Health

It could be that the key to being a better parent is all in your head, Harvard researchers say.

Harvard scientists have merged stem cell and “organ-on-a-chip” technologies to grow, for the first time, functioning human heart tissue carrying an inherited cardiovascular disease. The research appears to be a big step forward for personalized medicine, because it is working proof that a chunk of tissue containing a patient’s specific genetic disorder can be replicated in the laboratory.

Harvard researchers find that a gene essential for normal brain development, and linked to autism spectrum disorders, also plays a critical role in addiction-related behaviors.

At the elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 anticipated by around 2050, crops that provide a large share of the global population with most of its dietary zinc and iron will have significantly reduced concentrations of those nutrients, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have shown that a protein, one they previously demonstrated can make failing hearts in aging mice appear more like those of young and healthy mice, similarly improves brain and skeletal muscle function in aging mice.

Despite this year’s long winter and slow-warming spring, Harvard experts say that climate change hasn’t gone on hiatus. Long-term evidence indicates that spring in Boston has begun coming weeks earlier over the last century. The Gazette spoke with Elizabeth Wolkovich, a recently appointed assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, about spring’s arrival, climate change, and nature’s life cycles.

Students in humanitarian relief got a taste of crisis during a three-day simulation at Harold Parker State Forest.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have reprogrammed mature blood cells from mice into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), using a cocktail of eight genetic switches called transcription factors. The reprogrammed cells have the functional hallmarks of HSCs and are able to self-renew like those cells.

A new exhibit, “Body of Knowledge,” offers a five-century foray through the culture and history of anatomy and dissection, from the days of autopsies in private homes to the present debate over using digital ways to study the body without saws and knives. The exhibit will offer a special viewing May 3, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., for the Harvard Arts First Festival.

A recent study by a group of Harvard-affiliated researchers found a sharp increase in the use of opioid painkillers among a large group of pregnant women between 2000 and 2007. Its lead author discussed the findings with the Gazette.

Myelin, the electrical insulating material in the body long known to be essential for the fast transmission of impulses along the axons of nerve cells, is not as ubiquitous as thought, according to new work led by Professor Paola Arlotta.

Drawing on the experience of four nations, experts described how crises and fundamental transitions often prove the catalysts behind universal health care systems during a panel event Tuesday at Harvard’s Longwood campus.

For most people, rock-paper-scissors is a game used to settle disputes on the playground. For biologists, however, it is a powerful guide for understanding the key role mutation plays in…

A study following more than 1,800 children from ages 6 months to nearly 8 years old found a small but consistent association between increased television viewing and shorter sleep duration.

Author and activist Eve Ensler, who opened Radcliffe’s two-day conference “Who Decides? Gender, Medicine, and the Public’s Health,” read from her new memoir, “In the Body of the World.” The conference brought together physicians, policymakers, journalists, and academics to examine topics such as how we care for our health and respond to disease.

Strong Medicine is a Harvard-sponsored archive of stories, photographs, oral histories and other media documenting the medical community’s response to the marathon bombings.

Reformed workaholic Arianna Huffington talked about her new book, “Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder,” during a visit to HSPH.

Harvard stem cell scientists have discovered that a recently approved medication for epilepsy might be a meaningful treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a uniformly fatal neurodegenerative disorder.

Three specialists spoke to students about the benefits of intuitive eating in an event at Sever Hall.

With a growing concern about nanoparticle use in everyday objects, scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health have discovered a fast, simple, and inexpensive method to measure the effective density of engineered nanoparticles, making it possible to accurately determine the amount that comes into contact with cells and tissue.

A new study from Dartmouth and Harvard researchers looks at the mechanisms behind facial recognition.

Investigators at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) may have found a way to solve a problem that has plagued ligand-mimicking integrin inhibitors, a group of drugs that have the potential to treat conditions ranging from heart attacks to cancer metastasis.

Harvard researchers have estimated that around 1 million children suffer from tuberculosis annually — twice the number previously thought to have the disease and three times the number of cases diagnosed every year.

New research conducted at Harvard demonstrates sharing behavior in African grey parrots.

Harvard researchers have released the first study to show that the adverse effects of fried foods may vary depending on the genetic makeup of the individual.

Even the “healthy” fruit drinks that Americans sip are packed with the amount of sugar contained in six cookies. That love affair is making us sick.

The narwhal tusk has now been mapped, showing a pathway between the spiral tooth and the narwhal brain. The study reflects how the mysterious animal may use its tusk to suss out its environment.

A multi-institutional study led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT reports that newly diagnosed Crohn’s disease patients show increased levels of harmful bacteria and reduced levels of the beneficial bacteria usually found in a healthy gastrointestinal tract.

AIDS researchers and medical ethicists gathered at the Harvard School of Public Health to explore possible ethical issues affecting studies of promising strategies to fight the ailment.

Scientists have long suggested that the best way to settle the debate about how phenotypic plasticity may be connected to evolution would be to identify a mechanism that controls both. Harvard researchers say they have discovered just such a mechanism in insulin signaling in fruit flies.