Zantac: You make the call

Zantac and its generic versions have been pulled from the shelves all over the world by governments, manufacturers, and pharmacies, but the FDA says there’s no need to worry — and it still won’t issue a recall.

Higher-than-recommended levels of a possible carcinogen in the pills are no more dangerous than a grilled ribeye, the agency said Monday.

Testing of recalled lots of branded and generic Zantac showed levels of a contaminant known as N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) that were as much as nine times greater than the FDA’s recommended limit – but the agency pooh-poohed the health risk in a release.

Might as well face it, you’re less addicted to oxy

Rats that are addicted to opioids might have a new weapon: exendin-4, a GLP-1 receptor agonist that (according to the hard-working scientists at Penn) reduced the rats’ desire for oxycodone. This, they say, could lead to new medications for us humans.

New beauty-product trend

Refillable containers — to avoid single-use plastic and keep it out of the landfill. For example…

Beauty products retailer The Body Shop […] says it plans to roll out “refill stations” in its stores globally next year, allowing shoppers to buy reusable metal containers to fill with Body Shop shower gels or creams.

Science news: Editing for antivirals

The gene-editing technique CRISPR is technically called “CRISPR/Cas-9” because of the Cas-9 enzyme it used to do it’s thing. But now a new version that uses the Cas-13 enzyme is being studied.

Unlike Cas-9, the Cas-13 version of CRISPR targets viral genes in RNA (not DNA), which makes this new technique* a potential way to attack viruses.

The researchers tested the system using human cells infected with three RNA-based viruses: lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, influenza A virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus. Within 24 hours, the Cas13 enzymes they’d previously injected into the cells cut the viral RNA levels by up to 40-fold.

* CARVER (Cas13-Assisted Restriction of Viral Expression and Readout)

Soon enough you’ll be able to making a friend

This is both creepy and pretty darned amazing: Researchers at RPI have been able to 3-D print skin cells, including blood vessels. What’s different about this kind of artificial skin is that it’s actually integrated into the body — it’s not just a fancy Band-Aid. (And the cool/creepy part: The technique doesn’t print the blood vessels. Instead, “the cells start communicating and forming a biologically relevant vascular structure within the span of a few weeks.”)

The Long Read: Dementia edition

“Why Didn’t She Get Alzheimer’s? The Answer Could Hold a Key to Fighting the Disease”

Researchers have found a woman with a rare genetic mutation that has protected her from dementia even though her brain has developed major neurological features of the disease.