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