its protective shield.

Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, NYU Langone Health's chair of plastic surgery, examines Aaron James in New York on Oct. 23, 2023. In May 2023, surgeons performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant _ although it’s far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye. “It feels good. I still don’t have any movement in it yet. My eyelid, I can’t blink yet. But I’m getting sensation now,” James said in October. (AP Photo/Joseph. B. Frederick)

Man receives the first eye transplant plus a new face. It’s a step toward one day restoring sight

Surgeons in New York have performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant. It’s far too soon to know if it will offer any vision.

FILE - In this photo provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Lawrence Faucette sits with wife, Ann, in the school's hospital in Baltimore, Md., in September 2023, before receiving a pig heart transplant. Lawrence Faucette, the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has died, nearly six weeks after the highly experimental surgery, his doctors announced Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (Mark Teske/University of Maryland School of Medicine via AP, File)

Maryland man who received second pig heart transplant dies, hospital says

Maryland doctors say the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has died. Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when he received the genetically modified pig heart in September.

Meharry Medical College students Emmanuel Kotey, center, and Teresa Belledent, right, watch as the liver and kidneys are removed from an organ donor June 15, 2023, in Jackson, Tenn. They’re part of a novel pilot program to encourage more Black and other minority doctors-to-be to get involved in the transplant field, increasing the trust of patients of color. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Few transplant surgeons are Black. Giving medical students a rare peek at organ donation may help

A novel program in Tennessee aims to interest more Black and other minority medical students in organ transplants, to help ease troubling disparities.

In this image from video provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Lawrence Faucette, a pig heart transplant patient, works with a physical therapist at the school's hospital in Baltimore, Md., on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (Tom Jemski/University of Maryland School of Medicine via AP)

A month after a pig heart transplant, man works to regain strength with no rejection so far

The second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has reached the one-month mark and a hospital video shows he’s working hard to recover.

FILE - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration campus in Silver Spring, Md., is photographed on Oct. 14, 2015. On Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, U.S. regulators authorized another option for fall COVID-19 vaccination - updated shots made by Novavax. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

US adds another option for fall COVID vaccination with updated Novavax shots

U.S. regulators have added another option for fall COVID-19 vaccination, updated shots made by Novavax. Already updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are rolling out. Those are intended for adults and children as young as 6 months.