Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

Study demonstrates how a subset of common gut bacteria renders mice resistant to viral infections.

• share
• favorite_border

At a glance: • Receipt of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections makes it more likely that patients and their families will seek care and receive antibiotics for future respiratory viral infections. • Antibiotics work against bacteria but not against viruses, and improper use can make bacteria resistant to these drugs. • The analysis reveals concerning variations in the prescribing patterns of urgent care clinicians. • In the year after their visit, patients randomly assigned to clinicians who prescribed more antibiotics got 15 percent more antibiotics for viral respiratory infections compared with patients seen by clinicians who prescribed the fewest antibiotics. • The findings underscore the importance of judicious antibiotic prescribing only for infections that can benefit from antibiotic therapy.

• share
• favorite_border

Five research projects with exceptional promise to deliver new life-changing and health-altering therapies have received the inaugural Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards (BTCA) at Harvard Medical School.

• share
• favorite_border

Harvard scientists discovered a key control mechanism that cells use to self-organize in early embryonic development. The findings shed light on a process fundamental to multicellular life and open new avenues for improved tissue and organ engineering .

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have created a detailed cellular and molecular map of the healthy human heart to understand how this vital organ functions and to shed light on what goes awry in cardiovascular disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have demonstrated that a new x-ray microscopy technique could help accelerate efforts to map neural circuits and ultimately the brain itself.

• share
• favorite_border

• Researchers create a centralized electronic medical records tool to gather, monitor, analyze clinical trends in COVID-19 across multiple countries • Proof-of-concept platform overcomes key hurdles of decentralized EMR systems • Platform underscores the value of clinical record sharing in generating clinical insights, spotting trends to inform rapid response during pandemics

• share
• favorite_border

Study identifies genetic link between cholesterol alterations and autism. Lipid abnormalities found in nearly 7 percent of individuals diagnosed with an autism-spectrum disorder. Results can inform the design of precision-targeted therapies for this form of autism. Findings set the stage for studies to determine the clinical value of lipid abnormalities as biomarkers for autism.

• share
• favorite_border

• New drug regimen for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis shows early effectiveness in 85 percent of patients in a cohort including many with serious comorbidities. • The results suggest a global need for expanded access to two recently developed medicines, bedaquiline and delamanid. • Study cohort included many people who would have been excluded from trials because of comorbidities, severity of disease or extent of drug resistance. • Findings highlight the importance of innovative regimens to improve outcomes for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School has successfully used acupuncture to tame cytokine storm in mice with systemic inflammation.

• share
• favorite_border

At a glance: In a study of former NFL players, Black, Hawaiian, and athletes from other racial backgrounds report worse physical, mental health outcomes than white players The widest health gaps emerged between Black and white former NFL players Black former players reported worse health outcomes in all five health categories, compared with their white peers Presence of health disparities among former NLF players reflects the deep and pervasive nature of systemic inequities that persist even among elite athletes

• share
• favorite_border

• A study shows female physicians have more equitable income when they work in practices with more doctors who are women. • The analysis shows a 12 percent relative difference in income for practices with equal numbers of female and male physicians, compared with a 20 percent income difference in practices dominated by men. • The findings offer important evidence that workplace diversity can help reduce earnings gaps, other inequities.

• share
• favorite_border

PDE5 inhibitors, such as sildenafil, activate protein quality-control systems and improve cells’ ability to dispose of misfolded proteins. Researchers find lowered accumulation of mutant proteins and reduced cell death and anatomical defects in zebrafish models of neurodegeneration after treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers systematically surveyed the entire protein landscape of normal and nutrient-deprived cells to identify which proteins and organelles are degraded by autophagy, to shed light on the question of how cells decide what to recycle when they are starving.

• share
• favorite_border

Harvard Medical School has named Robert Gentleman as founding executive director of the newly established Center for Computational Biomedicine. Gentleman, an accomplished statistician and computational scientist with extensive experience in academia and industry, most recently served as vice president of computational biology at the genetic testing company 23andMe.

• share
• favorite_border

New findings reframe the traditional view of face blindness as a disorder arising strictly from deficits in visual perception of facial features Findings suggest prosopagnosia may be a more complex disorder rooted in multiple deficits Findings can help inform the design of tools to improve face recognition in those with the condition

• share
• favorite_border

Harvard Medical School receives a $5 million gift for Lyme disease research, education

• share
• favorite_border

Neuroscientists reveal for the first time how relationships between different odors are encoded in the brain. Findings may explain why individuals have common but highly personalized experiences with smell, and inform efforts to understand how odor chemistry is translated into perception.

• share
• favorite_border

• On average, a full-time primary care physician in the U.S. will lose more than $65,000 in revenue in 2020. • Overall, the U.S. primary care sector will lose nearly $15 billion. • Losses stem from drastic reductions in office visits and fees for services during COVID-19 shutdowns from March to May. • Losses threaten practice viability, reducing further an already insufficient number of primary care providers in the United States. • Findings underscore the need for a plan that provides support for independent primary care doctors, small independent practices.

• share
• favorite_border

The 2020 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to a trio of researchers for seminal discoveries about the function of key intestinal hormones, their effects on metabolism and the subsequent design of treatments for type 2 diabetes, obesity and short bowel syndrome.

• share
• favorite_border

At a glance: • Scientists develop AI-based tool to predict adverse drug events • Such events are responsible for some 2 million U.S. hospitalizations per year • The free, open-source system could enable safer drug design, optimize drug safety

• share
• favorite_border

Neuroscientists have discovered neurons that control hibernation-like behavior in mice, revealing for the first time the neural circuits that regulate this state. By better understanding these processes, the authors envision the possibility of one day working toward inducing torpor in humans.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study finds in sleep-deprived fruit flies, premature death is always preceded by the accumulation of reactive oxidative species in the gut. Antioxidant compounds that neutralize ROS allow sleep-deprived flies to have normal lifespans.

• share
• favorite_border

Harvard scientists have developed DNA-barcoded microbial spores that can be safely introduced onto objects and surfaces at a point of origin, such as a field or manufacturing plant, and be identified months later, to help trace problems like the source of foodborne illness.

• share
• favorite_border

Human genetic diversity wouldn't be possible without DNA crossovers in egg and sperm cells. Two Harvard Medical School studies provide new insights into how crossovers go right--and wrong, leading to infertility, miscarriages and birth defects.

• share
• favorite_border

A new technique overcomes a serious hurdle in the field of bacterial design and engineering Researchers develop method to identify proteins that enable highly efficient bacterial design Approach has potential to boost efforts in bacterial design to tackle infectious diseases, bacterial drug resistance, environmental cleanup and more

• share
• favorite_border

• Newly discovered gene variant in Peruvian populations is powerfully linked with height • Five percent of Peruvians carry the variant, which originates exclusively from Native American populations • The variant occurs on a gene that, when mutated, causes Marfan syndrome, a condition marked by connective tissue abnormalities, including serious cardiovascular problems • The newly discovered variant is not associated with disease and may confer adaptive evolutionary advantage to populations that carry it

• share
• favorite_border

New work led by researchers in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard provides a clear genetic explanation behind the long-standing yet mysterious observation that some diseases occur more often, hit harder or elicit different symptoms in men or women.

• share
• favorite_border

An international research team has conducted the first in-depth, wide-scale study of the genomic history of ancient civilizations in the central Andes mountains and coast before European contact. The findings reveal early genetic distinctions between groups in nearby regions, population mixing within and beyond the Andes, surprising genetic continuity amid cultural upheaval, and ancestral cosmopolitanism among some of the region's most well-known ancient civilizations.

• share
• favorite_border

A new report offers insights that can help clinicians distinguish between patients with COVID-19 infections and those with other conditions that may mimic COVID-19 symptoms.

• share
• favorite_border

The COVID-19 pandemic demands action on many fronts, from prevention to testing to treatment. Not content to focus its research efforts on just one, the laboratory of George Church in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University is tackling the problem from seven different angles.

• share
• favorite_border

After years of progress, geriatrician Sharon Inouye worries that hard-won best practices for reducing delirium risk are getting lost in the turmoil of COVID-19 care.

• share
• favorite_border

William V. Giannobile, an educator and leader in the field of periodontology and an internationally recognized scholar in oral regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and precision medicine, has been named dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. The appointment was announced today by Harvard Medical School Dean George Q Daley.

• share
• favorite_border

A postmortem exam of the brain remains the gold standard for diagnosing chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the neurodegenerative brain disease believed to arise from repeated hits to the head. Yet a small but by no means trivial number of former professional football players say they have received a diagnosis of CTE, according to a new study. Even though the results are based on player self-reports rather than on documented clinical diagnoses, the researchers say their findings are alarming for a number of reasons.

• share
• favorite_border

As scientists forge ahead to piece together a comprehensive profile of the new coronavirus fueling a historic pandemic, they are focusing their efforts on six areas: epidemiology, diagnostics, pathogenesis, clinical disease management, treatment and vaccines.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are adapting an antibody-detection tool to study the aftermath of infections by the novel coronavirus that is causing the current global pandemic.

• share
• favorite_border

Harvard University scientists will collaborate with Chinese colleagues to elucidate the basic biology of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and the resulting disease, toward new diagnostic tools, vaccine development and antiviral therapies. The collaboration is part of a $115 million research initiative funded by China Evergrande Group.

• share
• favorite_border

Harvard researchers have discovered a new mechanism for how the brain and its arteries communicate to supply blood to areas of heightened neural activity. The findings enable new avenues of study into the role of this process in neurological diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

At a glance: Treatment with a naturally occurring antioxidant, CoQ10, restores many aspects of fertility in C. elegans worms following exposure to BPA. Findings offer possible path toward undoing BPA-induced reproductive harms in people. Although CoQ10 is available over the counter, it is not yet clear whether the compound could improve human fertility or do so safely.

• share
• favorite_border

At a glance: Research using heart cells from squirrels, mice and people identifies an evolutionary mechanism critical for heart muscle function Gene defect that affects a protein found in the heart muscle interferes with this mechanism to cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart condition Imbalance in the ratio of active and inactive protein disrupts heart muscle’s ability to contract and relax normally, interferes with heart muscle’s energy consumption Treatment with a small-molecule drug restores proper contraction, energy consumption in human and rodent heart cells If affirmed in subsequent studies, the results can inform therapies that could halt disease progression, help prevent common complications, including arrhythmias and heart failure

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have solved the long-standing mystery of how adrenaline regulates a key class of membrane proteins that are responsible for initiating the contraction of heart cells. The findings provide a mechanistic description of how adrenaline stimulates the heart and present new targets for cardiovascular drug discovery, including the potential development of alternative therapeutics to beta-blockers.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team led by Harvard Medical School scientists has produced the first genome-wide ancient human DNA sequences from west and central Africa.

• share
• favorite_border

At a glance: Experiments in worms reveal the molecular damage caused by DEHP, a chemical commonly used to make plastics flexible DEHP interferes with proper cell division during egg formation, leads to excessive DNA breakage, alters chromosome appearance Abnormalities help explain known link between DEHP and human birth defects, male infertility If replicated in further research, the insights can help inform regulatory changes, consumer choice b

• share
• favorite_border

-Newborn mice derive protective antibodies from their mothers’ microbiota -Antibodies derived from mothers’ microbiota ward off both localized and widespread systemic infections by the bacterium E. coli -Study points to the role of maternal microbes in offspring protection and neonatal immunity -Findings can inform development of microbe-based therapies against infectious diarrhea in infants

• share
• favorite_border

After decades of effort, scientists use induced pluripotent stem cells to model human spine development Findings provide proof of existence of a segmentation clock in humans guiding spine formation Work sets stage for better understanding of musculoskeletal and metabolic disorders, including congenital scoliosis, muscular dystrophy and type 2 diabetes

• share
• favorite_border

Could bile acids—the fat-dissolving juices churned out by the liver and gallbladder—also play a role in immunity and inflammation? The answer appears to be yes, according to two separate Harvard Medical School studies published in Nature.

• share
• favorite_border

Pharmaceutical R&D executive, accomplished scientist to lead School’s efforts to propel basic science discoveries into treatments

• share
• favorite_border

Analysis of more than 6 million clinical and life science papers shows articles with male lead authors are up to 21 percent more likely to use language that frames their research positively Papers that use positive framing, including words like “promising,” “novel” and “unique,” in headlines and abstracts are more likely to be cited by other authors than papers without positive framing Differences in the way men and women describe, discuss and convey their research could contribute to persistent gender gaps in pay and career advancement in life sciences and medicine This is the first large-scale study to quantify gender differences in linguistic framing in biomedical research

• share
• favorite_border

National analysis reveals alarming decline in primary care use. Primary care is associated with better health outcomes than episodic, inconsistent care.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to disrupt both latent reservoirs of the herpes simplex virus and actively replicating virus in human fibroblast cells