Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Hansjörg Wyss has donated a second gift of $125 million to further advance the pioneering work of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. In 2008, Wyss gave $125 million to launch the institute.

Hansjörg Wyss doubles his gift

Founding donor gives second $125M gift, totaling $250M, to Wyss Institute

Campus|

DateMay 21, 2013December 15, 2017

Following Monday's bombing, Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital called in extra trauma teams, adding 60 doctors, nurses, and other staff, more than doubling the medical personnel in the emergency department. Over the coming hours, the team treated 31 patients.

Widespread trauma

‘There are physical shockwaves that emanate from the bomb, and there are psychological shockwaves as well’

Health|

DateApril 16, 2013June 14, 2019

Technology to help monitor concussions

Wyss Institute develops application to measure neurological function

Science|

DateFebruary 7, 2013February 13, 2018

“Now, for the first time, we’ve shown that caring for patients encompasses a unique neurobiology in physicians. Our ultimate goal is to transform the ‘art of medicine’ into the ‘science of care,’” said the study’s senior author, Ted Kaptchuk, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The image shows the regions in physicians’ brains that were activated while the doctors were treating patients.

Doctors can feel their patients’ pain

Brain scans show physicians can feel pain, pain relief

Health|

DateJanuary 29, 2013April 18, 2019

Breast cancer specimens reveal that the LOX gene plays an underlying role in promoting metastasis. “We don’t have a lot of therapies that can target breast cancer once it has metastasized, particularly once cancer cells have lodged in the bone,” says senior author Antoine Karnoub, an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.

Noncancerous cells carry weight

Discovery reveals important clues to cancer metastasis

Health|

DateOctober 16, 2012

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have found that a type of immune cell plays a role in guarding against obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease.

Fat fighters found in fat tissue

Study finds that natural killer T-cells in fat tissue guard against obesity

Health|

DateSeptember 13, 2012

The annual symposium of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, held at Harvard Medical School, prompted a spirited discussion on robotics and medicine, with nature as a model. Donald Ingber (above), director of the Wyss Institute, introduced the daylong event.

Using nature to inspire robotics

Wyss symposium focuses on how complex technology can assist medicine

Science|

DateJune 11, 2012May 29, 2019

“Teens went to their friends for advice, or their moms, but not really physicians,” said Katherine Johnson, a Harvard Medical School graduate. "There’s a big gap between physicians and teens in terms of communication and feeling comfortable. These are themes that have stayed with me as I think about what’s important to me and what kind of physician I want to be.”

Bridging the doctor-patient divide

Medical School grad focuses on grassroots communications in community health

Campus|

DateMay 25, 2012

“That finding explained how this compound can be both a potent inhibitor of PDI and a safe food supplement,” senior author Robert Flaumenhaft. “Our next questions were: Is this compound anti-thrombotic? Can it prevent blood clots?”

Flavonoid compound can prevent blood clots

Research findings offer therapeutic agent to prevent stroke, heart attack

Health|

DateMay 9, 2012July 22, 2019

The development of new Alzheimer’s antibodies has made it possible to distinguish between two forms of tau protein, and has demonstrated that the pathological cis form appears in the brain cells of patients with early dementia and, as dementia progresses to Alzheimer’s, rapidly accumulates at the location that is critical for memory (as indicated by arrows).

An opening against Alzheimer’s

Findings suggest a new strategy for fighting disease

Health|

DateMarch 29, 2012

The twin epidemics of obesity and its cousin, diabetes, have been the target of numerous studies at Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and institutions. Among seminal findings was the first study to document the extraordinarily tight connection between the two diseases. Research done by Harvard School of Public Health Professor Walter Willett and his colleagues showed that being even slightly overweight increased diabetes risk five times, and being seriously obese increased it 60 times.

Obesity? Diabetes? We’ve been set up

Harvard researchers are targeting obesity and its cousin, diabetes

Health|

DateMarch 7, 2012March 6, 2019

Harvard undergraduates have a long tradition of making their own music, with new outlets for their talents and interests being added all the time. Students participate in more than 50 musical groups, ranging from the Mozart Society Orchestra to Mariachi Véritas de Harvard (pictured). The registrar’s office says that more than 20 percent of undergraduates list music as a valued extracurricular activity.

Let there be music

Harvard resonates to 'the universal language of mankind'

Arts|

DateFebruary 15, 2012May 16, 2019

The scientists found that a 24-hour period of fasting — which causes intense hunger in the control mice — was associated with a 67 percent increase in the number of dendritic spines (pictured) on the AgRP neurons.

Exploring roots of hunger, eating behaviors

Study demonstrates that plasticity in the brain’s wiring controls feeding behavior

Health|

DateFebruary 8, 2012May 3, 2019

Cultured pericytes (red) and myofibroblasts (green) are two prominent noncancer cells within a tumor.

Tumor cells can prevent tumor spread

Paradoxical discovery finds cells known as pericytes help prevent metastasis

Health|

DateJanuary 17, 2012April 1, 2019

“The next step for us is to ask parallel questions of other parts of the brain and spinal cord, those involved in ALS and with spinal cord injuries. In these cases, can we rebuild circuitry in the mammalian brain? I suspect that we can,” said Jeffrey Macklis, Harvard University professor of stem cell and regenerative biology.

Rebuilding the brain’s circuitry

Healthy neurons can integrate into diseased areas

Health|

DateNovember 24, 2011March 25, 2019

“These new findings demonstrate yet another way that cancer cells are able to manipulate [the enzyme] PKM2 to their advantage,” said senior author Lewis Cantley, the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Survival strategy of cancer cells

Researchers uncover key mechanism cells use to their advantage

Health|

DateNovember 3, 2011April 26, 2019

A final design for a device that reduces the risk of missing a target during an ultrasound-guided needle biopsy. Image courtesy of Conor Walsh

Surgical precision

Hospital experience helps SEAS students sharpen designs

Science|

DateSeptember 19, 2011May 2, 2019

Schermerhorn named distinguished fellow

HMS professor recognized for contributions to surgery

News|

DateAugust 9, 2011July 19, 2019

A novel therapy to increase bone mass will be launching with the space shuttle Atlantis on July 8. “On Earth, our bones experience mechanical forces from being pushed and pulled by muscles that work against gravity to keep us upright and moving around, as well as from the impact of our body weight against the ground,” said Mary Bouxsein of BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, adding that the rate of bone loss among astronauts is about 10 times greater than that seen in postmenopausal women.

Bone loss study takes flight

Shuttle experiment tests therapy to build bone during space travel

Health|

DateJuly 6, 2011June 18, 2019

Pictured are human metastatic melanoma cells. 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. Image source: Lance Liotta Laboratory

Increasing odds for survival

Combination antibody therapy shows promise in metastatic melanoma

Health|

DateJune 6, 2011July 19, 2019

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is shown while hiding out in a neuron, a stage know as latent infection. The HSV latency RNA (red) was detected by hybridization, and neurons are stained in green.

One vaccine for two strains?

Researchers find genital herpes more virulent in Africa than in U.S.

Health|

DateApril 15, 2011March 12, 2019

Robert M. Goldwyn

Harvard Medical School — Memorial Minute

News|

DateApril 7, 2011

“Harvard is proud to be associated not only with Estudar and its founders but also with the many outstanding students whose education has been made possible by Estudar’s support,” said President Drew Faust during a March 23 symposium in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Spotlight on Harvard in Brazil

President Faust's visit draws attention to University's ties to key South American nation

World|

DateMarch 24, 2011June 17, 2019

Cancer geneticist Pier Paolo Pandolfi will deliver an award lecture titled “The Non-Coding Revolution: A Coding-Independent Function of Gene and Pseudogene mRNAs Regulates Tumor Biology” during the 102nd Annual Meeting of the AACR in Orlando, Fla., this spring.

BIDMC’s Pandolfi to receive cancer research award

News|

DateJanuary 19, 2011

In a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Harvard researcher Joseph Ladapo and colleagues find that simple follow-up phone calls to smokers hospitalized with acute heart attacks encouraging them to quit would yield significant health and economic gains.

Checking in, saving lives

Post-heart attack calls to smokers improve outcomes, cut costs

Health|

DateJanuary 10, 2011March 22, 2019

“We told the patients that they didn’t have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills,” says HMS Associate Professor of Medicine Ted Kaptchuk. By the end of the trial, nearly twice as many patients treated with the placebo reported adequate symptom relief as compared with the control group.

Placebos work — even without deception

Twice as many patients reported adequate symptom relief

Health|

DateDecember 22, 2010March 15, 2019

Researchers led by Ronald A. DePinho (above), a Harvard Medical School professor of genetics, say their work shows for the first time a dramatic reversal of many aspects of age-related degeneration in mice, a milestone in aging science achieved by engineering mice with a controllable telomerase gene. The projection of chromosomes seen here shows telomeres (highlighted in red) on their ends.

Partial reversal of aging achieved in mice

Control of telomerase gene appears to control process

Health|

DateNovember 28, 2010March 6, 2019

On the left are normal endothelial cells, while those on the right have been reprogrammed into cells nearly identical to adult stem cells, hence the morphological distinctions.

Rare find

Study of genetic disease reveals new path to cell reprogramming

Health|

DateNovember 21, 2010March 29, 2019

Promising therapy for stroke patients

Noninvasive brain stimulation helps improve motor function

Health|

DateNovember 12, 2010April 15, 2019

At a scale of 1 to 100 nanometers (nm) — one-billionth of a meter — nanoparticles are too small to be visible through a traditional microscope. But this extremely small scale makes them potential candidates for targeted drug delivery, capable of precisely pinpointing disease sources with increased efficiency and minimal side effects to surrounding tissues.

Tracking nanoparticles

Findings could help in developing treatment for pulmonary disease

Health|

DateNovember 9, 2010July 26, 2019

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Founding donor gives second $125M gift, totaling $250M, to Wyss Institute

‘There are physical shockwaves that emanate from the bomb, and there are psychological shockwaves as well’

Wyss Institute develops application to measure neurological function

Brain scans show physicians can feel pain, pain relief

Discovery reveals important clues to cancer metastasis

Study finds that natural killer T-cells in fat tissue guard against obesity

Wyss symposium focuses on how complex technology can assist medicine

Medical School grad focuses on grassroots communications in community health

Research findings offer therapeutic agent to prevent stroke, heart attack

Findings suggest a new strategy for fighting disease

Harvard researchers are targeting obesity and its cousin, diabetes

Harvard resonates to 'the universal language of mankind'

Study demonstrates that plasticity in the brain’s wiring controls feeding behavior

Paradoxical discovery finds cells known as pericytes help prevent metastasis

Healthy neurons can integrate into diseased areas

Researchers uncover key mechanism cells use to their advantage

Hospital experience helps SEAS students sharpen designs

HMS professor recognized for contributions to surgery

Shuttle experiment tests therapy to build bone during space travel

Combination antibody therapy shows promise in metastatic melanoma

Researchers find genital herpes more virulent in Africa than in U.S.

Harvard Medical School — Memorial Minute

President Faust's visit draws attention to University's ties to key South American nation

Post-heart attack calls to smokers improve outcomes, cut costs

Twice as many patients reported adequate symptom relief

Control of telomerase gene appears to control process

Study of genetic disease reveals new path to cell reprogramming

Noninvasive brain stimulation helps improve motor function

Findings could help in developing treatment for pulmonary disease

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