A patient’s genetic makeup may explain the “placebo effect,” in which people perceive that a fake treatment makes them feel better, according to a study that may help researchers design better clinical trials. Kathryn Hall, HMS research fellow in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is the lead author. Ted Kaptchuk, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is also an author of the study.

Israel-based Neuronix, which has developed a non-invasive medical device to help to treat Alzheimer's disease, expects the system to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in late 2014. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, HMS professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is leading a trial of the system.

Seventy-five Massachusetts doctors, hospital facilities, eye clinics, and rehabilitation centers received drugs in recent months produced by the New England Compounding Center, the Framingham pharmacy under investigation for producing tainted injections linked to nearly 300 cases of fungal meningitis in 16 states, and 23 deaths, the US Food and Drug Administration said. Several HMS-affiliated hospitals are on the list.