The paradigm that the team is pursuing is in situ detection, analysis and treatment of disease.

ECONOMIST: A biological computer diagnoses and treats cancer

However, all of these, except perhaps the last, are also likely to be linked to disease and, by careful statistical analysis, Mr Eppig and his colleagues show that all of them either disappear or are reduced to a small effect when the consequences of disease are taken into account.

ECONOMIST: Disease and intelligence

If the disease is suspected, samples will be taken and sent for analysis by plant health experts.

BBC: Ash tree

As of 2008, 23% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 had diabetes or the precursor condition known as pre-diabetes, up from just 9% in 1999, according to a new analysis of national survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CNN: Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. teens facing diabetes

Like most drugs, the key will be to differentiate them from known modalities (and other macrocycles), and this will fundamentally depend on a target-by-target, disease-by-disease analysis.

FORBES: Innovation Snapshot: Macrocyclic drugs to unlock new therapeutic targets

The scientists carried out a retrospective analysis that examined foods eaten by 304 men and women, including 72 with Alzheimer's disease, throughout their lives.

BBC: High fat diet link to Alzheimer's

Over the past two years, for instance, he has published studies maintaining the Chantix anti-smoking pill is unsuitable for first-line use (read here and here) and a meta-analysis indicating the mist form of the Spiriva inhaler that is used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had a 52 percent increase in mortality risk compared with a placebo ( see this).

FORBES: The Confusion Over A Pair Of Diabetes Drugs And Pancreatitis