Different tissues have shockingly variable sensitivities to genes that drive normal and malignant cell proliferation, study shows. Research unmasks hundreds of cancer-driving genes invisible to gene sequencing. Findings could explain why individual cancer drivers appear in some tumors and not others, could inspire tissue-specific strategies for cancer treatment.
Mexican cavefish have insulin resistance, a hallmark of many human metabolic disorders and a precursor to type 2 diabetes that can lead to an overworked pancreas, excess fat storage and chronically elevated blood sugar. Despite dysregulated blood sugar, the fish don’t suffer the same health consequences people do. Study offers a fresh opportunity to understand how animals thrive with traits that sicken humans and could point the way to new interventions for disease.
•The ability of the “cold sore” herpes simplex virus to establish quiet infections and reawaken periodically has long mystified scientists. •A new study in mice reveals that a key host protein acts as a critical regulator of the virus’s sleep-wake cycle. •Disabling two viral binding sites for the protein weakened the virus’s ability to come out of hiding.
Heart-attack sufferers who receive treatment during periods when interventional cardiologists are away at academic conferences are more likely to survive in the month after their heart attack than patients receiving treatment during nonmeeting days.
Neurons that carry nerve signals to and from the lungs suppress immune response during fatal lung infections with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Animal experiments show that disabling these neurons can boost immune response and promote bacterial clearance to aid recovery. Targeting neuro-immune signaling in the lungs can pave the way to nonantibiotic therapies for bacterial pneumonia.
Gun injuries fall by 20 percent during the dates of the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. Some 80,000 gun owners attend the NRA’s national convention, including many experienced users. A brief period of gun abstinence, even by experienced, well-trained gun owners, appears to yield safety benefits.
In the last eight years, the field of ancient DNA research has expanded from just one ancient human genome to more than 1,300. The latest 625 of those genomes debut Feb. 21 in two papers published simultaneously in Nature, including the largest study of ancient DNA to date.
To help catalyze the development of genetic therapies, Harvard Medical School is launching a new program aimed at educating pharma and biotech leaders on the latest advances in genetics and how to optimize them for drug discovery and other therapeutic innovations.
Research in mice pinpoints immune mechanism behind tissue damage and complications of chlamydia infection, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. Separate immune mechanisms drive bacterial clearance versus immune-mediated tissue damage and subsequent disease. Therapies are needed to avert irreversible reproductive organ damage that can arise as a result of silent infections that go untreated.
Antibodies made by camels, llamas and alpacas allow scientists to study the structure and function of proteins in disease and health. While valuable, the approach is time-consuming, costly and often unsuccessful. Overcoming this barrier, scientists have devised a faster, cheaper and more reliable way to create these critical antibodies using yeast in a test tube.
Is it nature or nurture that ultimately shapes an organism? A new study reveals a dramatic landscape of gene expression changes across all cell types in the mouse visual cortex after a sensory experience, many linked to neural connectivity and the brain’s ability to rewire itself to learn and adapt.
Harvard Medical School scientists have identified the molecular machinery responsible for secretion of the neurotransmitter dopamine, opening door for new strategies to precision target dopamine release.
A 25-year-old drug discount program aimed at boosting resources for hospitals treating low-income patients did not deliver on its promise to enhance care for the needy, according to research from Harvard Medical School and the NYU School of Medicine.
Researchers reveal in detail how fertilization triggers destruction of a small number of proteins, which releases the “brakes” on an egg’s cell cycle. Simultaneously, vast quantities of proteins are rapidly secreted from the egg to help prevent fertilization by multiple sperm cells.
Harvard Medical School will offer online education to doctors-in-the-making and practicing clinicians affiliated with a pediatric cancer hospital in Egypt, the 57357 Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo.
Benefits of many cancer drug combinations are not due to drug synergy, but to “bet hedging.” Combinations give each patient multiple chances of responding to at least one drug, increasing survival within patient populations. Findings suggest new ways to improve the design of combination therapies.
Rainy weather has long been blamed for achy joints and back pain. Past research has yielded mixed results. New analysis tracking visits to the doctor with daily rainfall found no relationship between the two.
Study in mice reveals a brain circuit that regulates social memory formation and recognition. Results shed light on brain’s ability to reconcile conflicting social stimuli, and shed light on anomalies in social behavior seen in neurodevelopmental, neurologic and psychiatric disorders
Overcoming a major hurdle in microbiome research, scientists have developed a method to elucidate cause-effect relationships between gut bacteria and disease. The approach could help identify disease-modulating microbes and open doors to precision-targeted therapies derived from microbial molecules.
Substitute, for-hire physicians commonly care for hospitalized patients when doctors are sick or away. Information about outcomes is largely lacking, but a new study brings some much-needed insight. Results show no differences in 30-day mortality rates among patients treated by temporary physicians.
New study finds that death rates for those hospitalized for opioid-related conditions in the U.S. have quadrupled since 2000. Worst toll seen among patients who were low-income, white, under age 65 and on Medicare, and the severity of opioid misuse leading to hospitalization has increased.
The first large Medicare pay-for-performance program for doctors and medical practices, which ran between 2013 and 2016, failed to deliver on its central promise to increase value of care for patients. The program may have also exacerbated health disparities by inadvertently shifting payments from physicians caring for sicker, poorer patients to those caring for healthier, richer ones. Important similarities between the failed pay-for-performance prototype and its successor suggest the latter may not be sound policy.
Depletion of a fatty molecule in human blood propels malaria parasites to stop replicating and causing illness in people and instead to jump ship to mosquitoes to continue the transmission cycle, according to a new study by an international research team.
Drug exposure can cause significant changes in gene expression without affecting growth or survival in some cell lines, highlighting strategies to better evaluate drug effectiveness.
Breast cancer cells recycle ammonia, a waste byproduct of cell metabolism, and use it as a source of nitrogen to fuel tumor growth. The insights shed light on the biological role of ammonia in cancer and may inform the design of new therapeutic strategies to slow tumor growth.
Four Harvard Medical School scientists are among 86 recipients nationwide honored by the National Institutes of Health High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program.
An analysis reveals that the branded form of a synthetic progestin for the prevention of recurrent preterm births costs 5,000 percent more than the compounded, made-to-order version of the medication despite having the same active ingredients and being clinically interchangeable.
Working with mouse cells, Harvard Medical School scientists have successfully recreated the segmentation clock that drives spine formation during embryonic development. Insights can illuminate normal spine development, understanding of spinal malformations such as scoliosis and spina bifida.
The first large-scale study of ancient human DNA from sub-Saharan Africa opens a long-awaited window into the identity of prehistoric populations in the region and how they moved around and replaced one another over the past 8,000 years.
Largest study to date identifies gender-specific patterns of autism and related disorders occurrence among sibling pairs.
New study identifies a handful of molecular machines that run circadian clocks, biomechanical oscillators that control physiology, metabolism and behavior on a 24-hour cycle. Findings dispel traditional view that key clock proteins act individually and provide the first structural glimpse of the body’s circadian machine. Identifying protein complexes that operate the circadian clock could eventually lead to new treatments for disorders stemming from malfunctions in the system, including sleep problems, metabolic problems and cancer.
Researchers interested in the evolution of multicellular life were looking for bacteria that stimulate Salpingoeca rosetta, single-cell saltwater dwellers that are the closest living relatives of animals, to form the rosette-shaped colonies that give them their name. But one bacterium had quite a different stimulating effect: It motivated S. rosetta to have sex.
A new study reveals that nearly half of all hospitals have a dominant investor that also owns a stake in a skilled nursing facility, hospice or home health care agency in the same market. Shared ownership increased sharply in the last decade. The trend has important implications not only for cost and quality of care but for antitrust, payment and regulatory policies.
Scientists have long deemed the ability to recognize faces innate for people and other primates. However, the findings of a new Harvard Medical School study cast doubt on this longstanding view. The study may shed light on autism spectrum disorders.
A study led by scientists at Harvard Medical School reveals that a gene that has a protective influence against diabetes is powerfully shaped by the trillions of intestinal bacteria collectively known as the gut microbiota.
Harvard Medical School researchers have identified the mechanism behind red blood cell specialization. Their findings could spark the development of new treatments for blood disorders and cancers.
New research from Harvard Medical School casts doubt on the prevailing model of memory formation, suggesting that the brain may be far more flexible and less rigid in the way it incorporates, stores and recalls information.
Americans extol price shopping for health care as a prudent idea, yet few actually do it even when given the means to, according to the findings of two separate studies led by investigators at Harvard Medical School.
Novel molecular tests that detect certain genetic mutations in tuberculosis are as good in predicting response to treatment and risk of dying as old-fashioned drug-sensitivity tests done in lab cultures. The results stem from a head-to-head comparison between standard culture-based drug-sensitivity tests and molecular tests that detect specific genetic mutations that make TB resistant to treatment. The findings, based on analysis of 171 samples obtained from patients in Lima, Peru, should provide reassurance of molecular tests’ reliability as predictor of overall treatment outcome.
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered a new regulatory mechanism for genomic imprinting, the process that silences one parent’s gene so that only the other parent’s gene is expressed in offspring.
At a glance: ·Newly published research reveals the presence of a blueprint for the complex visual system already present at birth. ·The observations shed light on a long-standing mystery about how and when certain cardinal features of the visual system develop. ·The findings have implications for human brain evolution and could provide explanation for some anomalies in visual activity seen in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.
At a glance: Medicare policies governing end-of-life care for cancer patients may fail to reflect the variety of experiences across different patient subgroups. Researchers have developed a model that accounts for variations in the clinical course, outcomes and patterns of care among patients with the same cancer diagnosis. Stratification of different subpopulations could lead to better tailored Medicare policies that take into account critical differences in end-of-life care.
Harvard Medical School study generates near-atomic resolution images of key steps in CRISPR-Cas3 function, revealing layers of error detection that prevent unintended genomic damage. Structural understanding informs efforts to improve CRISPR systems for gene editing and reduce off-target effects.
Chickens may illuminate how humans developed sharp daylight vision
Decades after the discovery of anti-obesity hormone, scant evidence that leptin keeps lean people lean, scientists caution
At a glance: Most frequent genetic cause of ALS and a form of dementia (FTD) is known to produce toxic peptides that interfere with RNA splicing—an intermediary step in generating functional proteins from genes. New Harvard Medical School study finds these toxic peptides block assembly of the cellular machinery responsible for RNA splicing. This blockage leads to splicing errors for genes that regulate the workings of mitochondria and neurons and the expression of other genes. Restoring normal splicing function may be a therapeutic strategy for averting or treating the development of ALS, FTD or both.
At a glance: People with low levels of vitamin A living in households with people who have TB were 10 times more likely to develop the disease themselves. The study findings suggest that vitamin A supplementation may offer powerful protection against the deadly disease among high-risk individuals. TB, one of the top infectious disease killers globally, hits especially hard in low- and middle-income countries, where vitamin A deficiencies are common.
Scientists recognized for seminal discoveries in cancer’s ability to thwart immune surveillance that paved the way to immune-based cancer therapies
-Mail-order liver helps researchers identify elusive protein linked to cancer, neurodegeneration
Harvard Medical School Expert Calls for Protection of Critical Gains Made in Cancer Care Under Obamacare
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right