Happy New Year. Here Are the Most-Viewed Stories for 2021

(Nik MacMillan, Unsplash)

31 Dec. 2021. As we wind up the year, let me thank the 53,600+ individuals visiting Science & Enterprise this year, viewing more than 77,300 pages on the site. More than 10,000 of those views were on site’s home page, but the remaining 87 percent of the page views went to specific stories.

Here are the five most viewed editorial stories this year, counting down to number one …

5. CBD Shown Effective Against Staph, Strep Bacteria

24 June 2019. Tests of synthetic cannabidiol, or CBD, show the compound is as effective as current antibiotics against a class of microbes that includes Staphyloccocus and Streptococcus bacteria. Researchers from Queensland University in Brisbane and the company Botanix Pharmaceuticals in Perth, Australia described their results yesterday at the annual meeting of American Society for Microbiology in San Francisco.

4. 20 Precision Meds Approved by FDA in 2020

12 Feb. 2021. A report by a group advocating for precision medicine notes that the Food and Drug Administration approved 20 new personalized drugs and biologics in 2020. The report by the Personalized Medicine Coalition in Washington, D.C. says precision medicines account for a quarter or more of all new drugs approved by FDA each year in the past six years.

3. Biotech Licenses mRNA Technology for Aging

13 Jan. 2021. A biotechnology enterprise is licensing research from Stanford University on messenger RNA to produce proteins that rejuvenate cells damaged by aging. Turn Biotechnologies in Mountain View, California is acquiring the rights to discoveries by the company’s founders that the company says can be developed into treatments for a number of aging-related conditions.

2. Start-Up to Use Stem Cells for Hearing Loss

20 May 2019. A new enterprise in the U.K. is creating treatments with stem cells to repair damaged nerve cells in the inner ear that causes hearing loss. Rinri Therapeutics in Sheffield, England is a spin-off business from University of Sheffield, also raising £1.4 million ($US 1.8 million) in seed funds from venture investors.

1. Trial Shows RNA Therapy Safe for Diabetes

20 Feb. 2019. Results from a clinical trial show a new drug with synthetic messenger RNA is safe for people with diabetes, and has the potential to promote new blood vessel growth. Results of the trial testing a messenger RNA treatment made by biotechnology company Moderna Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts and drug maker AstraZeneca in London, appear in today’s issue of the journal Nature Communications.

While 30 percent of Science & Enterprise’s 406 stories this year are about Covid-19, none of the five most-viewed stories are on that subject. And three of the five most-viewed stories were posted in 2019, showing an interest in developments beyond the immediate day’s concerns.

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