Tag: HMS

  • Nation & World

    $100 million gift to launch innovative search for AIDS vaccine

    Medical School Professor Bruce Walker has been selected as the founding director of a unique new $100 million effort to finally develop a vaccine that can halt the global HIV/AIDS pandemic that, if it continues unchecked, is predicted to claim an additional 70 million lives by 2020.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    Rockefeller Fellows chosen; Hedley-Whyte wins AAMI award; Goldman invited to speak to Homeland Security Council; Steinkeller receives Humboldt award; Counter at Nobel Prize ceremony

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    Alfred Goldberg, cell biology professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS), recently received a $15,000 cash prize as the recipient of the 11th annual Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award for Biotechnology and Medicine from Brandeis University.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard welcomes 2008-09 Fulbright Scholars

    Twenty-nine foreign scholars and professionals have been named Fulbright Scholar Program grant recipients for the 2008-09 academic year. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, participating governments, and host institutions in the United States and abroad, these grants allow scholars from across the globe to lecture or conduct research at the University.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Early success highlights need for more progress

    Many of the 500,000 African babies born infected with HIV each year won’t live past age 2, a fact made even more appalling by the fact that doctors know how to halt mother-to-child HIV transmission.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Anesthetic causes changes in mouse brains

    For the first time researchers have shown that a commonly used anesthetic can produce changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of living mammals, confirming previous laboratory studies. In their Annals of Neurology report, which has received early online release, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators shows how administration of the gas…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Drug trial shows dramatic reduction in hidden heart disease

    A Harvard-led study shows that the risk of heart attack and stroke among subjects with “silent heart disease” — and normal cholesterol levels — can be dramatically reduced by the use of an already widely prescribed class of drugs.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Shore Fellowship affords breathing room

    The weekend was hectic for physician Rhonda Bentley-Lewis: two full days of activities, including her son’s birthday party. Then came the trip to the emergency room, not to attend to a patient, but to Christian, the 11-year-old birthday boy, and his broken wrist.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gary Ruvkun took a roundabout route to science

    Gary Ruvkun has made a career out of imagining the unimaginable, and of surrounding himself with like-minded thinkers who let the wheels of thought spin until they catch on something hard, gain traction, and take off.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mortimer John Buckley

    Mortimer John Buckley was born July 1, 1932 in Worcester, Massachusetts to an Irish immigrant family from near Killarney. Mort attended the College of the Holy Cross and then Boston University Medical School, later being named a distinguished alumnus of both schools.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Status of women in academe assessed

    More than three decades of championing better opportunities for women has yielded critical changes, but there is still work to be done.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Researchers gain ground in treatment options for disfiguring tumor

    A team of researchers led by Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) Dean for Research Bjorn Olsen has discovered a mechanism for the rapid growth seen in infantile hemangioma, the most common childhood tumor.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Genome Project releases data on 10 genetic pioneers

    The world moved a step deeper into the DNA age Monday (Oct. 20) as 10 volunteers released their genetic and medical information on the Internet as part of a multiyear effort to make genetic data an everyday part of medical care.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Genetic ‘fingerprint’ shown to predict liver cancer’s return

    Scientists have reached a critical milestone in the study of liver cancer that lays the groundwork for predicting the illness’s path, whether toward cure or recurrence. By analyzing the tissue in and around liver tumors, an international research team has identified a kind of genetic “fingerprint” that can help predict whether cancers will return.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scholar: Health facts about U.S. Latino communities belie stereotypes

    Decades after predicting Latinos will become California’s majority, a leading researcher into Latino health argued Wednesday (Oct. 8) that the development might mean a healthier population.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Richmond memorial program scheduled for Oct. 27

    A memorial service honoring the life of Julius B. Richmond will be held Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Harvard Club of Boston, 347 Commonwealth Ave. A reception will follow.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Milton Fund deadline Oct. 15

    Voting faculty from all of Harvard’s Schools and the Junior Fellows of the Society of Fellows are eligible to apply for grants from the Milton Fund, which supports original research by Harvard faculty. Milton grants have enabled hundreds of Harvard faculty, particularly assistant professors, to explore new ideas and launch innovative projects, often shaping lifelong…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    The pine beetle’s tale: Destructive insect has pharmaceutical potential

    Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have discovered how beetles and bacteria form a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship — one that ultimately results in the destruction of pine forests. In addition, they’ve identified the specific molecule that drives this whole phenomenon.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard-affiliated gene study receives NIH funding

    Two Harvard Medical School (HMS) professors of ophthalmology are co-principal investigators of a gene project that has received funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lou Pasquale and Janey Wiggs, both glaucoma researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, are leading the grant-winning team of researchers that includes Vincent L. Gregory Professor in…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    HMS/MGH’s Bruce Walker presents update on vaccine progress

    Bruce Walker recalls sitting across from a person long-infected with HIV who never took antiretroviral drugs and never developed AIDS. Walker remembers thinking that the person’s body held a secret of which even they were unaware: how to stop the global AIDS pandemic.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    NIH selects nine Pioneers, Innovators from Harvard

    Nine Harvard faculty members are among 47 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized Monday (Sept. 22) with the announcement of two grant programs through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Health, rights journal open to all

    December will mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a United Nations convention that in 30 articles memorializes basic freedoms involving speech, property, health, security, and the rule of law.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Stem cell summit hails bench progress, looks to bedside future

    New discoveries concerning cell reprogramming over the past year have boosted stem cell researchers in the lab and encouraged efforts to transfer test tube and lab animal advances to humans suffering degenerative diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    CHGE releases new ‘Healthy Harvest’ guide

    The Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) recently published “Healthy Harvest: Regional Food Guides for New England and Mid-Atlantic States.” These comprehensive guides (available at http://www.healthyharvest.org) include detailed information about when produce is available regionally both fresh and from storage, as well as food-specific information on varieties, nutritional content, how…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Thomas Weller, Nobel laureate, HSPH professor emeritus, dies at 93

    Thomas H. Weller, a Nobel Prize winner in 1954 and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) professor emeritus, passed away on Aug. 23. He was 93.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HPV, cervical cancer link earns scientists Alpert Prize

    Two scientists who discovered that specific types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, cause cancer of the cervix received the 20th annual Warren Alpert Foundation Scientific Prize on Sept. 15. As part of the day’s celebration, the prize winners Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann — both professors at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HMS’s VanRooyen earns Humanitarian Award

    At its annual dinner on Sept. 5, the Hippocrates Society honored Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Medicine Michael VanRooyen with the 2008 Humanitarian Award. VanRooyen, who is also associate professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), was recognized for his extensive work in humanitarian…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Ruvkun among Lasker Award winners

    Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigator Gary Ruvkun is one of three co-recipients of the 2008 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Edward ‘Ted’ W. Webster

    Edward (“Ted”) W. Webster, Ph.D., 83, Professor Emeritus of Radiology (Physics) Harvard Medical School (HMS), passed away on Saturday, December 17th, 2005. He will be remembered both for his many scientific contributions and his friendly, warm and supportive manner.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HMS’s Bruce Walker to speak on AIDS epidemic

    The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics will present a lecture by Bruce Walker, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School on, Sept. 19 at 2:30 p.m. in the Science Center lecture hall. The title of the talk is “The AIDS Epidemic: Immune Selection Pressure, Viral Evolution, and Prospects for a Vaccine.” The talk is free and…

    1 minute