Health

The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has launched a new academy to formalize instruction in international disaster response, with the aim of saving the lives of those threatened by earthquakes, floods, wars, and other catastrophes.

A new study by Harvard researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) finds that a high intake of flavonoid-rich berries, such as strawberries and blueberries, over time, can delay memory decline in older women by two and a half years.

Harvard researchers have identified pathways of naturally occurring molecules in our bodies that can enhance antibiotic performance.

Researchers at Harvard have shown that Nodal and Lefty — two proteins linked to the regulation of asymmetry in vertebrates and the development of precursor cells for internal organs — fit a mathematical model first described by Alan Turing six decades ago.

The Harvard School of Public Health’s Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development seeks to give faculty the tools to create broad change and to connect global leaders with the School’s research to improve conditions on the ground.

Anne Wojcicki, chief executive officer and co-founder of 23andMe, talked about growth in personal genomics in an event sponsored by the Program on Science, Technology and Society.

Work by HSPH researchers suggests a connection between psychological well-being and a reduced risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events.

In a talk sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, biologist E.O. Wilson said that competition among groups of humans is a likely explanation for the rise of altruistic behavior in individuals.

A new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Massachusetts General Hospital has found that normalizing blood vessels within tumors, which improves the delivery of standard chemotherapy drugs, can actually block the delivery of larger nanotherapy molecules.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have significantly reduced from hours to minutes the time it takes to accurately detect autism in young children.

MGH’s Herbert Benson, author of “The Relaxation Response,” says that the methods outlined in his book can create genetic changes in irritable bowel syndrome sufferers, and with further study might be used to treat other ailments.

David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, believes that the relatively mild 2009 global flu outbreak might have been as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions, if not for improved scientific, public health, and medical practices.

The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Harvard stem cell researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have taken a critical step toward discovering in the relatively near future a drug to control cystic fibrosis, a fatal lung disease that claims about 500 lives each year, with 1,000 new cases diagnosed annually.

From pondering prehistoric man to employing high-tech 3-D imaging, Harvard researchers are leaving no shoe unturned to discover why we run, and how we can do it better.

New Harvard School of Public Health research suggests that routine mammography screening — long viewed as an essential tool in detecting early breast cancers — may in fact lead to a significant amount of overdiagnosis of disease that would have proved harmless.

Findings by a team at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggest a new strategy for diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s disease.

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health finds no evidence that the largest hospital-based pay-for-performance program in the U.S. improved 30-day mortality rates, a measure of whether patients survive their hospitalization.

The Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia is an academic-industry collaboration resource that marries deeply detailed cancer genome data with predictors of drug response, information that could lead to refinements in cancer clinical trials and future treatments.

The world is in the midst of a global health transition, with the population growing older and primary health threats coming from chronic, not infectious, diseases, according to speakers at an Advanced Leadership Initiative think tank.

Scientists from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and their colleagues have found a genetic marker that predicts which aggressive “triple-negative” breast cancers and certain ovarian cancers are likely to respond to platinum-based chemotherapies.

Perhaps botany, not boxing, is the real sweet science. Harvard Forest researchers are seeking to illuminate maple tree dynamics, investigating a possible link between autumn “mast seeding” and the sugar content of spring sap.

In one of the largest studies of its kind, Harvard researchers have found that carbon records from the mid-Neoproterozoic era can be “read” as a faithful snapshot of the surface carbon cycle between 717 million and 635 million years ago, a finding that directly challenges a decades-long belief of most scientists.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at Harvard are exploring the use of gamelike programs on smartphones to treat anxiety disorders.

A new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers has found that red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.

Cranky, sleep-deprived America got some advice from experts at a Harvard School of Public Health Forum: Get some rest, and reap the health and productivity benefits shown in numerous scientific studies.

A new Museum of Natural History exhibit focuses on the enormous diversity of mollusks, which live everywhere from the deep ocean to fresh water to land.

A new investigational drug significantly reduced urinary cortisol levels and improved symptoms of Cushing’s disease in the largest clinical study of this endocrine disorder ever conducted.

The twin epidemics of obesity and its cousin, diabetes, have been the target of numerous studies at Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and institutions. Harvard researchers have produced a dizzying array of findings on the often related problems.

A study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital indicates that the inhaled anesthetic isoflurane impairs learning and memory in mammalian brains by damaging mitochondria, a finding that suggests the anesthetic desflurane may be a better choice for Alzheimer’s patients and others susceptible to cognitive dysfunction.