Health

A multi-institutional study led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT reports that newly diagnosed Crohn’s disease patients show increased levels of harmful bacteria and reduced levels of the beneficial bacteria usually found in a healthy gastrointestinal tract.

AIDS researchers and medical ethicists gathered at the Harvard School of Public Health to explore possible ethical issues affecting studies of promising strategies to fight the ailment.

Scientists have long suggested that the best way to settle the debate about how phenotypic plasticity may be connected to evolution would be to identify a mechanism that controls both. Harvard researchers say they have discovered just such a mechanism in insulin signaling in fruit flies.

A novel approach to cancer immunotherapy — strategies designed to induce the immune system to attack cancer cells — may provide a new and cost-effective weapon against some of the most deadly tumors, including ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.

A Harvard research team led by Kevin Kit Parker, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute principal faculty member, has identified a set of 64 crucial parameters by which to judge stem cell-derived cardiac myocytes, making it possible for scientists and pharmaceutical companies to quantitatively judge and compare the value of stem cells.

Harvard stem cell scientists have successfully converted skins cells from patients with early onset Alzheimer’s into the types of neurons affected by the disease, making it possible for the first time to study this leading form of dementia in living human cells.

A Harvard School of Public Health study has found that new federal standards launched in 2012 that require schools to offer healthier meals have led to more fruit and vegetable consumption. This contradicts criticisms that the new standards have increased food waste.

Researchers at the Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, both Harvard affiliates, have identified mutations in a gene that can reduce the risk of individuals developing type 2 diabetes. If a drug can be developed that mimics the protective effect of these mutations, it could open up new ways of preventing this devastating disease.

In a small study by Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, increasing the number of calories consumed by patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may be a relatively simple way of extending their survival.

Evidence is mounting that Earth’s water arrived during formation, aboard meteorites and small bodies called “planetesimals.”

Harvard stem cell scientists studying the effect of nitric oxide on liver growth and regeneration appear to have serendipitously discovered a markedly improved treatment for liver damage caused by acetaminophen toxicity.

Toxic chemicals may be triggering recent increases in neurodevelopmental disabilities among children — such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia — according to a new study. The researchers say a new global prevention strategy to control the use of these substances is urgently needed.

After 26 years of workdays spent watching bacteria multiply, Richard Lenski has learned that evolution doesn’t always occur in steps so slow and steady that change can’t be observed.

Despite the dormant appearance of the trees, the Arnold Arboretum isn’t waiting for spring, as pruning, mowing, research, and planning continue to move ahead at full speed.

Hospital stewardship programs, community education, and legal changes to allow pharmaceutical companies to profit longer from new antibiotics are among reforms that experts suggest to fight drug-resistant bacteria.

The first clinical trial of a drug intended to delay the onset of symptoms of Huntington’s disease (HD) reveals that high-dose treatment with the nutritional supplement creatine was safe and well tolerated by most study participants. Neuroimaging also showed a treatment-associated slowing of regional brain atrophy, evidence that creatine might slow the progression of presymptomatic HD.

A new study offers the first evidence that fetal sex can affect the amount of milk cows produce, a finding that could have major economic implications for dairy farmers.

Scientists at Harvard have identified a previously unknown embryonic signal, dubbed Toddler, that instructs cells to move and reorganize themselves, through a process known as gastrulation, into three layers.

Remnants of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans are associated with genes affecting type 2 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, lupus, biliary cirrhosis, and smoking behavior. They also concentrate in genes that influence skin and hair characteristics. At the same time, Neanderthal DNA is conspicuously low in regions of the X chromosome and testes-specific genes.

Researchers have created embryonic stem cells without an embryo. This discovery of a novel reprogramming method of adult cells, without introducing external genetic material, could dramatically shift stem cell research.

Cuttlefish, the “chameleon of the sea,” may offer researchers a model for bio-inspired human camouflage and color-changing products, some of which could be invaluable in wartime.

Four creations are back on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s Glass Flowers gallery after a long absence.

A landmark study across many cancer types reveals that the universe of cancer mutations is much bigger than previously thought. By analyzing the genomes of thousands of patients’ tumors, a Broad Institute-led research team has discovered enough new cancer genes to expand the list by 25 percent.

The average life expectancy in the United States has fallen behind that of other industrialized nations as the American income gap has widened. Also, particular health habits, including weight control, nutrition, and exercise, clearly influence the effects aging among segments of the U.S. population.

A group of Harvard Medical School students is using the viral success of tongue-in-cheek video on the spleen to promote science education, launching a contest for younger students to make organ-themed music videos.

Research by Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists shows that much lincRNA, which had been generally believed useless, plays an important role in the genome.

For patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), low levels of vitamin D were found to strongly predict disease severity and hasten its progression, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) investigators in collaboration with Bayer HealthCare.

Though variability is often portrayed as a flaw to be overcome, Harvard researchers now say that, in motor function, it is a key feature of the nervous system that helps promote better or more successful ways to perform a particular action.

“Beige fat” cells found in healthy subcutaneous fat in mice play a critical role in protecting the body against the disease risks of obesity, report Harvard researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who say their study findings may have implications for therapy of obesity-related illness in humans.

Harvard scientists say they’re closer to unraveling one of the most basic questions in neuroscience — how the brain encodes likes and dislikes — with the discovery of the first receptors in any species evolved to detect cadaverine and putrescine, two of the chemical byproducts responsible for the distinctive — and to most creatures repulsive — smell of rotting flesh.