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  • Fragile period of childhood brain development could underlie epilepsy

    A form of partial epilepsy associated with auditory and other sensory hallucinations has been linked to the disruption of brain development during early childhood, according to a study led by…

  • Prepping for H1N1, round 2

    While questions still remain about the H1N1 flu’s potential virulence in the coming months, there is little doubt that this particular viral strain will return.

  • New metabolic safeguards against tumor cells revealed

    Cells don’t like to be alone. In the early stages of tumor formation, a cell might be pushed out of its normal home environment due to excessive growth. But a…

  • Study supports DNA repair-blocker research in cancer therapy

    Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have uncovered the mechanism behind a promising new approach to cancer treatment: damaging cancer cells’ DNA with potent drugs while simultaneously preventing the cells from…

  • NIH renews Harvard Center for AIDS Research grant for another five years

    The National Institutes of Health has renewed for five years – and $18.1 million – the funding for the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (Harvard CFAR). Harvard is one…

  • Researchers discover chemical that kills cancer stem cells

    A multi-institutional team of Boston-area researchers has discovered a chemical that works in mice to kill the rare but aggressive cells within breast cancers that have the ability to seed…

  • Kauffman Foundation awards researcher entrepreneurial fellowship

    Praveen Kumar Vemula, a postdoctoral researcher in the Karp Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of 13 researchers to receive the Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurial Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Vemula…

  • Postdiagnosis aspirin use reduces risk of dying from colorectal cancer

    Regular use of aspirin after colorectal cancer diagnosis may reduce the risk of cancer death, report Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In today’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study’s authors also find that the aspirin-associated survival advantage was seen primarily in patients with tumors expressing the COX-2 enzyme, a characteristic of two-thirds of colorectal cancers.

  • New steps forward in cell reprogramming

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have substantially improved the odds of successfully reprogramming differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) by blocking the…

  • Economy shaping health care reform effort

    Political and philosophical differences aside, it’s the economic crisis that’s driving the current national health care reform debate. “Every day the president gets an envelope [that] says, ‘Whoa! Bigger [deficit]…

  • Freshwater fish at top of food chain evolve more slowly

    Since evolving to eat other fish, freshwater fish at the top of the food chain have remained relatively unchanged compared with their insect- and snail-eating cousins, according to new research.…

  • Scientists create energy-burning brown fat in mice

    Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural energy-burning type of fat that counteracts obesity. If…

  • Maternal, paternal genes’ tug-of-war may last well into childhood

    An analysis of rare genetic disorders in which children lack some genes from one parent suggests that maternal and paternal genes engage in a subtle tug-of-war well into childhood, and…

  • MGH researchers develop potentially safer general anesthetic

    News release — Mass. General team develops potentially safer general anesthetic A team of Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers at  Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a new general anesthetic…

  • Earlier AIDS drug treatment would save 76,000 lives over 5 years

    EMBARGO DATE CORRECTION — JULY not August — Study suggests earlier HIV antiviral treatment saves lives and is cost effective, even in areas of limited resources Early initiation of lifesaving…

  • Lifestyle culprit in increase in cardiovascular disease

    Despite the perception that cardiovascular disease is a problem of industrialized countries, it is the leading cause of death everywhere except Africa, where it is eclipsed by the raging AIDS…

  • Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy awards Cordeiro Health Policy Summer Research Grants

    Thee Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy at Harvard has announced the 2009 recipients of the Cordeiro Health Policy Summer Research Grants.

  • An unusual collection: A brain tumor tissue bank

    Five years ago, as she was walking into Caritas Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center in Methuen, Mass., Patricia Fay saw a priest she knew and cornered him. “I’m like…

  • Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards fellowships to Harvard scientists

    The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting exceptional early career researchers and innovative cancer research, has selected four Harvard affiliates to receive Damon Runyon fellowships at its May 2009 Fellowship Award Committee review.

  • Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, receives excellence in mentoring award from Harvard Medical School

    Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, a staff physician and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), is a recipient of the 2008-2009 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award.…

  • First molecular steps to childhood leukemia identified

    A Harvard research based at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified how a chromosomal abnormality known to be associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) – the most common cancer in children…

  • Glimpsing the birth of our earliest reproductive cells

    It has long been a mystery how the developing embryo designates those rare, precious cells destined to produce sperm and eggs — enabling us to have offspring – since these…

  • Jeremiah Mead, architect of respiratory mechanics field, dies

    Jeremiah “Jere” Mead, architect of the field of respiratory mechanics and professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), passed away on…

  • When physicians share notes with their patients

    Patients across the country are voicing a growing desire for greater engagement in, and control over, their own medical care. A new study led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center…

  • Human cardiac master stem cells identified

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells – ISL1+ progenitors – that give rise…

  • Spinal fusion protein associated with complications, higher costs

    In the United States, back pain continues to be a leading cause of disability and one of the most common reasons to see a physician for evaluation. Among various treatment…

  • Low blood sugar in hospital linked to higher death risk

    Harvard researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) found that diabetics hospitalized for noncritical illnesses who develop hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) during hospitalization have an increased likelihood of remaining hospitalized…

  • AIDS research symposium details advances

    Harvard AIDS researchers detailed recent advances in the fight against the ongoing global pandemic, including new vaccine strategies, insights into the disease’s progression in the world’s hardest-hit regions, and new knowledge about the body’s immune response against infection.

  • Safer stem cells for therapy

    When stem cell researchers in Japan and the United States announced in 2007 that they had developed long-sought methods to return fully developed adult human cells to an embryonic-like state, the world of stem cell research was turned upside down.

  • Study pinpoints novel cancer gene and biomarker

    Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists’ discovery of a cancer-causing gene – the first in its family to be linked to cancer – demonstrates how the panoramic view of genomics and the…