Stumped by a Medical Mystery? Try Metagenomics

When doctors can't figure out what's ailing us, they can search our bodies for snippets of genetic material from viruses, bacteria, and fungi. In 2019, Nichol Cano, an otherwise healthy mother of three in Fresno, California, began experiencing worsening headaches. She had no history of headaches; they had seemed to start after a liposuction surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. She saw her primary-care doctor and then a neurologist, who diagnosed her as having migraines. She was given a standard migraine treatment--an injection and a pill--but her pain only intensified.