Home / Editorial Team / Delthia Ricks
Delthia Ricks

Delthia Ricks

Author

Delthia Ricks is an award-winning science writer and author with stories published in Newsday, Discover Magazine, and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. She has written four books, most recently "100 Questions and Answers About Coronaviruses." She holds degrees from UCLA and Columbia University, with an M.S. in Biology.

Articles by Delthia Ricks

Medical Xpress / Positive proof-of-concept experiments may lead to the world's first treatment for celiac disease

An investigational treatment for celiac disease effectively controls the condition—at least in an animal model—in a first-of-its-kind therapeutic for a condition that affects approximately 70 million people worldwide.

May 19, 2025
Medical Xpress / Investigational test detects earliest stages of autoimmune assault that causes type 1 diabetes, scientists report

An investigational blood test for type 1 diabetes can accurately detect the disorder's characteristic autoimmunity with only small samples of blood, a feature that makes it ideal to screen pediatric patients, scientists in ...

Apr 30, 2025
Medical Xpress / New technique protects 'architecture' of insulin-producing islet cells for transplant into type 1 diabetics

Stem cell-derived pancreatic islets are being studied as a rich transplantable source for insulin production, a therapeutic for type 1 diabetes that overcomes the need to obtain islet cells from deceased donors.

Apr 29, 2025
Medical Xpress / Scientists work toward a vaccine for filoviruses, Ebola's deadly kin

Filoviruses are among the globe's most lethal—indeed, so dangerous they can be handled only in high-security laboratories. Yet, more than five decades after the discovery of the Marburg virus and nearly 50 years after the ...

Apr 27, 2025
Medical Xpress / Low levels of a single enzyme influence pathway to malignancy in colorectal cancer, scientists find

The transformation of healthy cells into invasive colorectal tumors is an extraordinarily complex process involving numerous molecular mechanisms, according to cancer biologists in China who have discovered that low levels ...

Apr 1, 2025
Medical Xpress / A protective immune system cell disappears from a key form of fat, but only in those who are obese

The mammalian immune system is an evolutionary wonder. It's capable of recognizing and destroying cancer cells, and it can deploy armies of antibodies against viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi.

Mar 27, 2025
Medical Xpress / In quest to construct a better flu shot, scientists zero in on tiny flu protein shaped like a mushroom

Not long after the first flu shot was introduced in 1945 by University of Michigan virologist Thomas Francis and his co-researcher, Jonas Salk (who would later garner worldwide fame as developer of the first polio vaccine), ...

Mar 10, 2025
Phys.org / Exploring the dark side of Staph aureus, a bacterium resistant to multiple drugs—even those yet to be tested in humans

British physician and microbiologist Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin nearly 100 years ago, was the first to warn of the dangers of antibiotic resistance.

Feb 20, 2025
Medical Xpress / Scientists peel away the mystery of JAK enzymes, which play roles in everything from eczema to ulcerative colitis

Pharmaceutical ads are difficult to avoid in American television programming and a growing number of them promote a class of medications called JAK inhibitors, using an acronym that assumes the average TV watcher knows exactly ...

Feb 8, 2025
Medical Xpress / Can a heart failure drug effectively treat a lethal form of ovarian cancer? Scientists hope the answer is 'yes'

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic malignancy globally and is increasing in incidence and mortality with currently more than 300,000 new cases and 200,000 deaths annually, according to data from the World Health ...

Jan 29, 2025
Medical Xpress / Gardenia plants may hold chemical key to regenerating diseased human nerves

Gardenias are known for their rich, earthy fragrance, waxy petals and brilliant white color that contrasts with the deep emerald green of their leaves. The plant has long been prized by herbalists, seekers of food and fabric ...

Jan 20, 2025
Medical Xpress / Abnormal blood vessel growth in the brain may be an early diagnostic sign of cognitive impairment

Gender differences define how the human brain ages, and telltale biomarkers in the blood may be strongly suggestive of cognitive impairment and dementia, according to a comprehensive new study involving more than 500 people.

Jan 2, 2025
Medical Xpress / Experimental drug that summons 'warriors of the immune system' shows early promise against non-Hodgkin lymphoma

An investigational therapy is demonstrating preclinical promise against non-Hodgkin lymphoma by boosting natural killer cells and efficiently annihilating the malignancy without toxicity to the patient, a team of cancer biologists ...

Dec 20, 2024
Medical Xpress / Molecular and cellular level research shows a sharp sex divide for long COVID—women are more vulnerable

Scientists have identified "immune pathways" during acute coronavirus infection that are associated with the development of long COVID, and while some pathways are the same for men and women, others differ dramatically along ...

Dec 19, 2024
Medical Xpress / Stomach cancer can be caused by a bacterium carried by half the people on Earth, but screening for it isn't easy

In 1982, two Australian physician-scientists discovered a spiral-shaped bacterium whose form not only dictated function, but its capacity to dwell in the human body's harshest chemical environment. These two clues would help ...

Dec 9, 2024