Health

Using a new, stem cell-based, drug-screening technology that could reinvent and greatly reduce the cost of developing pharmaceuticals, researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have found a compound that is more effective in protecting the neurons killed in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis than are two drugs that failed in human clinical trials.

An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of a creature whose evolutionary history is both enigmatic and illuminating: the African coelacanth

Members of the Harvard community responded to the Boston Marathon attacks and offered thoughts about both the physical and mental injuries they caused.

Lest you think you’re at the top of the evolutionary heap, looking down your highly evolved nose at the earth’s lesser creatures, Marlene Zuk has a message for you: When it comes to evolution, there is no high or low, no better or worse.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talked tobacco taxes and health care reform Monday during an appearance at the Forum at Harvard School of Public Health.

The Mediterranean Diet has been lauded as a healthy eater’s dream, but it’s still a mystery to many Americans. Greek cooking guru Diane Kochilas and cardiac health expert Frank Sacks — who have worked to enhance the diet’s presence in Harvard’s dining hall menus — visited groups across Harvard last week to share insights and recipes.

Older adults who have high blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids — found almost exclusively in fatty seafood — may be able to lower their overall mortality risk by as much as 27 percent and their mortality risk from heart disease by about 35 percent, according to a new study.

Among the many challenges facing scientists and public health officials seeking to erase malaria from the globe are the reservoirs of parasites hidden in asymptomatic carriers or dormant in patients’ livers, said analysts at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In a study conducted by Harvard and MGH researchers, gut microbes of mice underwent drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery, and transfer of the microbes into sterile mice resulted in rapid weight loss.

In a new paper, Christopher Marx, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, says that beneficial mutations may occur more often than first thought, but many never emerge as “winners” because they don’t fall within the narrow set of circumstances required for them to dominate a population.

In a new paper, Harvard researchers show that changes in coat color in mice are the result not of a single mutation, but of many mutations, all in a single gene. The results start to answer one of the fundamental questions about evolution: Does it proceed by huge leaps — single mutations that result in dramatic changes in an organism — or is it the result of many smaller changes over time?

Professor of Psychology Matthew Nock is the author of a new paper, co-authored with other Harvard faculty, which examines suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents. In a recent conversation with the Gazette, Nock discussed his research, and the resources available at Harvard for students and others in the community.

A report by Harvard researchers has concluded that the benefits of stopping smoking far exceed the risks from any associated weight gain.

The effects of stress on health, well-being, and even creativity were the focus of the Forum at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) this week.

Throughout history, more women have died in childbirth than men have died in battle, Mahmoud Fathalla, founder of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, told attendees at the recent Global Maternal Health Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, co-sponsored by Harvard School of Public Health’s Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF) and Management and Development for Health (MDH), a Tanzanian nonprofit.

A new study led by Harvard Medical School Professor Dennis Selkoe provides specific, pre-clinical scientific evidence supporting the concept that prolonged and intensive stimulation by an enriched environment may have beneficial effects in delaying one of the key negative factors in Alzheimer’s disease.

Work led by Yun Zhang, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, shows how the pathway of insulin and insulinlike peptides plays a critical role in helping to regulate learning and memory.

Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found that even dying stars could host planets with life — and if such life exists, they believe we might be able to detect it within the next decade.

In January, when the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a meta-analysis of 100 studies that probed the relationship between body mass index and mortality — studies that found slightly overweight people have lower all-cause mortality than normal weight and underweight people — media around the globe trumpeted the news.

Naomi E. Pierce talked about her research on symbiosis as part of the “Evolution Matters” lecture series.

A Harvard Medical School lecturer and former head of the federal agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid shared his experiences pushing for improved health care quality, saying that teamwork, cost curtailment, and a focus on patients are keys to success.

Peter Turnbaugh and co-authors Corinne Ferrier Maurice and Henry Joseph Haiser show that as drugs are administered, the activity of human gut microbes can change dramatically. Understanding how those changes affect drug chemistry could help researchers to design drugs that work more effectively and antibiotics that more specifically target pathogens.

Earth-like planets potentially capable of supporting life may be right in our galactic neighborhood, according to researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the California Institute of Technology.

Adequate levels of vitamin D during young adulthood could cut the risk of adult-onset type 1 diabetes by as much as 50 percent, according to new findings by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.

A U.N. official said Thursday that the world has made progress in reducing poverty and in meeting some of its eight Millennium Development Goals, but that entrenched inequality of women will slow efforts to meet equality and maternal mortality targets by 2015.

Professor Arkhat Abzhanov explored links between dinosaurs and birds in talk kicking off a five-part series called “Evolution Matters.” The next lecture is scheduled for Feb. 12.

A team of scientists gained some critical intelligence, not by designing a new antibiotic, but by interfering with the metabolism of the bacterial “bugs” — E. coli in this case — and rendering them weaker in the face of existing antibiotics.

The Harvard Malaria Forum explored the status of the global fight against malaria, focusing on how businesses can aid government and nonprofit efforts against the global killer.

Students at the Harvard School of Public Health are joining forces to draw attention to World Cancer Day on Feb. 4, organizing a symposium of experts to talk about the problem and collecting signatures for a declaration of cancer-related global health priorities.

A novel experiment illuminates the importance of the doctor-patient relationship, providing the first data into the underlying neurobiology of the caregiver.