Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court for an exemption from part of the federal health care law. Hobby Lobby says it shouldn’t be required to offer health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill. (U.S. News and World Report)

It’s been nearly 23 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal law prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, went into effect. Despite its unequivocal language, studies in recent years have revealed that disabled patients tend not only to be in poorer health, but also to receive inadequate preventive care and to experience worse outcomes. One study even uncovered significant disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in women with disabilities. (New York Times)

Bexarotene, a cancer drug touted as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, may not be the blockbuster remedy scientists were hoping for, according to several analyses published in Science on 24 May. Four independent research groups report that they failed to fully replicate striking results published in the journal last year by Gary Landreth, a neuroscientist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and his colleagues. (Scientific American)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries with possible cases of novel coronavirus to share information. The move comes after Saudi Arabia said the development of diagnostic tests had been delayed by patent rights on the NCoV virus by commercial laboratories. (BBC)

A Minneapolis-based startup called Miinome plans to build what it calls the first “member-controlled human genetic marketplace.” The company, which has just three full-time employees and is still hunting for financing, is notable mostly for its bold idea: to sell DNA information to marketers. (MIT Technology Review)

California, widely seen as a model for how individuals will buy health insurance under the new health care law, announced Thursday that 13 insurers had been chosen to sell policies through the insurance marketplace — or exchange — being created under the law. (New York Times)

“Re-Mission 2″ is a collection of online minigames designed to get teen and young-adult cancer patients involved in understanding more about their conditions and how the body benefits from sometimes unpleasant treatments. (CNN)

Three-month-old Elayna Nigrelli has redefined what it means to be a miracle baby. She was born while her mother was technically dead. (CNN)

In the near future, chronic heart disease patients could find themselves in an outpatient clinic, getting a new treatment that is not much more complicated than donating platelets at the Red Cross. (Forbes)

Ethnic background plays a surprisingly large role in how diabetes develops on a cellular level, according to two new studies led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. (Medical Xpress)

Public health and consumer advocacy groups are attacking Senate legislation designed to tighten oversight of specialized pharmacies such as the one at the center of this past fall’s deadly meningitis outbreak, saying it does not adequately address health risks. (Washington Post)

In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day. It’s the latest advance from the booming field of regenerative medicine, making body parts in the lab. (AP)

It’s a condition practically unheard of in the United States and most Western countries. But in a culture where a woman’s status and dignity is decided by her ability to provide a husband with multiple children, it can be a fate worse than death. (CNN)

A blockbuster paper that reported the creation of human stem cell lines via cloning has come under fire. An anonymous online commenter found four problems in the paper, which was published online 15 May in the journal Cell. (Nature)

The nation’s record-low teen birth rate stems from robust declines in nearly every state, but most dramatically in several Mountain States and among Hispanics, according to a new government report. (AP)

A new, streamlined approach to genetic engineering drastically reduces the time and effort needed to insert new genes into bacteria, the workhorses of biotechnology, scientists are reporting. (Phys.org)

Thinking about death is frightening, but planning ahead is practical and leaves more room for peace of mind in our final days. In a solemn, thoughtful talk, Judy MacDonald Johnston shares 5 practices for planning for a good end of life. (TED Talk)

An expert panel of scientists and clinicians is warning people against going overseas for costly and unproven stem cell treatment for cerebral palsy. (ABC.net.au)

Leroy Hood, head of a prominent research institute in Seattle, Washington, violated conflict-of-interest rules when he reviewed a friend’s grant, California’s stem-cell agency disclosed in a letter to the state legislature. (Nature)

Italian lawmakers on Wednesday gave their final approval to a law that allows limited use of a controversial type of stem cell therapy which has been condemned by many scientists but has given hope to families of terminally-ill children. (AFP)