Why More Adults Than Ever Are Being Diagnosed With Autism
A surge in diagnoses reflects increased awareness and the broadening definition of the condition
Key Points
- More U.S. adults are being diagnosed with autism, often later in life, due to increased awareness and broader definitions.
- The most rapid rate of growth was in adults between the ages of 26 and 34, per JAMA studies analyzing health records.
- Adults diagnosed often have social struggles, repetitive behaviors and co-occurring mental-health conditions.
More U.S. adults than ever before have autism, and many are being diagnosed not as children, but in later years.
While the data don’t pinpoint how many people are over age 18 when diagnosed, clinical psychologists say many more adults are seeking evaluations for autism than a decade ago.
“We have adults reaching out every week,” said Paige Siper, chief psychologist at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
Overall, the rate of autism in people 18 or older more than doubled between 2011 and 2019, from 4.2 per 1,000 to 9.5 per 1,000, according to an analysis of Medicaid data published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry in 2023.
Researchers saw the most rapid growth in adults between the ages of 26 and 34, according to a study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open in 2024, that analyzed U.S. health records and insurance claims for more than nine million individuals a year from 2011 to 2022. That group’s rate of autism increased from 0.7 per 1,000 people in 2011 to 3.7 per 1,000 in 2022.
Some of this growth comes from autistic children aging into adulthood.
For adults seeking evaluations for the first time, scientists attribute the rise to a variety of factors.
Social media has increased awareness of autism. Autism has shed the stigma it used to hold. The definition of the condition has expanded over time to include a broader range of behaviors. And some parents who have children diagnosed with autism then recognize their own challenges and seek out evaluations, said Michelle Gorenstein-Holtzman, a clinical psychologist who works with adults at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain.
Three years ago, before she joined, the center did one adult autism evaluation a month. Now Gorenstein-Holtzman does two a week.
People diagnosed as adults typically don’t have severe communication challenges or intellectual disabilities, clinical psychologists said. But they have struggled socially, and show subtle repetitive behaviors like rocking in a chair, or nearly obsessive interests in certain topics. They often have other continuing mental-health conditions, such as anxiety, bipolar disorder or ADHD.
Many are highly educated, and some have successful careers, though some have been in and out of jobs.
Many are women whose autism was missed when they were children, said Catherine Lord, a clinical psychologist and autism researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. About three times as many boys are diagnosed with autism as girls, partly because some of the behaviors psychologists look for are less pronounced in girls, and partly because researchers have been trained to better recognize the condition in boys.
Growing up, Sonia Chand said she felt out of touch with her peers and judged by teachers and therapists. “I was made to feel like I was the bad kid,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to act up in a bad way. I was just trying to fit in.”
In sixth grade, she was diagnosed with depression, prescribed lithium and flagged at risk for suicide. At age 20, after a new therapist had heard her story and referred her for an advanced neuropsychological evaluation, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s in 2002. Now 42, she works as a therapist herself, runs marathons and hosts a podcast in her free time.
At the time Chand was diagnosed, Asperger’s syndrome was considered a developmental disorder in which people had trouble with social interactions but didn’t have language delays or cognitive impairments associated with autism.
Autism first appeared as a distinct diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a standardized classification system for mental disorders, in 1980. Initially, the diagnosis required children by age 2.5 years to exhibit a narrow set of behaviors that typically applied only to those with severe disabilities.
Each subsequent edition of the manual has broadened the definition of the condition, said David Mandell, director of the Penn Center for Mental Health at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2013, Asperger’s and other developmental disorders were included under the category of autism spectrum disorder, which acknowledged varying levels of severity—and helped to pave the way for more diagnoses in adults.
Holden Thorp, editor in chief of the Science family of journals, was in his 50s when a psychologist evaluating senior administrators at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was provost, told him he was autistic in 2016.
Thorp had established himself as a research scientist, climbed the ranks of university leadership and served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“A lot of things came together all at once,” Thorp said, ranging from his habit of staring at a wall when people were talking to him to student evaluations that said he was “a great teacher” but “very monotone.”
Now, he tells classes on the first day that he’s on the spectrum and explains that expressive intonations or big arm gestures are a challenge. “That was very liberating,” he said.
Some adults welcome the diagnosis as a way to make sense of the challenges they have faced all their lives.
“When I started in the field, everyone’s vision of autism was more like Rain Man,” said Gorenstein-Holtzman. “Now, I think people have more ideas of what autism could look like.”
The Top Six Longevity Retreats to Restore and Advance
Here, a look at some of the leading wellness destinations globally, including Clinique La Prairie and The Ranch.
Lanserhof Sylt
With summer in full swing, the calendar can fill up quickly with weekend getaways, barbecues, beach days and more. As the never-ending to-dos continue to pile up, it is time to reset. While wellness programming is seemingly popping up at every hotel across the world, a select few destinations are doubling down on longevity, which focuses on health span — or finding ways to experience more healthful and beauty-full lives for longer.
These offer guests ultra-personalized programming driven by diagnostic testing and scientific evidence — think blood tests to determine what workout you need to do or a three-day detox to get you off your phone. When it comes to these spots, although they can feel intensive, there is truly something for everyone, no matter the goal.
Here, a look at six of the most advanced longevity destinations globally.
Clinique La Prairie in Montreux, Switzerland starting at approximately $25,000 depending on program
Clinique La Prairie
Courtesy
For many, Clinique La Prairie, nestled on the shores of Lake Geneva, is synonymous with longevity. The medical clinic and wellness destination was founded in 1913 by Dr. Paul Niehans. Clinique La Prairie offers weeklong retreats around an array of focuses including brain health, weight management and more. For those looking for the most scientifically advanced and medical-backed program, Clinique La Prairie is a must. With more than 50 medical specialists and its newest Longevity Master Assessment, a diagnostic that looks at more than 300 biomarkers, guests leave knowing more about their bodies than they learn at a routine doctor’s visit.
Specifically, visitors can learn the likelihood of a cardiovascular event, discover their inflammation markers and more.
Euphoria Retreat in Mystras, Greece starting at approximately $8,700 for a seven-day programexcluding accommodations
Euphoria Retreat
For many, the highlight of Euphoria is the location. Situated on a hillside along a pine forest, the property overlooks ancient Sparta and the ruins of Byzantine Mystras. While the destination is teeming with history, the offerings combine the ancient atmosphere with state-of-the-art wellness tech, such as hydrotherapy, sound therapy, on-call doctors, custom IV drops and a Human Regenerator machine, which heals the body via cold atmospheric plasma. However, with the natural setting and calming design elements, Euphoria doesn’t give off a clinical feel. Guests can explore a variety of wellness-centric programs from more medical plans to leadership retreats.
Lanserhof in Sylt,Germany starting at 9,510 euros for seven to eight days of treatment excluding accommodation, food, supplements and medicine
Lanserhof Sylt
Guests at Lanserhof on Sylt are given a diagnostic and personalized consultations to gain insight into their genetic makeup, which are then used for targeted programs created to reduce health risks and increase life expectancy. Medical practices involve bioimpedance analysis as well as blood pressure, lactate and metabolic checks. Hands-on treatments include foot reflexology massage, classical massage therapy, detox drainage and a natural detox hay pack. Nutrition from locally sourced ingredients is a key part of the program.
There are also sunrise exercises by the North Sea or in the forest, and a focus on mental clarity, emotional resilience and spiritual well-being.
Mount Med Resortin Wildschönau, Austria starting at 4,988 euros for a seven-night single occupancy program
Mount Med Resort
Courtesy of Mont Med Resort
Nestled in a high alpine valley, Mount Med Resort is a medical spa focusing on a holistic and integrated approach to health and beauty. It uses solutions to promote natural aesthetics and cell rejuvenation. Here, a doctor determines a personalized diagnostic and then the number of therapies required based on a person’s own needs. The resort’s longevity program integrates the Mylife Changer method and anti-inflammatory metabolic program that targets detoxifying and cell-regeneration treatments, biohacking and movement.
Specifically, there is neuroscience biohacking billed to enhance cognitive fitness, the reduction of inflammation markers and free radicals, as well as anti-inflammatory nutrition said to rejuvenate biological age. The treatment menu offers intensive detox and slimming programs for weight optimization, the promotion of gut health and microbiome balance, as well as personal training to bolster physical fitness.
Six Senses Kaplankaya in Bodrum, Turkey starting at 1,855 euros for three-night single occupancy program
Six Senses Kaplankaya
Courtesy of Six Senses
Six Senses Kaplankaya offers three-, five- and seven-night longevity programs designed to heighten energy, sharpen mental focus and improve health and fitness. Also working toward the end-goal of living better longer, the retreat’s treatments are meant to reduce disease risk. Guests get a wellness screening and do Pilates or yoga. There are Cellgym sessions; ancient breathwork, called Pranayama; Watsu, and time in a Turkish or Moroccan hammam. A skin analysis is made with Skin Instant Lab and wellness cuisine is served up, among other elements of this program. Overall, Six Senses sets out to help guests combat lifestyle-related aging effects by combining a healthy body, well-fed gut and happy mind.
The Ranch in Hudson Valley, New York starting at $2,850for a three-night single occupancy program
The Ranch
Mario FUENTES
While many wellness retreats, including The Ranch’s other locations, often take advantage of warm or tropical destinations, the brand’s latest outpost is embracing all four seasons. Nestled in Hudson Valley, New York at the Table Rock Estate, guests can take advantage of snow-covered mountain hikes in the winter or kayaking during the warmer months, depending on their vibe. Of course, The Ranch offers all the typical treatments of a wellness retreat, like saunas, cold plunges, fitness classes and daily massages, the destination also features a few unexpected highlights like reiki and hypnotherapy. Each program is fully customizable based on the guest, who is also prepped ahead of the trip to ease into the program — think stopping coffee a few weeks in advance so that The Ranch’s detox isn’t quite as drastic.
Le Doyenné: The Parisian Fashion Set’s Michelin-starred Countryside Escape
The Michelin-starred restaurant now has a 10-seat private dining room kitted out by Project 213A, the design firm cofounded by footwear designer Jurgita Dileviciute.
Le Doyenné
Between its excellent cuisine made using produce grown on site and a clutch of cozy farmhouse-chic rooms, Le Doyenné was already a favorite day-trip escapade for the Parisian fashion set.
Now there’s one more reason to make the one-hour trip outside Paris: a 10-seat private dining room. It’s the latest collaboration of the establishment with Project 213A, the four-year-old design firm of Theresa Marx, Clement Deboeuf and Jurgita Dileviciute, who also cofounded footwear label Jude.
They were already behind the artisanal pieces ranging from ceramic side tables to custom headboards that add a contemporary je-ne-sais-quoi to this address owned by Australian chefs James Henry and Shaun Kelly.
After cutting their teeth on the Parisian bistronomic scene, the friends moved to the area in 2017 and began this project that comes an impeccable historic, artistic and now gastronomic pedigree.
Le Doyenné
To wit: Early records place a stately hall dating back to feudal times on the property, which later became the country retreat of the Countess du Barry, the favorite of French king Louis XV. It is now owned by the Mortemart family, who have called it home for over two centuries.
In the 1970s, the space now occupied by Le Doyenné’s restaurant was the workshop in which artists Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely created their monumental sculptures.
Some five years and a host of highly skilled local artisans capable of preserving the integrity of a listed historical site were needed to convert the centuries-old barn into its current incarnation.
Lofty windows in the restaurant open onto an orchard and expansive vegetable garden, cultivated following regenerative agricultural practices. It has since yielded the excellent produce that’s found on the table — and a Michelin star in 2023.
Le Doyenné
5 Rue Saint-Antoine, 91770 Saint-Vrain
Tel: +33 6 58 80 25 18
5 Rue Saint-Antoine, 91770 Saint-Vrain
Tel: +33 6 58 80 25 18
The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: Fintech, AI Dominate In Slightly Slow Week For Large Deals
The pace of large-scale startup fundraising slowed a bit this week, with no giant late-stage rounds for GenAI unicorns. However, we did see a good bit of funding activity in the fintech area, led by business payments platform Airwallex, along with some healthcare- and AI-related dealmaking.
1. Airwallex, $300M, fintech: Business payments platform Airwallex closed on $300 million at a $6.2 billion valuation. The financing includes $150 million in Series F funding and another $150 million for secondary share purchases for the San Francisco-headquartered company, which was founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia.
2. Awardco, $165M, HR tech: Awardco, a platform for employee rewards and recognition, raised $165 million in a Series B round backed by Sixth Street and Spectrum Equity. The financing set a valuation of over $1 billion for the Salt Lake City-based company, which was founded in 2012.
3. LMArena, $100M, AI: San Francisco-based LMArena, which describes itself as an open community platform for evaluating AI models, secured $100 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz and UC Investments led the financing.
4. Monarch Money, $75M, personal finance: Monarch, a personal finance platform offering budgeting and planning tools for consumers, closed on $75 million in Series B financing. FPV Ventures and Forerunner Ventures led the round for the 6-year-old Covina, California-based startup.
5. (tied) Siro, $50M, sales: New York-based Siro, a mobile app for tracking in-person sales performance, raised a $50 million Series B round led by SignalFire. Founded in 2020, Siro had previously raised $18 million from backers including Index Ventures and Fika Ventures.
5. (tied) RevenueCat, $50M, subscription management: San Francisco-based RevenueCat, a platform for managing subscription apps, raised $50 million in a Series C led by Bain Capital Ventures. Founded in 2017, the company says its tools are currently used to help power over one‑third of all new subscription apps worldwide.
7. Slash, $41M, fintech: Slash, a San Francisco-based banking platform for online businesses that offers checking accounts and payment cards, raised $41 million in Series B funding. Goodwater Capital led the round, joined by Menlo Ventures and NEA, setting a $370 million valuation for the 5-year-old company.
8. Fore Biotherapeutics, $38M, cancer therapeutics: Philadelphia-based Fore Biotherapeutics, a developer of therapeutics for hard-to-treat cancers, raised $38 million in Series D-2 financing. Founded in 2011, the financing brings total funding to date to more than $200 million, per Crunchbase data.
9. DataHub, $35M, AI: Palo Alto, California-based DataHub, an open source platform for metadata on AI and data assets, secured $35 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The 4-year-old company says it has seen 6x sales growth for its enterprise service, DataHub Cloud, over the past two years.
10. General Medicine, $32M, healthcare: Salt Lake City-based General Medicine, a platform for consumers to directly access care for specific medical problems, raised $32 million in venture funding led by Matrix. The company’s founders, Elliot Cohen and TJ Parker, previously launched pharmacy startup PillPack.
Tariffs Are Challenging the Cachet of Luxury Goods From Europe
The trade war has turned a spotlight on the artisanal clusters behind glamorous goods, inviting fresh scrutiny of one of the industry’s key selling points
Key Points
- Ubrique, Spain, is a hub for luxury leather goods, producing for brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
- President Trump’s tariffs and the questioning of ‘Made in Europe’ value put pressure on Ubrique’s business model.
- Luxury brands are finding it difficult to shift production to the U.S. due to challenges in recruiting and training artisans.
UBRIQUE, Spain—Europe’s luxury brands have long sold pricey handbags based on the mystique of where they are made. Now the trade war is probing the value of producing in places like this sun-kissed town.
Ubrique’s workshops have pumped out leather goods for Chanel, Louis Vuitton and other brands for years, employing about a quarter of the town’s population of 16,000. A giant statue of the patacabra, a wooden tool used to shape and smooth the leather, rises by the road leading into town.
“We’re all basically living off leather here,” said José Antonio Bautista, the town’s deputy mayor.
President Trump’s tariffs are now shaking the foundations of Ubrique’s business model—and that of the broader luxury industry. On Friday, Trump threatened a 50% tariff on goods imported from the European Union.
European brands have long cultivated the image that Old World heritage uniquely positions the continent to create goods for the world’s most discerning customers—justifying their eye-watering price tags.
While high margins offer brands some protection from tariffs, Trump’s push to shift production to the U.S. has sparked fresh scrutiny of the “Made in Europe” value proposition. The worry for some brands: Luxury goods produced in America won’t carry the same cachet with consumers.
“It wouldn’t make sense to me to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas,” François-Henri Pinault, chief executive of the group that owns Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, told French lawmakers earlier this month. “It doesn’t make sense to my clients. I can’t explain that.”
The allure of European provenance is already being questioned in the industry’s second-biggest market: China. After Trump announced his tariffs, a wave of videos flooded TikTok, purporting to reveal the true cost of luxury by showing how a range of high-end handbags—including the Hermès Birkin, which sell for more than $10,000—can be cheaply counterfeited in a Chinese factory.
The scrutiny has shone a spotlight on places like Ubrique, where first-year trainees start on the equivalent of around $30 a day, and the most experienced workers earn a daily wage of roughly $57, according to a local labor agreement.
Shifting production to the U.S., however, is easier said than done. Louis Vuitton opened a leather-goods workshop in Alvarado, Texas, in 2019 as part of a push to diversify manufacturing and meet growing demand in its largest market. But scaling up has proven difficult.
The site has faced growing pains as Louis Vuitton struggled to recruit and train local artisans. LVMH MC -1.26%decrease; red down pointing triangle CEO Bernard Arnault said he planned to hire a thousand staff at the plant when it initially opened, but years later the facility only employs around 300 people—a slower-than-expected expansion that the company partly attributes to the pandemic.
Still, Arnault recently said the group would “inevitably be forced to increase its American production” if the EU fails to reach a deal to avert Trump’s tariffs.
A town built on leather
Spain quietly plays a central role in the global luxury supply chain—especially in leather goods.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Ubrique, where leather craftsmanship took off in the 19th century—helped by the town’s abundant water supply, crucial for softening hides and dyeing leather.
The area’s isolation and poverty played a role too. Families raised livestock while women began sewing and finishing leather goods at home. By the 1970s, Ubrique had become a byword for craftsmanship, drawing brands like Dior and Loewe.
Today, handbag makers rely on Ubrique’s extensive network of suppliers, specialized machinery makers, tanneries and logistics hubs that have developed together over decades.
Their close proximity enables speed and flexibility, which are crucial in an industry that is constantly working on new designs. Workshops often work hand-in-hand with brands to develop prototypes and refine products. Longstanding relationships have fostered trust and discretion, helping protect sourcing strategies and unreleased designs.
Chanel purses are made in a discreet workshop with no signage, while Louis Vuitton relies on a longstanding supplier with several sites across town to produce pieces including a $3,000 hobo-style bag.
Ubrique’s rich industrial ecosystem would be difficult, and take years, to replicate elsewhere. Similar tightknit luxury clusters can be found in Tuscany for leather goods, La Chaux-de-Fonds for Swiss watches and the French town of Grasse for perfume.
Economic forces have threatened Ubrique before. During the 2008 financial crisis, many luxury brands moved production to lower-cost countries like China. The result: factory closures, job losses and economic pain.
“You’d see people who had nothing to eat coming here asking for help,” said Bautista, the deputy mayor.
But just a few years later the brands were back. Factories in China proved susceptible to counterfeiters. When design specifications or materials were leaked, copycat producers could flood the market with knockoffs.
Inside the workshops
Throughout Ubrique, the tap tap of the patacabra rings out from behind workshop walls.
At many of the town’s factories, workers arrive before dawn, stow their phones in lockers and wait for a 6.55 a.m. alarm. When it sounds, they head to their benches and work—mostly on their feet—until 3 p.m., broken only by a 20-minute break.
Luxury brands often promote the image of a single in-house artisan meticulously crafting a handbag from start to finish. In reality, production is more industrial, broken down into a series of repetitive, specialized tasks that require less training—in theory making it easier to shift manufacturing elsewhere.
Yet making luxury leather goods still involves a sequence of precise, hands-on steps that require a high level of skill. Leather must be inspected and cut, then thinned, reinforced, stitched and assembled—often using techniques that machines can’t easily replicate. Edges are finished by hand and hardware is carefully fitted.
More experienced workers are assigned to the most technically demanding tasks. At one factory, employees said men’s backpacks were the hardest to make—not just because of the number of components, but also the precision needed to fit the panels, handles and zips.
“Finding qualified people is tough,” said Manuel Fernández, owner of the Don Puro workshop, which supplies several luxury brands. “Out of every three new hires, you might only keep one. The others just don’t work out.”
While businesspeople in Ubrique say they have yet to feel the impact of Trump’s tariffs, the uncertainty is leading to heightened concerns in the town.
A broad luxury slowdown has already hit Ubrique’s producers. While much of the slack has been taken up by Polène, a fast-growing French brand that makes all of its handbags in the town, some workshops are feeling the pain as clients cut back on orders.
Marcos Obando, who works for a local employers’ association, is hopeful big luxury brands will keep investing in Ubrique, even if tariffs do add to costs. He argues the town should double down on quality, since it can’t compete on price—not even with lower-cost neighbors like Portugal or countries in Eastern Europe.
“There is a reason why all the brands have been working here for decades—why this town has been focused on this for many, many years,” he said.
A Search for New Antibiotics in Ancient DNA
Scientists probe woolly mammoth and Neanderthal genetic codes for new compounds as today’s drugs lose potency; ‘molecules that evolved in a different time and a different setting’
Key Points
- Scientists are exploring unconventional sources like extinct species’ genetic codes for new antibiotics.
- Mammuthusin, found in the genetic code of woolly mammoths, eradicated superbugs in lab experiments.
- AI and advanced techniques are revitalizing the search for novel antibiotics in nature.
Buried in the DNA of the long extinct woolly mammoth is a compound that scientists hope will one day yield a lifesaving antibiotic.
In experiments, mammuthusin, as the compound is called, has eradicated superbugs—bacteria that are resistant to today’s antibiotics and cause infections that are hard to treat—says César de la Fuente, the bioengineer who helped discover the molecule.
De la Fuente, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is among a group of scientists probing ancient and unlikely places—from genetic remnants of Neanderthals and extinct animals to unassuming backyard dirt—to find new antibiotics. He says the search is desperate: “Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest challenges we face as a society.”
Infections caused by superbugs contribute to the deaths of more than five million people globally each year, and that toll is growing. Antibiotics are increasingly losing potency against even common infections. Without new drugs, antibiotic resistance could kill some 39 million people by 2050, a study last year predicted.
Now, fresh approaches to research are coming to an industry that has been slow to make new drugs and has been stymied by bacteria’s ability to rapidly evolve defenses against those that exist. Most of the antibiotics we use today, and that have saved hundreds of millions of lives, were found in nature—many of them decades ago and several by accident. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 after returning from vacation and finding that mold on a petri dish had prevented harmful bacteria from growing.
To help combat superbugs, doctors say we need new antibiotics with novel chemical structures or mechanisms of action. But only a handful of such drugs has entered the market over the past several decades.
De la Fuente is banking on artificial intelligence to help end this dry spell. He and his collaborators have built deep-learning algorithms to comb through enormous genetic databases to find peptides, or protein fragments, that have antibacterial properties. They have used this method to analyze animal venoms, the human microbiome and archaea, an underexplored group of microorganisms. They have also mined the genetic codes from fossils of long-extinct animals and humans, including Neanderthals and Denisovans. “This deep-learning model has opened a window into the past,” de la Fuente says.
Most antibiotics used today are small-molecule drugs, mostly derived from bacteria and fungi. Small molecules can usually penetrate cell membranes with ease and are commonly administered as pills. Peptides, made up of short chains of amino acids, are larger and more complex. They tend to be more unstable in the body and can’t easily be made into pills.
But advances have been made in recent years to improve the ability of peptide drugs—which include some IV antibiotics, GLP-1s and insulin—to be absorbed and used by the body. Antibacterial peptides are also plentiful in nature, as they are a part of the immune system in most organisms.
“Peptides are the next big thing in medicine,” says de la Fuente, who launched a startup in January to further explore the antibiotic potential of mammuthusin and other peptides.
When the algorithms identify a new peptide with antibiotic potential, de la Fuente and his team use robots to manufacture the compound in their lab and then test it in mice infected with bacteria. So far, a few hundred peptides made in de la Fuente’s lab have safely and effectively cured sick mice.
One of them was mammuthusin, identified in the genetic code of Mammuthus primigenius, a species of mammoth that last roamed the Earth about 4,000 years ago. The researchers discovered the peptide after mining a National Center for Biotechnology Information database of DNA sequencing data obtained from the fossils of extinct animals. In experiments, mammuthusin was as potent as polymyxin B, an antibiotic often used as a last resort for serious infections, according to a paper published in the journal Nature in June. The mammoth peptide effectively eradicated a type of bacterium that the World Health Organization has designated a critical pathogen because of its resistance to many common antibiotics.
The work with extinct species is “expanding the chemical space that we could explore,” says James Collins, a bioengineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “These are molecules that evolved in a different time and a different setting.”
Collins’s lab has built its own algorithms to trawl chemical databases, such as those of existing pharmaceutical drugs, for potential antibacterial compounds. His lab is also experimenting with using generative AI to design completely new molecules that could kill bacteria. Collins and colleagues said in a 2024 paper that they had identified structurally unique antibiotics after analyzing more than 12 million chemical compounds.
Modern scientific techniques could uncover new opportunities in old hunting grounds, says Gerry Wright, a biochemist at McMaster University in Canada. “The way people found antibiotics in the past was they would go out and get something in the dirt,” he says, referring to the fungi and bacteria that most antibiotics are derived from. Microbes have been waging war against one another for eons and have developed excellent defenses against one another. “There haven’t been any compounds better than those made in nature,” Wright says.
By the 1990s, however, scientists who were probing natural environments for antibiotics hit a wall: They kept finding the same antibiotic compounds again and again. “People got frustrated,” Wright says. “It led to the misunderstanding that there was nothing more to find in these organisms.”
But by using genetic sequencing and chromatography, a technique to separate mixtures, researchers in Wright’s lab have been able to analyze known microbes and find less-obvious antibacterial molecules that were previously missed.
Patience has also proved fruitful. A researcher in Wright’s lab took soil from a backyard in Ontario and extracted liquid from it that she kept in a petri dish under her bench for an entire year. Instead of adding nutrients to the dish and checking for organisms that grew quickly—long typical for antibiotic-hunting—she starved them and waited for rarer organisms to appear.
One of these slow-growing species was found to pump out a common antibiotic—but more detailed analysis showed that it also produced a previously unknown antibacterial peptide. That peptide, which would be considered a structurally novel antibiotic, eradicated drug-resistant bacteria in mice, according to a March paper published in Nature.
“We are going back with different eyes and different techniques and discovering that there’s still a lot of wealth to be found,” Wright says.
Why Some People Are Microdosing Popular Weight-Loss Drugs
Some consumers take tiny doses of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs or stretch out doses to cut costs and side effects
Key Points
- Some consumers are microdosing GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic to save money, lessen side effects, or for perceived health benefits.
- Doctors note some patients are ‘super responders’ and can maintain weight loss at low doses, but most will need to escalate their dose.
- A survey found 36% of GLP-1 users microdose, often learning about it from TikTok, despite safety concerns from doctors and manufacturers.
Microdosing isn’t just popular for psychedelics.
Some consumers are taking smaller than standard doses of GLP-1s—the popular class of weight-loss and diabetes drugs that include Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound—or spacing out doses longer than indicated.
The reason: to save on money or lessen side effects. Some people say they can lose or maintain weight on such tiny doses and others believe the microdoses can help with other health-related factors.
The truth: This may be more of a social-media phenomenon than a reality. Doctors say yes, some people are super responders to the drugs and can lose or maintain weight loss at low doses—but it’s unusual to lose all your weight with these.
The majority of people microdosing will need to escalate their dose, which can be done more slowly for those with bad side effects, notably gastrointestinal issues.
Still, people are trying microdosing. Here’s what to know about it.
Pen vs. syringe
The first challenge with microdosing is the method of delivery. The prescription drugs entail taking weekly self-injections with pens.
Currently, most people taking alternative doses of GLP-1 drugs are using cheaper compounded versions of the medications, says Dr. Katherine H. Saunders, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of FlyteHealth, a medical obesity-treatment company. (Saunders, like many doctors, doesn’t recommend compounded copies of the drugs because of potential safety issues; the federal government has cracked down on the compounded market).
The only weekly GLP-1 drug that makes it easy to take alternative doses is Ozempic. It comes in a self-injectable pen where doses are administered with clicks. The other drugs have mostly been sold as single-dose injectable pens. But some patients will stretch out doses taking them every 10 days to two weeks. And once used the pens have a shelf life of 56 days.
Zepbound single-dose vials became available in the U.S. last year for self-pay customers only. This makes it theoretically possible to microdose by drawing out smaller amounts of liquid with a syringe.
But the single-use vials are free of preservatives. So using them after the rubber stopper is punctured increases risk of infection, says Anne Kome, a clinical pharmacist at University of North Carolina Health in Chapel Hill.
Saunders says many people taking fractional doses likely don’t meet the criteria for the drugs and are trying to lose a little weight or are hoping for potential longevity benefits.
Taking the edge off
They are people like Rachel Ratliff, a 56-year-old retired corporate lawyer in San Francisco. She was effortlessly skinny until she hit menopause and gained 10 pounds. Ratliff says she was always ravenous and nothing she did to take the weight off worked.
Ratliff decided to try a compounded version of tirzepatide—the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro. “I started taking [tirzepatide] out of vanity but it’s completely changed my relationship to food and given me the ability to make healthier food choices,” she says.
Initially she took the usual starting dose of 2.5 milligrams, which wiped her out. Then she tried a quarter dose. “It was amazing, it took the edge off my hunger,” she says.
Ratliff says she lost 10 pounds in the first six weeks and continues to take a maintenance dose. This costs about $50 a month.
Saunders says some people are so-called “super responders” who are very sensitive to medications and may need lower than a standard dose. “We’re personalizing the dose, not microdosing them on purpose,” she says.
Why they’re microdosing
Most people learn about microdosing from TikTok, according to a recent survey of 640 GLP-1 users conducted by Tebra, a health-software company.
Thirty-six percent of respondents said they microdose. Among them, 48% take smaller injections than prescribed and 43% split doses over a longer period. Sixty-six percent microdosed to reduce side effects; 40% wanted to ease into the medication; and 38% did it to save money.
Spokespeople for Novo Nordisk (Ozempic and Wegovy) and Eli Lilly (Mounjaro and Zepbound) said they don’t condone or encourage misuse of their products. They said microdosing poses potential safety risks.
Doctors agree that patients shouldn’t be choosing to microdose on their own.
“What about a patient microdosing on their cancer therapeutic or how about microdosing on their blood pressure medication based on how they feel? Or how about their insulin?” says Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We have a disease here—not cosmetics.”
Patients who try to conserve medicine by spreading out their doses may experience worse side effects, such as nausea and gastrointestinal issues, says Dr. Gitanjali Srivastava, a professor and co-director at the Vanderbilt Weight Loss Center.
“The body is not exposed to that medication for longer periods of time so they are less tolerable,” she says. Taking doses that aren’t standard can also lead to more dosing errors.
Beyond weight loss
One promising area of microdosing may be health benefits independent of weight loss, researchers say.
Data published at the European Congress on Obesity conference last year found that people who took semaglutide—sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy—and didn’t lose much weight had the same 20% reduction in heart attacks and strokes as those who took it and did lose weight, says Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist and professor at University of Toronto who studies GLP-1 drugs.
“And so then the question is, if it doesn’t matter whether or not you lose weight, does it matter how much semaglutide you actually took to get that benefit?” he says.
We don’t know the answer, he says, because trials use standard doses of the drugs.
“I think what we’re starting to see is that there are clearly weight loss and glucose independent benefits of these medicines,” says Drucker. “But what we don’t have is data saying ‘and you can achieve those benefits with microdosing.’”
Tariffs Are Challenging the Cachet of Luxury Goods From Europe
The trade war has turned a spotlight on the artisanal clusters behind glamorous goods, inviting fresh scrutiny of one of the industry’s key selling points
Key Points
What's This?
Ubrique, Spain, is a hub for luxury leather goods, producing for brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
President Trump’s tariffs and the questioning of ‘Made in Europe’ value put pressure on Ubrique’s business model.
Luxury brands are finding it difficult to shift production to the U.S. due to challenges in recruiting and training artisans.
UBRIQUE, Spain—Europe’s luxury brands have long sold pricey handbags based on the mystique of where they are made. Now the trade war is probing the value of producing in places like this sun-kissed town.
Ubrique’s workshops have pumped out leather goods for Chanel, Louis Vuitton and other brands for years, employing about a quarter of the town’s population of 16,000. A giant statue of the patacabra, a wooden tool used to shape and smooth the leather, rises by the road leading into town.
“We’re all basically living off leather here,” said José Antonio Bautista, the town’s deputy mayor.
President Trump’s tariffs are now shaking the foundations of Ubrique’s business model—and that of the broader luxury industry. On Friday, Trump threatened a 50% tariff on goods imported from the European Union.
European brands have long cultivated the image that Old World heritage uniquely positions the continent to create goods for the world’s most discerning customers—justifying their eye-watering price tags.
While high margins offer brands some protection from tariffs, Trump’s push to shift production to the U.S. has sparked fresh scrutiny of the “Made in Europe” value proposition. The worry for some brands: Luxury goods produced in America won’t carry the same cachet with consumers.
“It wouldn’t make sense to me to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas,” François-Henri Pinault, chief executive of the group that owns Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, told French lawmakers earlier this month. “It doesn’t make sense to my clients. I can’t explain that.”
The allure of European provenance is already being questioned in the industry’s second-biggest market: China. After Trump announced his tariffs, a wave of videos flooded TikTok, purporting to reveal the true cost of luxury by showing how a range of high-end handbags—including the Hermès Birkin, which sell for more than $10,000—can be cheaply counterfeited in a Chinese factory.
The scrutiny has shone a spotlight on places like Ubrique, where first-year trainees start on the equivalent of around $30 a day, and the most experienced workers earn a daily wage of roughly $57, according to a local labor agreement.
Shifting production to the U.S., however, is easier said than done. Louis Vuitton opened a leather-goods workshop in Alvarado, Texas, in 2019 as part of a push to diversify manufacturing and meet growing demand in its largest market. But scaling up has proven difficult.
The site has faced growing pains as Louis Vuitton struggled to recruit and train local artisans. LVMH MC -1.26%decrease; red down pointing triangle CEO Bernard Arnault said he planned to hire a thousand staff at the plant when it initially opened, but years later the facility only employs around 300 people—a slower-than-expected expansion that the company partly attributes to the pandemic.
Still, Arnault recently said the group would “inevitably be forced to increase its American production” if the EU fails to reach a deal to avert Trump’s tariffs.
A town built on leather
Spain quietly plays a central role in the global luxury supply chain—especially in leather goods.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Ubrique, where leather craftsmanship took off in the 19th century—helped by the town’s abundant water supply, crucial for softening hides and dyeing leather.
The area’s isolation and poverty played a role too. Families raised livestock while women began sewing and finishing leather goods at home. By the 1970s, Ubrique had become a byword for craftsmanship, drawing brands like Dior and Loewe.
Today, handbag makers rely on Ubrique’s extensive network of suppliers, specialized machinery makers, tanneries and logistics hubs that have developed together over decades.
Their close proximity enables speed and flexibility, which are crucial in an industry that is constantly working on new designs. Workshops often work hand-in-hand with brands to develop prototypes and refine products. Longstanding relationships have fostered trust and discretion, helping protect sourcing strategies and unreleased designs.
Chanel purses are made in a discreet workshop with no signage, while Louis Vuitton relies on a longstanding supplier with several sites across town to produce pieces including a $3,000 hobo-style bag.
Ubrique’s rich industrial ecosystem would be difficult, and take years, to replicate elsewhere. Similar tightknit luxury clusters can be found in Tuscany for leather goods, La Chaux-de-Fonds for Swiss watches and the French town of Grasse for perfume.
Economic forces have threatened Ubrique before. During the 2008 financial crisis, many luxury brands moved production to lower-cost countries like China. The result: factory closures, job losses and economic pain.
“You’d see people who had nothing to eat coming here asking for help,” said Bautista, the deputy mayor.
But just a few years later the brands were back. Factories in China proved susceptible to counterfeiters. When design specifications or materials were leaked, copycat producers could flood the market with knockoffs.
Inside the workshops
Throughout Ubrique, the tap tap of the patacabra rings out from behind workshop walls.
At many of the town’s factories, workers arrive before dawn, stow their phones in lockers and wait for a 6.55 a.m. alarm. When it sounds, they head to their benches and work—mostly on their feet—until 3 p.m., broken only by a 20-minute break.
Luxury brands often promote the image of a single in-house artisan meticulously crafting a handbag from start to finish. In reality, production is more industrial, broken down into a series of repetitive, specialized tasks that require less training—in theory making it easier to shift manufacturing elsewhere.
Yet making luxury leather goods still involves a sequence of precise, hands-on steps that require a high level of skill. Leather must be inspected and cut, then thinned, reinforced, stitched and assembled—often using techniques that machines can’t easily replicate. Edges are finished by hand and hardware is carefully fitted.
More experienced workers are assigned to the most technically demanding tasks. At one factory, employees said men’s backpacks were the hardest to make—not just because of the number of components, but also the precision needed to fit the panels, handles and zips.
“Finding qualified people is tough,” said Manuel Fernández, owner of the Don Puro workshop, which supplies several luxury brands. “Out of every three new hires, you might only keep one. The others just don’t work out.”
While businesspeople in Ubrique say they have yet to feel the impact of Trump’s tariffs, the uncertainty is leading to heightened concerns in the town.
A broad luxury slowdown has already hit Ubrique’s producers. While much of the slack has been taken up by Polène, a fast-growing French brand that makes all of its handbags in the town, some workshops are feeling the pain as clients cut back on orders.
Marcos Obando, who works for a local employers’ association, is hopeful big luxury brands will keep investing in Ubrique, even if tariffs do add to costs. He argues the town should double down on quality, since it can’t compete on price—not even with lower-cost neighbors like Portugal or countries in Eastern Europe.
“There is a reason why all the brands have been working here for decades—why this town has been focused on this for many, many years,” he said.
China’s airlines raise alarm as travellers ditch planes for bullet trains
More passengers on busy Beijing-Shanghai route are choosing high-speed rail, which offers flexibility, comfort and stable internet access
More passengers shuttling between China’s two biggest cities are choosing to hop on a bullet train rather than a flight, as airlines struggle to match the convenience offered by the country’s ultra-modern high-speed rail network.
The shift to rail has become so pronounced on the busy Beijing-Shanghai route that China’s air travel industry has warned its market is being “eroded”, with airlines scrambling to lure back customers with cheaper tickets and free limousine services.
Passengers made more than 52 million trips by train between Beijing and Shanghai last year, while only about 8.6 million people took a flight between the two cities, according to civil aviation platform Hangban Guanjia.
Business travellers especially are increasingly viewing high-speed rail as a superior option, experts said, with China Railway’s fastest service now able to travel the 1,300-kilometer route in just over four hours.
Passengers also prize the flexibility and convenience offered by rail travel, as China Railway’s modern cabins offer stable internet access, charging points and large seats, they added.
Robust demand has turned the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway into a cash cow for the state-owned rail operator, despite the line suffering a string of teething problems during its first years of operation.
The service generated 42 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) in 2024, up 3.62 per cent year on year, with net profits surging more than 10 per cent to 12.8 billion yuan.
More than 100 high-speed trains now run between Beijing and Shanghai in both directions at speeds of up to 350km/h (217 mph), most of them comprising 16 to 17 carriages including first- and business-class cabins.
The profitability and high usage rate on the Beijing-Shanghai line offers a stark contrast to some other Chinese railways. Many lines in the country’s sparsely populated central and western provinces run at heavy losses.
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Airlines offer about 55 flights between China’s two largest cities each way per day, most of them operated by widebody aircraft.
Business travellers make up a particularly large proportion of rail passengers, Tong Lijun, deputy chief of Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, told domestic media outlet Jiefang Daily.
“They favour many conveniences rail transport can offer but air travel cannot, such as good punctuality, city centre-to-city centre connectivity, reliable services even during unstable weather, and the flexibility to change departure times,” Tong said.
“Many tend to avoid air travel since having to go offline on a flight can be a deal-breaker, as they need to make full use of the journey to stay connected and do some work,” he added.
China Railway has deployed state-of-the-art trains along the Beijing-Shanghai trunk route, with business cabins featuring fully-reclining seats and adjustable laptop tables equipped with multiple charging points.
Chinese airlines, meanwhile, are often hamstrung by poor service reliability, as bad weather and unpredictable air traffic control lead to frequent delays.
The China Air Transport Association warned in an April report that the passenger base for air travel was being “eroded” by competition from the rail sector, as high-end customers ditch flying.
“With its continuous increase in speed, high-speed rail has a strong appeal in terms of total door-to-door commuting time and regularity,” it said.
Airlines have been stepping up efforts to win back customers in recent months with improved services and special deals.
China Eastern Airlines and Air China debuted bespoke services for frequent fliers in May, allowing them to switch between flights from either carrier and enjoy city-to-airport limousine pickup services.
A price war is also under way in the air travel sector: fares on some routes are now sometimes cheaper than rail tickets.
Travel between Beijing and Shanghai – which had a combined economic output of more than 10 trillion yuan last year – is set to continue growing over the coming years, making the battle for passengers even more crucial.
China Railway has faced calls to ratchet up the service frequency between the two megacities even further, matching the level of Japan’s famous Shinkansen bullet trains.
The Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka operates nearly 150 departures daily in each direction, with trains running every few minutes during rush hours.