Featured series 
Tag: Harvard Medical School
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Health
Differences between malaria parasites in patients’ blood and in lab
In a groundbreaking study published today in the advance online edition of Nature, an international research team has for the first time measured which of the the malaria parasite’s genes are turned on or off during actual infection in humans, rather than in cell cultures, unearthing surprising behaviors and opening a window on the most…
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Health
Gene responsible for statin-induced muscle pain identified
Statins, the popular class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, are among the most commonly prescribed medications in developed countries. But for some patients, accompanying side effects of muscle weakness and pain become chronic problems and, in rare cases, can escalate to debilitating and even life-threatening damage. Now a study led by investigators at Beth…
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Health
Shift workers most impaired on first night shift following day shifts
Researchers at Harvard Medical School affiliate Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found that the attention of shift workers is most impaired on the first night shift following a string of day shifts. This research appears in the November 28, 2007 edition of the Public Library of Science ONE. “It is important to identify this…
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Health
Prostate cancer treatments often not matched to patient needs
More than a third of men with early prostate cancer who participated in a study analyzing treatment choice received therapies that might not be appropriate, based on pre-existing problems with urinary, bowel or sexual function. The prevalence of these treatment “mismatches” could reflect patient’ unwillingness to discuss such problems with their physicians, the researchers suggest.…
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Health
Cerebral cortex thicker in people with migraines
People who suffer from migraine headaches have differences in an area of the brain that helps process sensory information, including pain, according to a study published in the November 20, 2007, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that part of the cortex area of the brain…
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Health
Obesity and overweight linked to higher prostate cancer mortality
Men who are overweight or obese when diagnosed with prostate cancer are at greater risk of death after treatment, according to a new study in the December 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study has been released online ahead of print publication. The study, by Matthew R.…
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Health
Symposium addresses disparities in Native American health care
Sunshine Dwojak, a fourth-year Harvard Medical School student, was 26 when her mother died of heart disease, leaving behind three children. Dwojak’s mother was 48. “My grandmother said our family ‘just wasn’t lucky,’ and my aunt said that ‘longevity doesn’t run in our family,’” Dwojak said. Growing up, she saw many of her family members…
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Health
Researchers track down rheumatoid arthritis gene
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have discovered a gene involved in rheumatoid arthritis, a painful autoimmune disease that affects 2.1 million Americans and can destroy cartilage and bone within the afflicted joint. In a study led by Robert Plenge, an instructor in medicine at Harvard…
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Health
Study paints genetic portrait of lung cancer
An international team of scientists today announced the results of a systematic effort to map the genetic changes underlying lung cancer, the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths. Appearing in the November 4 advance online issue of the journal Nature, the research provides a comprehensive view of the abnormal genetic landscape in lung cancer cells,…
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Health
Flier hails new, cooperative era in Harvard science
Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier Friday evening issued a call for new approaches to advance the fight against disease, embracing cross-institutional collaborations at Harvard as a way to bring new thinking to old problems. Flier, the keynote speaker at the Fourth Annual Tony and Shelly Malkin Stem Cell Symposium at the Harvard Club of…
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Health
Study examines substance abuse prevalence among teens receiving routine medical care
Approximately 15 percent of middle and upper middle class teens receiving routine outpatient medical care in a New England primary care network had positive results on a substance abuse questionnaire, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a journal published by the American Medical Association. “According to…
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Health
Almost two million veterans lack health coverage
One in every eight (12.2 percent) of the 47 million Americans without health insurance is a veteran or member of a veteran’s household, according to a study by Harvard Medical School researchers based at the Cambridge Health Alliance. The study is published in the December, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Just…
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Science & Tech
Survey: Med students ill prepared for ethical issues faced in wartime
A new survey of U.S. medical students shows they receive little training about what they should or should not do in wartime, despite ethical questions over physician involvement in prisoner interrogation and a legal framework making a “doctor draft” possible. The study shows that 94 percent of medical students who took an online survey said…
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Health
Economic motivation could underlie some ordering of imaging tests
A new study by researchers at Institute for Technology Assessment in Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Department of Radiology finds that physicians who consistently refer patients to themselves or members of their own specialty for imaging studies, rather than to radiologists, are more likely to order such studies for a variety of medical conditions. The results…
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Health
Massive microRNA scan uncovers leads to treating muscle degeneration
Researchers have discovered the first microRNAs–tiny bits of code that regulate gene activity–linked to each of 10 major degenerative muscular disorders, opening doors to new treatments and a better biological understanding of these debilitating, poorly understood, often untreatable diseases. The study, published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by…
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Health
Database of human genetic diversity allows identification of disease-associated genes
Investigators from six countries have completed the second phase of the International HapMap Project, an effort to identify and catalog genetic similarities and differences among populations around the world. Information provided in the first phase of the HapMap, completed in 2005, has led to the development of techniques facilitating the search for genes associated with…
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Health
Mental disorders cause 1.3 billion ‘out of role’ days annually
The importance of role disability, that is, inability to work or carry out usual activities, has become increasingly recognized as a major source of indirect costs of illness because of its high economic impact on ill workers, their employers, and society. However, there is limited information on the amount of disability associated with a wide…
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Health
Stem cells make new heart valves
Harvard researchers have coaxed adult stem cells into forming artificial heart valves that could one day mean fewer surgeries for children suffering from heart defects. The scientists, at Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital, grew the valves from a type of stem cell that normally gives rise to the inner lining of blood vessels. They used a…
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Health
First robust genetic link to height in humans identified
Over a century ago, scientists first proposed that height is a complex trait — one influenced by environmental factors and multiple genes. While subsequent studies revealed that most of the variation in adult height is genetically determined, there has been little success in pinpointing the responsible genes. Some clues have come from rare syndromes of…
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Health
Risk genes for Multiple Sclerosis Uncovered
A large-scale genomic study has uncovered new genetic variations associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), findings that suggest a possible link between MS and other autoimmune diseases. The study, led by an international consortium of clinical scientists and genomics experts, is the first comprehensive study investigating the genetic basis of MS. Findings appear in the July…
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Health
Obesity is contagious
Public health officials have been working hard to account for the dramatic rise in U.S. obesity rates. Many obvious factors, such as poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle, certainly contribute to the swelling statistics. However, these and other explanations tend to focus exclusively on how individuals’ choices and behaviors affect their own weight. Now, researchers…
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Health
Trial Turns Over New Leaf for Traditional Herb
If a painting’s worth were measured by the money it fetched, van Gogh’s famous rendering of his friend and physician Dr. Gachet would be among the most valuable in all of art. “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”—which depicts a languid man holding a purple foxglove, the plant from which the drug digitalis is derived—was sold in…
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Campus & Community
Viviany Taqueti: Writer, doctor, public servant
As a young girl, Viviany Taqueti followed her doctor father as he made rounds in the two hospitals he built in the jungles of Brazil. Sitting on the banks of the muddy, mighty Amazon River, Taqueti decided that she wanted to be like him, a person who improves the lives of others and who believes…
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Campus & Community
‘Harvard does something to you: It opens the door to the world’
When Raul Ruiz was a teenager, some of his teachers realized he had potential. But most, he says, recommended he apply to a vocational school; it would be a big step toward the American dream for a first-generation Mexican-American boy whose migrant-worker parents had never finished high school.
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Health
Pursuing a cholera vaccine
The reports from Dhaka are hopeful. It is 2005, and Dr. Firdausi Qadri and colleagues at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, are testing a new cholera vaccine on children. In their study, a single dose of live, crippled bacteria goes down easily in a fizzy drink. Within days, most of the children…