Health

After decades of failed efforts, researchers have discovered, through a combination of digital database mining and laboratory assays, the linchpin protein that drives mitochondria’s calcium machinery.

Harvard Medical School researchers find that ovarian cancer cells use mechanical force to move through tissue and colonize additional organs.

In a new report, Harvard researchers Malte Gather and Seok-Hyun Yun describe how a single cell genetically engineered to express green fluorescent protein can be used to amplify the light particles called photons into nanosecond-long pulses of laser light.

A Connecticut woman who was badly disfigured when she was mauled by a pet chimpanzee in 2009 received a full face transplant during surgery at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, examine why a select group of long-term type 1 diabetes survivors show so few complications.

Harvard biologist Alfred W. Crompton shows that dogs drink not with a messy scoop of the tongue, but in a way similar to that of cats — by using adhesion and inertia to pull water from the bowl into their mouths.

A Harvard Medical School-led study shows that cancer care provided by the Veterans Health Administration for men 65 years and older is at least as good as, and by some measures better than, Medicare-funded fee-for-service care obtained through the private sector.

A duo of drugs, each targeting a prime survival strategy of tumors, can be safely administered and is potentially more effective than either drug alone for advanced, inoperable melanomas, according to a phase 1 clinical trial led by Harvard investigators at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

An important new finding by Harvard researchers indicates that cellular mutations responsible for an organism’s successful adaptation do not, when combined over time, provide as much benefit as they would individually be expected to provide.

Harvard scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified an overactive network of growth-spurring genes that drive stem-like breast cancer cells enriched in triple-negative breast tumors, a typically aggressive cancer that is highly resistant to current therapies.

In a long-term study by Harvard researchers, data support the association between childhood ADHD and substance abuse risk.

Scientists are examining single-celled organisms in extreme environments for clues to what life might look like on the myriad planets being discovered in the universe.

Men who regularly drink coffee appear to have a lower risk of developing a lethal form of prostate cancer, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health researchers.

A former White House official says health care technologies are ready to serve medicine, but the challenge will be ensuring that such innovations do not deepen existing disparities in care.

Gregory Connolly and the HSPH Center for Global Tobacco Control conduct research around the world to illuminate ongoing health problems caused by tobacco.

A project details changing levels of mercury in endangered albatrosses and highlights the importance of museum specimens in understanding past conditions.

Dallas Wiens, who in March became the first person in the United States to receive a full face transplant, described the simple joys of holding his daughter, Scarlette, and smelling lasagna again as he prepared to leave Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital Monday (May 9) for his Texas home.

ABC’s medical editor Timothy Johnson, M.P.H. ’76, predicted sweeping changes to the nation’s health care system, but not before a budget calamity caused by rising health care costs forces politicians’ hands.

Experts in nutrition gathered at Harvard Medical School to discuss the emerging “double burden” of malnutrition and obesity that is starting to affect the developing world.

Harvard-affiliated scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered new details of how cancer cells escape from tumor suppression mechanisms that normally prevent these damaged cells from multiplying.

Eradicating malaria from the planet is a tall order, according to a roundtable discussion on the topic that marked World Malaria Day.

RNA plays a critical role in directing the creation of proteins, but there is more to the life of an RNA molecule than simply carrying DNA’s message.

The positive effects of mindfulness meditation on pain and working memory may result from an improved ability to regulate a crucial brain wave called the alpha rhythm. This rhythm is thought to “turn down the volume” on distracting information, which suggests that a key value of meditation may be helping the brain deal with an often overstimulating world.

A student project seeks to improve maternal and child care in India by using the proliferation of cellphones in rural areas to remind women to visit local clinics.

An innovative experimental treatment for boosting the effectiveness of blood stem-cell transplants with umbilical cord blood has a favorable safety profile in long-term animal studies, according to Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Harvard Medical School researchers believe that identifying the properties of the herpes viruses found in Africa could open the door to developing a more potent vaccine against an infection now rampant in sub-Saharan Africa.

Scientists at Harvard University have harnessed the prowess of fast-replicating bacterial viruses, also known as phages, to accelerate the evolution of biomolecules in the laboratory.

Stem cells being transfused into post-heart attack patients may not be developing into new heart muscle, but they still appear to be beneficial. Some stem cells in the bone marrow, called c-kit+ cells, appear capable of stimulating adult stem cells already present in the heart to repair damaged tissue.

Studying dead women’s cut-up bodies was not what Katharine Park originally set out to do. But a trip to Florence opened a new chapter in the scholar’s life.

A section of the AIDS virus’ protein envelope once considered an improbable target for a vaccine now appears to be one of the most promising, new research by Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists indicates.