Featured series 
Tag: Massachusetts General Hospital
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Nation & World
At ground zero in coastal Japan
In a rare opening for American-trained physicians, three Harvard doctors spend time bringing medical aid to a tsunami-stricken city in coastal Japan.
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Health
Thinking ahead on diabetes
By measuring the levels of small molecules in the blood, doctors may be able to identify individuals at elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes as much as a decade before symptoms of the disorder appear.
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Health
Protein that helps battle HIV
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard find that elevated levels of p21, a protein best known as a cancer fighter, may be involved in the immune system’s ability to control HIV infection.
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Campus & Community
Leon Eisenberg
Leon Eisenberg was a professor of psychiatry and chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Science & Tech
Innovate, create
From oddities like breathable chocolate to history-making devices with profound societal effects, like the heart pacemaker, Harvard’s combination of questing minds, restless spirits, and intellectual seekers fosters creativity and innovation that’s finding an outlet in new inventions and companies.
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Health
Adult kidney stem cells found in fish
It has long been a given that adult humans — and mammals in general — lack the capacity to grow new nephrons, the kidney’s delicate blood filtering tubules, which has meant that dialysis, and ultimately kidney transplantation, is the only option for the more than 450,000 Americans who have kidney failure.
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Health
Eight weeks to a better brain
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital find that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.
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Health
Checking in, saving lives
Harvard researchers have estimated the likely cost-effectiveness of post-discharge follow-up phone calls to smokers hospitalized with acute heart attacks. In a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers suggest that phone calls to these discharged smokers encouraging them to quit would yield significant health and economic gains.
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Health
Newborns need for vitamin D
The vitamin D levels of newborn babies appear to predict their risk of respiratory infections during infancy and the occurrence of wheezing during early childhood, but not the risk of developing asthma. Results of a study in the January 2011 issue of Pediatrics support the theory that widespread vitamin D deficiency contributes to risk of…
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Health
Mixed messages
A comparative analysis found wide disparities in the results of four common measures of hospital-wide mortality rates, with competing methods yielding both higher- and lower-than-expected rates for the same Massachusetts hospitals during the same year.
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Health
Cholera strain tied to South Asia
A team of researchers has determined that the strain of cholera erupting in Haiti matches bacterial samples from South Asia and not those from Latin America.
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Health
Life support for medical faculty
Shore Fellowships provide important breathing room for junior faculty members pressed by the demands of work and home life.
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Health
Critical finding for skin cancer treatment
Researchers’ findings pinpoint a critical gene involved in melanoma growth, and provide a framework for discovering ways to tackle cancer drug resistance.
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Health
Helping Chinese with depression
A treatment model designed to accommodate the beliefs and concerns of Chinese immigrants appears to significantly improve the recognition and treatment of major depression in this typically underserved group.
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Health
Partnerships, training key to global health
Partnerships, training of local medical personnel, and practice in delivering services are all key if the effort to improve global health is to be successful, say speakers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health’s inaugural symposium.
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Health
Safer tanning?
Harvard researchers have found a molecular switch that may someday make it possible to get a tan without exposure to harmful UV rays.
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Health
Progress on obesity
Researchers have identified 18 gene sites associated with obesity and 13 associated with body fat distribution, helping to unravel the riddle of obesity.
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Campus & Community
Funding for the future
Faculty members at Harvard and its affiliated hospitals have been awarded the National Institutes of Health New Innovators awards for promising research by young researchers, and Transformative grants, for groundbreaking work by established researchers.
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Campus & Community
Trials set for body-chilling anaesthesia
Medical researchers at Harvard say they are poised to begin human trials on a suspended-animation technique for surgery patients.
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Health
A man of endless curiosity
Emre Basar seeks to understand how small interfering RNA (siRNA) can be harnessed and integrated into cells with the goal of silencing the expression of certain proteins that allow diseases like breast cancer and HIV to proliferate inside the body.
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Campus & Community
Scientists Unravel Secrets of Sound Sleep
Researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) find that people’s brain rhythms during sleep may hold the answer to sleeping through loud noise.
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Science & Tech
Inklings of suicide
Two new computerized tests, developed at Harvard, show promise in predicting patients’ risk of attempting suicide.
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Campus & Community
Zon, Scadden recognized by American Society of Hematology
Two Harvard faculty members and members of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, David Scadden and Leonard Zon, have won awards from the American Society of Hematology for contributions to understanding and treating blood diseases.
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Health
Scadden, Zon win Hematology Society awards
Two Harvard professors will receive awards from the American Society of Hematology for their “significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of hematologic diseases.” David Scadden, who is co-director of the…
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Health
Two HSCI groups find residual genetic ‘memory’ in iPS cells;
Two groups of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have independently made similar discoveries about the characteristics of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), but they have reached somewhat different conclusions about the implications…
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Campus & Community
Six Harvard affiliates receive Damon Runyon fellowships
Six Harvard affiliates have been named recipients of fellowships by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting exceptional early-career researchers and innovative cancer research.
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Health
‘Test and treat’ won’t stop HIV/AIDS epidemic, study finds
Implementing a program of universal HIV testing and immediate antiretroviral treatment (ART) for infected individuals could have a major impact on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington, DC, but a new study by led by…
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Health
Study finds higher STD rates among users of erectile dysfunction drugs
Users of erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs have higher rates of sexually transmitted disease (STD) than do non-users, Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have found after analyzing insurance records of…
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Health
More Than Two Billion People Worldwide Lack Access to Surgical Services
More than two billion people worldwide do not have adequate access to surgical treatment, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The Harvard researchers…