Health

Harvard’s Ernst Mayr Library is involved in a collaborative effort to digitize the handwritten journals of ornithologist William Brewster. The collaboration uses crowdsourcing for the transcription and video games as a way to check the work’s accuracy.

A study by Harvard researchers is the first to explore new parents’ attitudes toward genomic testing on newborns. The findings suggest that if such testing becomes available, there would be an interest among new parents, regardless of their demographic background.

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found that greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with longer telomeres, which serve as a biomarker for aging.

Harvard researchers have uncovered an easily detectable, “premalignant” state in the blood that significantly increases the likelihood that an individual will go on to develop blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, or myelodysplastic syndrome.

A new genetic test developed by Harvard Medical School physicians at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center checks cells of leukemia and other blood cancers for 95 genetic mutations, providing a quick genetic profile that physicians can use to make treatment decisions.

The recipient of a bilateral arm transplant and his surgeons appeared at a news conference on Tuesday to thank the donor’s family and to discuss the procedure.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology have successfully converted mouse and human skin cells into pain-sensing neurons that respond to a number of stimuli that cause acute and inflammatory distress.

Harvard-affiliated researchers have found that a monthlong residential program could be better than standard-of-care outpatient programs in helping young adults stay drug-free.

Investigators at the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a system to accurately track the dynamic process of falling asleep, something that has not been possible with existing techniques.

Vaughan Rees of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health shares his thoughts on the intense debate in Westminster over a push to ban tobacco sales. The ban was defeated, but the battle is not yet over.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found the cellular origin of the tissue scarring caused by organ damage associated with diabetes, lung disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and other conditions.

A team of researchers has identified a key genetic variation that helps mosquitoes “smell” humans. The study could open the door to new strategies to ward off the pests.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have demonstrated that adult cells, reprogrammed into another cell type in a living animal, can remain functional over a long period. The work is an important advance in the effort to develop cell-based therapies for tissue repair, and specifically in the effort to develop improved treatment for diabetes.

The new Healthy Heart Score developed by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health gives individuals an easy way to estimate their 20-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The free Web-based survey can be found at www.healthyheartscore.com.

Researchers from around the world came to Harvard to examine the rise of international court cases on issues of sexual and reproductive rights.

Raphael Dolin of the Medical School discusses the evidence for hand washing, the timing of flu season, and who’s most vulnerable to serious complications.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General and Boston Children’s hospitals for the first time have used a relatively new gene-editing technique to create what could prove to be an effective technique for blocking HIV from invading and destroying patients’ immune systems.

Findings from Harvard research may help explain why limbs and genitalia use similar gene regulatory programs during development.

Faced with stiff competition from an invading species, a Harvard study has found that green anoles evolved larger toe pads equipped with more sticky scales to allow for better climbing in just 20 generations over 15 years.

A new study by S. Allen Counter, clinical professor of neurology and director of the Harvard Foundation, shows that high levels of lead, as well as other toxic metals such as mercury and cadmium, can pass from mother to child through breast milk.

Led by David Liu, professor of chemistry and chemical biology, a team of Harvard researchers developed a system that uses commercially available molecules called cationic lipids to deliver genome-editing proteins into cells.

Graduate School of Education alumna Jessi Hanson traveled to Liberia to help set up a program to provide art and play therapy to children held in isolation after their family members died from Ebola. She shared her experiences in Liberia — and now in self-quarantine in the United States — with the Gazette.

New research challenges the notion that the small pelvic bones found in whales are evolutionary vestiges.

Harvard-affiliated surgeon and writer Atul Gawande explores big questions around end-of-life care in “Being Mortal.”

“Birds of the World” opened in September as a permanent exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

The Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, a collaborative program between Harvard Medical School and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, has announced a new set of grants worth $3.6 million for five research projects.

While most colleges and universities in the National Collegiate Athletic Association have created programs to help diagnose and treat concussions sustained by their athletes, many are not fully meeting the NCAA’s standards, according to new research.

Harvard geneticist George Church discussed the future of genetic engineering, including possible technological applications allowing new treatment techniques. He saw the potential to improve human health, revolutionize pest management, and perhaps even bring back the mammoth and other extinct species.

A small study from a group of Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital investigates differences in how important brain structures are activated when women view images of their own children and their dogs.

A new form of gene therapy for boys with the life-threatening condition known as “bubble boy” disease appears to be both effective and safe, according to an international clinical trial run by a team from Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, and other institutions.