Health

A precision-engineered gene therapy virus, inserted into blood stem cells that are then transplanted, markedly reduced sickle-induced red-cell damage in mice with sickle cell disease, researchers from Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Harvard researchers have riddled the role of a molecule key to eruption of the torturous blisters as well as an antibody that interrupts the inflammatory response, opening the way to potential relief for careless hikers.

Campus food experts say the first year in college is a time for change at the dining table as well as in the classroom.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS) have identified a key instigator of nerve cell damage in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a progressive and incurable neurodegenerative disorder.

Two recent studies have shown that cells early in development can be marked with a genetic barcode that later can be used to reconstruct their lineage.

In an effort to get a clearer picture of how the brain and the connections between its regions change throughout development, Harvard scientists and researchers from three other universities will share a $14 million grant to support one of the most comprehensive brain-imaging studies ever undertaken.

A Harvard Chan School study has found that drinking-water samples near industrial sites, military fire-training areas, and wastewater-treatment plants have the highest levels of fluorinated compounds, which have been linked with cancer, hormone disruption, high cholesterol, and obesity.

A study found that both Rusingoryx atopocranion, a relative of the wildebeest, and hadrosaur dinosaurs evolved large bony domes on their foreheads, which were likely used as resonating chambers to warn of predators and communicate with others.

Despite a visual system vastly different from that of humans, tests showed the bird could successfully identify both Kanizsa figures and occluded shapes. The findings suggest that birds may process visual information in a way that is similar to humans.

The neural architecture in the auditory cortex — the part of the brain that processes sound — of profoundly deaf and hearing people is virtually identical, a new study has found. The study could point the way toward potential new avenues for treating deafness.

Harvard researchers have found evidence that bone marrow transplantation may one day be beneficial to a subset of patients suffering from ALS.

The identification of a molecular compound that combats Huntington’s disease by means of two separate mechanisms may be the watershed moment in the battle against neurodegenerative diseases.

Chromatic aberration may explain how cephalopods can demonstrate such remarkable camouflage abilities despite being able to see only in black and white.

Harvard Professor Charles Lieber and other scientists conducted a study that describes the construction of nanoscale electronic scaffolds that can be seeded with cardiac cells to produce a bionic cardiac patch.

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital are looking at new potential avenues for controlling both sepsis and the runaway bacterial infections that provoke it.

A three-decade study conducted by Harvard Chan School lends further support to recent findings on fat intake and long-term health.

Matthew Nock, a psychology professor, talked to the Gazette about a recent federal report showing a sharp rise in suicide in the United States.

Barbara McNeil, health policy expert and longtime faculty member, to serve as interim dean at Harvard Medical School.

An expansive effort by several Harvard-affiliated units and hospitals has created the first cell transplantation center in the Boston area.

The findings of Professor Jeff Lichtman and postdoctoral fellow Joshua Morgan have unveiled unexpected neural complexity in the thalami of mice, potentially challenging a number of core tenets of brain science.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists have taken the first steps toward developing a treatment that would make bone marrow-blood stem cell transplantation safer.

A new meta-lens works in the visible spectrum, seeing smaller than a wavelength of light. Because of this development, high-efficiency, ultra-flat, or planar, lenses could replace heavy, bulky ones in smart phones, cameras, and telescopes.

Harvard chemists have created a platform for discovering antibiotics that they hope will shorten the time and difficulty involved in measuring their effectiveness, even as the body’s resistance to current antibiotics is rising.

Harvard University has granted a license to Aldatu Biosciences Inc., an early-stage diagnostics development company, for a novel genotyping platform that may help clinicians treating HIV to determine more quickly the most effective medication for each patient.

A new study shows that gaze-following develops in monkeys in a way that’s nearly identical to humans, suggesting that the behavior has deep evolutionary roots.

Using pre-clinical models for multiple sclerosis and samples from MS patients, a Harvard-affiliated team found evidence that changes in diet and gut flora may influence astrocytes in the brain, and, consequently, neurodegeneration, pointing to potential therapeutic targets.

Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard have developed a workflow that could diagnose a patient with Zika within two to three hours. The goal of developing the low-cost, rapid paper-based diagnostic system for strain-specific detection of the Zika virus is its use in the field to screen blood, urine, or saliva samples.

Author and journalist Michael Pollan has spent a fellowship year at Radcliffe changing directions and focusing on a fresh project, exploring a budding rebirth of psychedelic drugs for medicinal uses.

Robert A. Lue, faculty director of the Harvard Ed Portal, offered his audience insight into his upcoming HarvardX course “Cell Biology: Mitochondria,” during a talk on April 21.

Using phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE) technology developed by Harvard professor David Liu and his co-workers, a team of researchers has evolved new forms of a natural insecticidal protein called “Bt toxin,” which can be used to help control Bt toxin resistance in insects.