Tag: Work in Progress
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Nation & World
Alien abduction claims explained
Abduction stories are strikingly similar. Victims wake up and find themselves paralyzed, unable to move or cry out for help.
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Nation & World
Adult cells transformed into stem cells
Harvard researchers fused adult skin cells with embryonic stem cells in such a way that the genes of the embryonic cells reset the genetic clock of the adult cells, turning…
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Nation & World
Genome scanning technique spots disease risk
A new technique, admixture mapping, takes advantage of the higher-risk genetic segments from one population that show up in the other through generations of racial mixing. The presence of higher-risk…
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Nation & World
A new look at anemia
Leonard Zon and his colleagues at the Harvard Medical School were trying to find out how hemoglobin forms by studying zebrafish, small piscians whose transparent bodies allow their inner workings…
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Nation & World
Harvard, MGH researchers track egg cell production to marrow
In a series of experiments on sterile female mice, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers were able to restore egg production by transplanting bone marrow from fertile mice. The researchers believe…
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Nation & World
Implantable chips bear promise, but privacy standards needed
Writing in the July 28, 2005 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, John Halamka, M.D., chief information officer at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School and an emergency room…
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Nation & World
Urine test may help monitor disfiguring birthmarks
Vascular anomalies include both vascular malformations and vascular tumors (most commonly hemangiomas). Hemangiomas, found in about 10 percent of infants, occur when the cells lining blood vessels multiply abnormally. Hemangiomas…
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Nation & World
Studies chip away at sex hormone roles in prostate and breast cancers
In recent work, Myles Brown and colleagues combined chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChiP) assays with measures of DNA structure and large-scale gene chip analyses to study where, when, and how androgen and…
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Nation & World
High cholesterol levels accelerate growth of prostate cancer
The findings, published in the April 1, 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, are in keeping with population studies that have linked prostate cancer with high cholesterol levels.…
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Nation & World
Hearing loss tied to heart disease
Two members of a family who suffered progressive hearing loss and then underwent heart transplants got Christine Seidman, a Harvard professor of medicine, interested in the strange connection. Their hearing…
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Nation & World
Extended release stimulant effective for long-term ADHD treatment
In the October 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, a multi- institutional research team reported finding that treatment with Concerta, a once-daily…
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Nation & World
Molecule implicated in transcription termination
When a protein is made its DNA code must first be rewritten as messenger RNA (mRNA). This process of transcription requires a large enzyme complex, RNA polymerase, to begin at…
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Nation & World
Accumulated low-level lead exposure can lead to cataract development in men
According to lead author Debra A. Schaumberg, Sc.D., O.D., M.P.H. of BWH, “This research suggests that reduction of lead exposure throughout a man’s lifetime should help reduce his chances of…
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Nation & World
Studies demonstrate positive data in treatment of hepatitis C
Presented by Nezam Afdhal, M.D., chief of Hepatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the new findings demonstrate promising results…
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Nation & World
Risk of becoming resistant to antibiotics may be lower than expected for chronic sinus infection sufferers
“This study was designed to help determine how great a risk antibiotic resistance was among chronic sinus patients to determine if there is a need to re-evaluate how we diagnose…
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Nation & World
Surprising variations discovered in human genomes
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Toronto in Canada looked at 55 healthy, unrelated men and women, and they discovered 255 regions with relatively large gains or…
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Nation & World
Tiny “David” telescope finds “Goliath” planet
A newfound planet detected by a small, 4-inch-diameter telescope demonstrates that we are at the cusp of a new age of planet discovery. Soon, new worlds may be located at…
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Nation & World
Newly identified gene linked to brain development
Bilateral frontoparietal polymicrogyria (BFPP) is a recessive genetic disorder resulting in severely abnormal architecture of the brain’s frontal lobes, as well as milder involvement of parietal and posterior parts of…
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Nation & World
High intake of vitamin D linked to reduced risk of multiple sclerosis
More than 185,000 women from the Brigham and Women’s-based Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II, who were free of multiple sclerosis (MS), were selected for a research study.…
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Nation & World
Keeping synapses clean may hold key to fear-conditioning
As readers of introductory psychology texts know, animals easily learn to fear a harmless stimulus, such as a tone, if that stimulus is paired with a painful one, such as…
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Nation & World
Adolescent stress can change brain during adulthood
Researchers found that adult rats exposed to a social stress during adolescence (ages approximating 13 to 15 years in humans) showed a significant decrease in a specific protein found in…
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Nation & World
Did life originally spring from clay?
While the research is a far cry from proving that humans sprang from clay, as some creation myths assert, it does provide a possible mechanism for explaining how life initially…
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Nation & World
Dieting may actually promote weight gain in children
The prevalence of overweight and obese children has increased by 100 percent since the 1980s. Americans spend about $33 billion a year on weight loss products and services, however, only…
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Nation & World
Adding years to your life
A research team did the first global study of the potential increase in life expectancy if 20 well-known risk factors could be eliminated or reduced to safer levels. These factors…
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Nation & World
Asteroid Juno has a bite out of it
Juno, the third asteroid ever discovered, was first spotted by astronomers early in the 19th century. It orbits the Sun with thousands of other bits of space rock in the…
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Nation & World
New ways found to fight anthrax
John Collier, Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School, began tinkering with anthrax molecules in 1989. He looked into a powerful electron microscope and, for the…
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Nation & World
Painting a new picture of how we learn to read
The research of Tami Katzir, an assistant professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, centers on reading development and reading breakdown. Her interests revolve around three connected areas: The first…
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Nation & World
Area universities enhance regional economy
Harvard and seven other Greater Boston research universities took center stage in their role as the area’s special economic advantage: magnets for talent and investment that infuse more than $7…
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Nation & World
Study sheds light on how the sun causes skin cancer
Scientists have discovered that the sun’s damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays target a series of biochemical signals inside the young skin cell, impairing the cell’s ability to control its proliferation. Lynda…