round and round

Ousted vaccine regulator joins Eli Lilly

Susan Walsh/AP

Peter Marks, the former top vaccine regulator at the FDA, has joined Eli Lilly to oversee molecule discovery and infectious diseases after being forced by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign from the agency in March, STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence reports. “I am excited about the potential to help benefit people by advancing the development of infectious disease products for public health,” Marks told Lizy. Read more. 

Kennedy has railed against what he and others see as a “revolving door” between drug company employees and the FDA. But as some of my colleagues reported this spring, Kennedy’s actions seem to be causing that door to spin ever faster. Scores of FDA employees have been trying to get out of an agency in turmoil, particularly those who are tasked with reviewing drug applications. Revisit that story.

Nobel News

Metal-organic frameworks win chemistry Nobel

Three scientists who, like chemical architects, designed new materials with large spaces through which different molecules can flow — opening the door to being able to separate carbon dioxide from emissions, for example, or to isolate toxic molecules from wastewater — won the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday.

The prize went to Susumu Kitagawa of Japan’s Kyoto University, Richard Robson of Australia’s University of Melbourne, and Omar Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley for their development of so-called metal-organic frameworks.

These structures contain large cavities that can capture and store different substances, which Heiner Linke, the chair of the Nobel committee for chemistry, likened to hotel rooms that different “guest” molecules can check into and then check out of. The tools are also versatile, with variable designs that can be engineered to store specific substances. Other uses include being able to pull water from the desert air and to catalyze chemical reactions.

The three scientists will share the prize of 11 million Swedish kronor, or $1.17 million. Prior to this year, the chemistry prize has been awarded to 195 people since 1901, including eight women. — Andrew Joseph 

policy

Supreme Court justices question medical authority

At the Supreme Court yesterday, a majority of justices seemed poised to rule against a Colorado law banning licensed mental health practitioners from engaging in any therapy that tries to change a young person’s sexual or gender identity. The ruling could have clear impacts on young LGBTQ+ people and the future of conversion therapy. About half of U.S. states have similar legislation, based on decades of research showing that conversion therapy is linked to greater symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal thoughts.

But yesterday that evidence — and the medical consensus around it — was questioned by attorneys from the Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, the Department of Justice, and multiple conservative judges on the court. Read more from me on what they had to say, and how Colorado lawyers and more liberal justices responded.