Featured series 
Tag: Work in Progress
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Health
Researchers identify protein linked to tumor invasion
Metastasis occurs when cancer cells penetrate the boundaries of the tumor’s tissue and infiltrate the walls of blood vessels or lymph vessels, gaining a means of transport to other parts of the body –- far from the original tumor site –- where they can then grow anew. This process is unique to cancer cells and…
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Science & Tech
RNA technology thwarts HIV
RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring phenomenon by which cells guard themselves against viruses. The process involves post-transcriptional gene silencing in which specific RNA sequences get chopped into small pieces after binding to complementary short interfering RNAs (siRNA). These siRNAs can target either host mRNAs or viral genomic or messenger RNAs. As a consequence,…
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Health
Six new breast cancer-susceptibility genes found
The discovery of six new cancer-susceptibility genes grew out of more than 10 years of research by Alan D’Andrea into Fanconi anemia, a condition known to affect only 500 families in the United States. Children born with the condition usually develop bone marrow failure early in life, leaving them unable to produce oxygen-carrying red blood…
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Science & Tech
The next big thing in mining the genome
About 99.9 percent of the 3.1 billion base pairs in the human genome are the same from person to person. The remaining 0.1 percent of differences comprises more than 10 million common single-letter genetic variations (and many more rare variants) scattered through the genome. By the numbers, a comprehensive search for the multiple genetic contributions…
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Health
One in five women iron deficient, many children also at risk
Iron-deficient anemia reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells, thus decreasing energy and endurance. When there is not enough iron, the red blood cells are not able to produce enough hemoglobin (the oxygen-transporting pigments found in red blood cells). Those affected may have pale skin and be excessively tired and ineffective at work or…
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Science & Tech
Three in five Americans would get vaccinated for smallpox
Substantial public interest in receiving a smallpox vaccination grows in part from continuing fears about a future bioterrorist attack. Nine months after the September 11th attacks, more than four in 10 (43 percent) of Americans surveyed in the summer of 2002 reported being worried about a future attack using smallpox, down from 53 percent in…
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Health
Imaging test may detect gene for genetic cardiac disease
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common cause of cardiac death among young people and affects one in every 500 individuals, including professional athletes. It is characterized by an enlargement of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber. This enlargement results in a thickening of the walls of the heart, which then prevents the…
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Health
Researchers use therapeutic cloning to create functional tissue in cows
In a study, researchers obtained cow oocytes (donor eggs from cow ovaries) and removed and discarded the nuclei, which contain the cells’ genetic material, leaving behind just the shell. A skin cell from the cow’s ears was placed inside the egg shell and burst with electrical energy to expand the cell. That induced the one…
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Science & Tech
Patents have negative impact on access to HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries
Researchers Joan-Ramon Borrell and Jayashree Watal collected sales data for HIV/AIDS drugs in a sample of 34 low- and middle-income countries between 1995 and 1999 to assess the impact of patents on unsubsidized access to a new drug therapy. Their main finding is that patent rights do have a negative effect on unsubsidized access to…
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Science & Tech
Radcliffe conference presents research on lethal school violence
Educators, policy-makers, law enforcement officials, and adolescent-development specialists came to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on May 21, 2002, for the National Conference on Lethal School Violence. The conference centerpiece was the report “Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence,” a qualitative and quantitative study of incidents of lethal school shootings released by the National…
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Health
Researchers uncover remaining critical insulin gene regulatory factor
Scientists have known the identity of two genes that can influence the ability of insulin genes to trigger insulin production in the beta cells of the pancreas. Through subsequent research it has been demonstrated that these two genes are at least partially responsible for a form of diabetes called maturity onset diabetes of the young…
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Health
New molecular model increases longevity and could allow you to eat cake, too
Scientists have known about the longevity benefits of caloric restriction since experiments in the 1930s showed that rats lived much longer if their food intake was severely restricted. Broadly speaking, the reason is stress. Although usually viewed as the enemy of good health, stress can actually boost longevity, driving an organism to slow down metabolism…
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Health
Sea squirt cancer drug under test
In the United States, researchers at three Harvard University-affiliated hospitals — Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — have been testing a powerful drug on patients with breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer. “Tests show that the drug has been active enough to expand these trials,” says Bruce Chabner, a professor…
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Science & Tech
Emergency communications
As almost 60,000 federal, state and local public safety agencies plan to upgrade their communications systems in the wake of 9/11, Kennedy School of Government Assistant Professor of Public Policy Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger took a hard look at communications interoperability and its implementation, in the United States and in Europe. Three steps have been seen as…
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Health
Endostatin shows no toxicity and some clinical activity in latest report on phase I trial
Discovered in the Children’s Hospital Boston laboratory of Judah Folkman, Endostatin is a natural substance that blocks the formation of new blood vessels around and in tumors, thereby disrupting their ability to survive and grow. The formation of new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis, can be helpful — in wound healing, for example —…
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Health
Old-line antibiotic seen to save neurons
Developed as an antibiotic 30 years ago, a drug called minocycline was later discovered to ease acne, rheumatoid arthritis, and other inflammatory conditions. A few years ago, it was shown to slow and even limit the neuronal damage caused by stroke and Huntington’s disease in mice. But researchers were not sure how it works in…
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Health
Science illuminates art
Monet and other painters exploited the parallel visual processing of color and brightness. A sunset seems to shimmer, a field of poppies seems to wave, and a river seems to flow when there is a disconnect between the color and luminance pathways, according to a book, Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing, by Margaret…
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Health
Staying healthy amidst bacterial “Overkill”
A new book by Harvard School of Public Health Assistant Professor of Risk Analysis and Decision Science Kimberly Thompson takes a look at how the way we live is causing the rise of drug-resistant germs that are threatening an abrupt end to “The Age of Miracles” and bringing us all into “The Age of Risk…
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Health
New radio wave treatment corrects back disorders
Doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are using radio waves –- the same energy that sends signals to your car radio -– to gently dissolve small amounts of unwanted disc tissue and relieve the pressure often associated with lower back and upper leg pain. Virtually bloodless and exceptionally precise, nucleoplasty radio wave injection is…
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Science & Tech
New approach to cervical cancer screening could save lives
When caught early through a Pap test, cervical cancer is almost 100 percent preventable, with treatment of precancers. Compared with current practice, shifting women currently getting annual conventional Pap tests to a schedule of Pap tests once every three years (using a new liquid-based technology that allows for extraction of DNA from cells taken in…
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Health
Heart attack patients may benefit from drinking tea
A study published in the May 7, 2002, issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association found that tea consumption is associated with an increased rate of survival following a heart attack. The key to this protection appears to lie with a group of antioxidants known as flavonoids, which are plentiful in both black…
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Science & Tech
Americans don’t see obesity as serious health problem
Using unique survey data that they collected, researchers Taeku Lee and J. Eric Oliver presented the first examination of public attitudes towards obesity and obesity policy. They found that, contrary to the views of health experts, most Americans are not seriously concerned with obesity, express relatively low support for obesity-targeted policies, and still view obesity…
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Science & Tech
Mexican-American women navigate school and work more successfully than men
Only 19 percent of Mexican-American men in 1990 were upwardly mobile professionally, compared to 31 percent of women, and only nine percent of men worked in professional/technical jobs, compared to 17 percent of women. The study, “Gender, Ethnicity, and Race in School and Work Outcomes of Second Generation Mexican Americans,” also found that Mexican-American women…
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Health
Peripheral ‘Swatch’ watches are powerful force in modulating body’s circadian rhythms
Clinicians have known for years that organs function at different rates — the heart beats, kidneys transport ions and electrolytes, the liver metabolizes lipids, sugars, and amino acids differently over the course of the day — and have used this knowledge to design more effective drug regimens for patients. A better understanding of what drives…
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Science & Tech
Physicians who are experts on managed care avoid enrolling in HMOs
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and RAND surveyed 279 professors at 17 universities across the country who were prominent experts in managed care to find out their preferences when selecting health plans for themselves and their families. The researchers also surveyed “controls,” consisting of other professors at the same institutions who did…
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Health
Increased intake of dairy products may help reduce risk of insulin resistance
Milk intake has decreased significantly over the past three decades while the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes has increased. The authors of a Harvard research study note that for most of the past 30 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Heart Association have recommended low-fat diets for the prevention and…
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Health
Changes in brain shown with learning
Harvard Medical School researchers Vadim Bolshakov, Evgeny Tsvetkov, and Bill Carlezon, based at McLean Hospital, reported with colleagues in the April 11, 2002 issue of the journal Neuron that they have found clear evidence of cause and effect between learning and long-term changes in the brain. Their research focused on how learned fear made changes…
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Science & Tech
School of Public Health tests new emergency management software
CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) is a suite of software programs used by professionals such as emergency management agency specialists, firefighters, hazardous materials teams, industrial hygienists and emergency department personnel. The system helps professionals plan for emergencies and deal with them as they are happening. Recently, the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for…
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Health
New tool speeds study of mammalian protein function
A new technology developed by Harvard Medical School researchers in the laboratory of Yang Shi, associate professor of pathology, extends the range of possibilities of selective interference of gene expression without having to manipulate DNA in the egg or embryo. The new technology makes it possible to turn off genes in a highly specific manner,…