Good morning, friends. It’s Thursday, February 19th — the Good News Brief. And since we were hard on AI this week, I thought we should remind ourselves that AI is also quietly doing something extraordinary: remaking the future of human medicine. Today’s stories are a mix of awe and genuine hope.
We’re sharing today’s good news brief with all of our followers. Join us every Thursday for more good news with Sarah.
The AI Drug Discovery Revolution
Drug development has historically been a failure-prone process. Here’s the before and after:
Before AI: ~40% success rate in Phase I clinical trials
After AI: 80–90% success rate in those same trials, by predicting molecular behavior digitally before anything gets made in a lab
The pipeline is real, it’s growing, and it’s especially promising for rare diseases that have historically been too expensive or too niche to pursue.
Britain’s Regulatory Innovation for Rare Diseases
The “one drug at a time” logjam in pharmaceutical approval is part of why rare disease treatments cost upward of $3 million. The UK is working to fix that:
The MHRA is overhauling its entire rare disease regulatory framework — approving the process rather than each individual drug
The goal is to cut custom treatment costs from $3M to under $1M
That’s the kind of legislative innovation I’m looking for. Too bad it’s happening across the Atlantic.
Reversing “Incurable” Blood Cancers at Great Ormond Street Hospital
Researchers at GOSH and UCL published world-first results from a gene therapy called BE-CAR7:
Uses “base editing” — a precise version of CRISPR that changes single letters of DNA without cutting it
Targets T-cell leukemia, one of the most aggressive and previously hardest-to-treat blood cancers
82% of patients reached deep remission and proceeded to stem cell transplants
A Blood Test That Spots Cancer Before You Can See It
Researchers at Shenzhen University developed a light-based sensor that detects cancer biomarkers in blood at the level of just a few molecules:
Merges DNA nanotechnology, CRISPR, and quantum dots (yes, quantum dots — I had to look it up too)
Already tested successfully on real lung cancer patient samples
Could eventually power portable, routine blood tests that catch cancer long before a tumor shows up on a scan
Your Brain Is More Powerful Than You Know
We all know the placebo effect. New research in Nature Medicine has mapped the actual biological mechanism behind it — and it’s wild:
Researchers used real-time brain imaging to train participants to activate the brain’s reward center by focusing on positive expectations
People who maintained higher activity in that region produced more antibodies after a vaccine
The body mounted a measurably stronger immune response — not from a pill, from a mindset
Scientists now want to learn how to harness this intentionally, without any placebo at all
The human body, y’all. Incredible.
I know it can feel heavy out there. But biomedically, we are genuinely at a new frontier. And that’s worth celebrating on a Thursday.
Keep it nuanced, y’all.
