The BBC’s Horizons team visited Harvard to speak to Donald Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, about research into personalized medicine.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center report that the relaxation response – a state of deep rest attained through breathing, meditation, yoga and other practices — triggers changes in gene expression that can affect the body’s immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion. Herbert Benson, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Towia Libermann, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, were co-senior authors of the new study.

Helen Riess, HMS associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, shared her perspective on empathy after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings.