A study released yesterday provides encouraging news about the ongoing quest to develop a vaccine for Ebola. The findings, published in the Lancet, are from a WHO-sponsored phase 3 trial that was carried out in Guinea last year, as the Ebola outbreak was waning. Researchers found that none of the nearly 6,000 people who received the vaccine went on to develop Ebola, compared to 23 Ebola cases in the group that did not get vaccinated. That confirms preliminary results released in July 2015, and is encouraging news, though it's worth noting that the vaccine only protects against one strain of Ebola, known as Zaire. Merck, who holds the license to the drug, is now expected to seek regulatory approval next year. More here. 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists isn't on board with a new FDA warning about the potential of anesthesia to harm young brains. Last week, the FDA announced that it will require new labeling on certain sedative drugs saying that they could be dangerous when used repeatedly or in long procedures in babies, toddlers, or pregnant women in their third trimester. But this week ACOG said it has "significant concerns" about the FDA's decision as it pertains to pregnant women, pointing to what it described as uncertain medical evidence justifying such warnings and the risk that doctors might be dissuaded from providing necessary care. The FDA's announcement, ACOG said, "is in direct contradiction to longstanding experience, clinical guidance, and the current standard of care."

Representative Tom Price, Trump's nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has the makings of an image problem on his hands — thanks to a long list of health care stock trades detailed in a Wall Street Journal report last night. In the past four years, Price has bought and sold more than $300,000 worth of stock in about 40 healthcare companies, meanwhile sponsoring and advocating legislation that could affect those companies' stocks. It's all legal, but it could certainly come up in his confirmation hearings. For more context, read these deep dives from STAT on some of the ethically thorny issues around federal lawmakers' pharmaceutical investments, as well as those of Price specifically.

The Department of Defense announced this week it is spending $80 million over the next seven years on a new push to develop innovative techniques to print and produce new cells, tissues, and organs for wounded service members. Dozens of companies, universities, and nonprofits are committing another $214 million to the endeavor. And the project has some star-power in the form of entrepreneur Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, who'll be heading the initiative. Among the technologies they hope to advance are cell processing, bioprinting, and ways to automate biological testing. 

RACHAEL SAUNDERS FOR STAT

It's a time of year for memories and we've got fond ones for these charming holiday reads. There's the handy illustrated medical billing code guide to holiday injuries — filled with lots of things we hope don't befall you this season ("struck by turkey") and one we hope does ("holiday relief"). If you're looking to impress your loved ones during a screening of "A Christmas Carol," look no further than this explanation of the scientific reason some people lack Christmas cheer. And finally, though it's a slower-paced time of year, science stops for no one — and sometimes those quiet lab benches are the perfect place for breakthroughs.

It's sadly true that cardiac deaths spike during the holiday season, but researchers have had a hard time discerning how much of that is driven by the holidays and how much by cold weather. But a cleverly designed new study attempts to get around that by looking at cardiac deaths in New Zealand — where the holiday season coincides with some of the warmest temperatures of the year. A team of researchers from Australia and New Zealand looked at nearly 200,000 cardiac deaths in New Zealand between 1988 and 2003. They found that even in toasty New Zealand, sudden cardiac deaths spike at Christmastime — and that those individuals are younger than victims at other times of the year. Read the paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

At the end of each year, Bloomberg Businessweek puts out an annual "Jealousy List" of the stories staffers wish they'd written. We over here at STAT were jealous of that idea — so we came up with our own list of some of the best journalism in the world of health and medicine in 2016. We found a lot to admire: investigations of a psychiatric chain and sober homes, accessible explanations of drug prices and vestigial structures, and unforgettable profiles of everyone from a biotech billionaire to a recovering opioid addict. You can read the full list of our picks — and find links to the original stories — here.