Health

A Massachusetts General Hospital-led research team of Harvard affiliates has identified an immune cell protein that is critical to setting off the body’s initial response against viral infection.

Experts on forced labor and sexual slavery outlined what remains a large-scale problem.

In the largest study of its kind, people who ate a daily handful of nuts were found to be 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period than those who didn’t consume nuts, say Harvard researchers.

Using an imaging technique known as high-speed holographic microscopy, Laurence Wilson, a fellow at Harvard’s Rowland Institute, worked with colleagues to produce detailed 3-D images of malaria sperm — the cells that reproduce inside infected mosquitoes — that shed new light on how the cells move.

Harvard stem cell scientists have discovered that the same chemicals that stimulate muscle development in zebrafish can be used to differentiate human stem cells into muscle cells in the laboratory, which makes muscle cell therapy a more realistic clinical possibility.

A drug approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis may also turn out to be the first targeted therapy for one of the most common forms of kidney disease, a condition that almost inevitably leads to kidney failure.

A lack of “surge” capacity plagues pandemic flu preparations around the world, as public health officials, scientists, and pharmaceutical industry scientists work to streamline vaccine production as well as improve surveillance, communication, and other public health practices before the next new ailment hits.

American philanthropists and entrepreneurs Eli and Edythe Broad announced on Thursday they are investing an additional $100 million into the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT to launch a new decade of transformative work to harness recent biomedical discoveries to benefit patients.

The ACLU’s lead attorney and other participants in the Supreme Court case that overturned the common practice of patenting human genes discussed the ramifications in an event at the Science Center.

A proposal issued today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, if finalized, would effectively make trans fat in the food supply a thing of the past. The Gazette asked Professor Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at the School of Public Health, to discuss the potential impact of the ruling, in policy and health.

Tim Laman, an associate of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and an award-winning wildlife photographer, was part of a two-man team that helicoptered into a remote Australian rainforest earlier this year, coming out with three new species: two lizards and a frog.

Harvard researchers have solved the nearly 200-year-old mystery of how Rafflesia, the largest flowering plants in the world, develop.

Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk outlined a new vision for public health education Friday (Nov. 1), outlining courses that blend online, in-person, and in-the-field experiences and that take different forms throughout a professional’s life.

Two new books from Harvard Health Publications are aimed at people who have more than normal levels of anxiety and depression but fall short of clinical definitions.

U.S. and Chinese health officials gathered at Harvard’s Longwood Campus to discuss health care challenges facing both nations, including the rise of noncommunicable diseases and reforming health care systems.

New research suggests that, despite moonlight’s apparent hunting advantage, large predators such as lions are actually less active on the brightest nights, while many prey animals — despite the risk of being eaten — become more active.

A report edited by a research scientist from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative highlights the increasingly important role of social media and cellphones in disaster relief.

A simple, color-coded system for labeling food items in a hospital cafeteria appears to increase customers’ attention to the nutritional value of their food choices, and encourage the purchase of the healthiest items.

Tuberculosis researchers from around New England gathered at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT to examine the links between metabolic diseases such as diabetes and tuberculosis.

They began with a discovery in zebrafish in 2007, and now researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) have published initial results of a Phase Ib human clinical trial of a therapeutic that could improve the success of blood stem cell transplantation. This marks the first time that HSCI has carried a discovery from the lab bench to the clinic.

John McDonough of HSPH talks about the rollout of health insurance exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Experts in child health gathered at Harvard Medical School on Tuesday for a symposium on how genome biology is changing children’s health.

Targeted nanotherapy is the wave of the medical future, according to Omid Farokhzad, a Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researcher who has two nanoparticle-based therapies in clinical trials and a slew of ideas for new ways to put the tiny capsules to work for human health.

Harvard research shows that while only 10 percent of adults with sore throat have strep, the only common cause of sore throat requiring antibiotics, the national antibiotic prescribing rate for adults with sore throat has remained at 60 percent.

As part of a project by Professor Deirdre Barrett to resurrect a study started in 1940, a group of Harvard undergraduates probed the dreams of British officers captured early in World War II and held in a German prison camp.

With a new flu virus appearing in China in April and a new SARS-like respiratory ailment appearing in the Middle East, the Gazette sat down with Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch to talk about the upcoming flu season.

Harvard researchers have found that the brain uses two largely independent neural circuits to learn spatial and temporal aspects of complex motor skills.

Many modern chronic diseases result from mismatches between how our bodies evolved to be used and how we use them today, Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman writes in a new book.

The key to programming bacteria to follow orders has been found in its protein production. Researchers have learned that by using more rare words, or codons, near the start of a gene, they can remove roadblocks to protein production. The knowledge may mean new drugs and biofuels.

Harvard researchers recently developed the most detailed “specificity profile” for Cas9 — a “machine” made of protein and RNA that can be programmed to target specific DNA sequences and to precisely cut, paste, and turn on or turn off genes. Future researchers will use the data when developing genetic tools and therapies.