Featured series 
Tag: Harvard Medical School
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Nation & World
Defending against the flu
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.
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Nation & World
Tackling blindness, deafness through neuroengineering
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.
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Nation & World
New evidence on Neanderthal mixing
New research illuminates the mixing with Neanderthals in early human prehistory, narrowing the window of time when they crossbred to between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.
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Nation & World
Behold the mammoth (maybe)
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.
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Nation & World
Funding for projects with promise
Four scientists from across Harvard will receive nearly $8 million in grant funding through the National Institutes of Health’s High Risk-High Reward program to support research into a variety of biomedical questions, ranging from how the bacterial cell wall is constructed to how the blood-brain barrier works.
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Nation & World
SLIPS inspires second generation
In a study reported in Nature Biotechnology, a team of Harvard scientists and engineers has developed a new surface coating for medical devices using materials already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The researchers noted that the coating repelled blood from more than 20 medically relevant substrates (glass, plastic, and metal) and also…
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Nation & World
Java in the genes
Research led by Harvard investigators has found six new genes underlying coffee-drinking behavior.
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Nation & World
Confronting Ebola
Three nonprofits with strong Harvard ties have joined forces at the front lines of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
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Nation & World
A mark on modern Europe
New research from the lab of David Reich challenges the prevailing view among archaeologists that there were no major influxes of new peoples into Europe after the advent of agriculture.
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Nation & World
Diabetes’ genetic variety
Harvard researchers working at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have uncovered nine rare genetic mutations that dramatically increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The discovery of the mutations highlights the dizzying genetic diversity of a disease rapidly spreading around the world.
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Nation & World
Wiping out sepsis
A new device inspired by the human spleen and developed by a team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering may radically transform the way doctors treat sepsis.
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Nation & World
Medical School receives $30M in grant funding
The Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science has received $30 million in grant funding over the five years from three U.S. government agencies to launch its new research activities, Harvard Medical School announced on Sept. 11.
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Nation & World
Voice of the brutalized
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative researchers polled residents of a war-torn part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, finding that though many think the security situation has improved, trust in government is at a low ebb.
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Nation & World
Three decades of treating trauma
For 30 years, the Victims of Violence program at Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance has been a force in trauma care.
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Nation & World
Erasing traumatic memories
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital are reporting that xenon gas, used in humans for anesthesia and diagnostic imaging, has the potential to be a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other memory-related disorders
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Nation & World
Fewer clinics, less care
The protective gear needed to get Sierra Leone’s health clinics reopened, coupled with public education about the Ebola epidemic, are the greatest areas of need, according to a Harvard Fulbright Fellow and physician from Sierra Leone.
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Nation & World
Understanding Ebola
Though the threat to the U.S. population from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is low, the need in epidemic countries is great, says Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
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Nation & World
‘Broken genes’ for a broken system
To David Altshuler, the recent discovery of a genetic mutation that protects against type 2 diabetes offers hope in fighting more than just diabetes. It also illustrates how using the…
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Nation & World
Viewing how neurons work
A new technique for observing neural activity will allow scientists to stimulate neurons and observe their firing pattern in real time. Tracing those neural pathways can help researchers answer questions about how neural signals propagate, and could one day allow doctors to design individualized treatments for a host of disorders.
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Nation & World
Antibody halts cancer-related wasting condition
New research raises the prospect of more effective treatments for cachexia, a profound wasting of fat and muscle that occurs in about half of all cancer patients, increasing their risk of death. Harvard Professor Bruce Spiegelman demonstrated that symptoms of cachexia in mice improved when given an antibody that blocked the effects of a protein…
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Nation & World
Obesity risk stronger among siblings
A new study found that two-child families present five times more risk of sibling obesity than single-child homes with an obese parent, which doubles the risk. Obesity risk is even stronger among same-gender siblings.
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Nation & World
In soccer, a game plan for life
Several Harvard students and alumni will work in some of Brazil’s most underserved communities this summer, helping change lives through soccer.
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Nation & World
The goal: New arms
Will Lautzenheiser, a former Boston University film professor who lost his arms and legs from an infection, has been cleared by the Institutional Review Board at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a double arm transplant, a complex procedure requiring 12 to 16 hours of work by a team of surgeons.
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Nation & World
Middle schoolers embrace health
Nearly 400 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders from 15 schools across Boston and Cambridge visited Harvard Medical School as part of the annual program Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities. The program works to expand students’ knowledge of health and public health issues.
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Nation & World
Unmasking a viral invader
A study from Harvard Medical School provides the first comprehensive description of how cytomegalovirus, or CMV, hijacks human cells and suggests entirely new ways to combat the infection.
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Nation & World
Natural hormone molds leaner bodies in mice
A natural hormone that is increased by physical exercise and by exposure to cold improves blood sugar control, suppresses inflammation, and burns fat to mold leaner bodies in mice, report scientists at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
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Nation & World
Bridging science and religion
Divinity School graduate Shelley Brown is combining her love for science and religion to help stitch together two fields that rarely seem to meet.
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Nation & World
Partners, from grade school to Medical School
Fraternal twins Rosh and Roshan Sethi have shared much of their lives, including at Yale as undergraduates and sharing an apartment while enrolled at Harvard Medical School. Now preparing to graduate, they’re anticipating diverging careers, with Roshan exploring radiation oncology and Rosh head and neck surgery.
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Nation & World
‘Heart disease-on-a-chip’
Harvard scientists have merged stem cell and “organ-on-a-chip” technologies to grow, for the first time, functioning human heart tissue carrying an inherited cardiovascular disease. The research appears to be a big step forward for personalized medicine, because it is working proof that a chunk of tissue containing a patient’s specific genetic disorder can be replicated…
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Nation & World
Addiction clue
Harvard researchers find that a gene essential for normal brain development, and linked to autism spectrum disorders, also plays a critical role in addiction-related behaviors.
