What
is RSS?Emerging Class of Viruses Found to Change Shape to Infect Humans
December 16, 2004 The binding of a viral RNA and a viral protein brings about a physical transformation that dupes host cells into enthusiastically copying the invading pathogen, according to a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the December 17 issue of Science, collaborators led by professor Lee Gehrke of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology publish dramatic three-dimensional images of RNA-protein interactions in alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), a safe model for investigating single-strand, positive-sense RNA viruses. AMV's dangerous relatives include flaviviruses that cause dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile disease.
Researchers Find High Levels of Potentially Toxic Heavy Metals in Herbal Medicine Products
December 14, 2004 One of five Ayurvedic herbal medical products (HMPs) produced in South Asia and available in Boston area stores contains potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic, according to a study led by Robert Saper, currently with the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) Department of Family Medicine and a former research fellow at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Osher Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
"This study, yet again, highlights the need for Congress to revisit the way dietary supplements are regulated in the U.S.," said co-author David Eisenberg, the Bernard Osher Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the HMS Division of Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies. "Our first priority must be the safety of the public."
Success of Experimental Herpes Vaccine Builds Momentum for Human Clinical Trials
December 14, 2004 A new study provides evidence that a herpes vaccine developed by a Harvard Medical School researcher is a strong candidate for testing in humans. The study, led by Stephen E. Straus, MD, senior investigator in the Medical Virology Section in the Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, compared three different experimental vaccines for herpes simplex virus 2, the virus that causes most cases of genital herpes. The HMS vaccine, developed by David Knipe, HMS professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, called dl5-29, outperformed the other two vaccines, one of which has already been tested in humans.
Long-Sought Key to Hearing May Be Found in Protein Discovery
October 13, 2004 Researchers at Harvard Medical School and their colleagues have identified a protein deep in the inner ear that they believe translates sound into the nerve impulses used by the brain. "People have been looking for this protein for a decade," says David Corey, HMS professor of neurobiology and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Other protein candidates have been nominated, but this is "the strongest evidence yet that this protein is the hair-cell transduction channel," says Corey, lead author of the paper. The discovery could help scientists investigate normal hearing and inherited forms of deafness. Video interview (1:45 minutes)
Images Reveal How Leading Cause of Severe Childhood Diarrhea Enters Cells
August 25, 2004 High-resolution images constructed by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School reveal the molecular rearrangements that rotavirus -- the most common cause of severe, dehydrating diarrhea and vomiting in children worldwide -- uses to break into cells. The work is a major advance in the understanding of how viruses cause infection, and illustrates how vaccine development can be made "smarter" by probing the physical architecture of viruses without having to use a whole virus to make a vaccine.
Drug-Resistant Bacteria May Find New Foe In Novel Drug Design Approach
August 25, 2004 Researchers from Harvard Medical School report they have found a way to produce antibiotics with tailored and improved properties that can help in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria. The development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a major public health concern. Currently, doctors have precious few weapons to fight strains, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
JDRF Launches New Center for Immunological Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes at Harvard Medical School
August 23, 2004 The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Harvard Medical School announce the opening of the JDRF Center for Immunological Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes at Harvard Medical School. The Center was developed because advances in the immune tolerance area are critical for finding better treatments, and eventually a cure, for type 1 diabetes. "The Center's scientists are dedicated to learning more about immune tolerance and are acutely aware of its potential impact on islet transplantation, which is a very promising strategy for treating and potentially curing diabetes," says Raphael Dolin, MD, Dean for Academic and Clinical Programs.
Innovative
Efforts Target Epigenetics, Molecular Imaging
June 2004 The National Human
Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), announced
it has awarded a new grant to establish a Center of Excellence in Genomic
Science (CEGS) at Harvard Medical School in Boston.The new center, like the other
other centers funded through
NHGRI’s CEGS program, will assemble interdisciplinary teams
of scientists to make critical advances in genome science. A
team led by Harvard’s George Church, PhD, will address the biomedical
research community's need for better and more cost-effective technologies for
imaging
biological systems at the level of DNA molecules (genomes) and RNA molecules
(transcriptomes). The center will receive $2 million annually in CEGS funding
for five years.
Junk DNA Yields New Kind of Gene
June, 2004 In a region of DNA long considered a genetic wasteland, Harvard Medical
School researchers have discovered a new class of gene. Most genes carry
out their tasks by making a product--a protein or enzyme. This is true of
those that provide the body's raw materials, the structural genes, and those
that control other genes' activities, the regulatory genes. The new one,
found in yeast, does not produce a protein. It performs its function, in
this case to regulate a nearby gene, simply by being turned on.
Largest Multi-National Mental Health Survey
Shows Treatment of Mentally Ill Woefully Inadequate
June, 2004 The largest multi-national mental health survey of its kind ever undertaken
has found that the challenge of treating those most severely affected by mental
disorders is largely unmet. The study, developed by the WHO World Mental Health
Consortium, appears in the June 2 Journal of the American Medical Association.
Harvard Medical School Announces Center for Education and Research in Dubai
May 31, 2004 At a ceremony today, Dr. Robert K. Crone, dean for international
programs at Harvard Medical School, and president and chief executive officer
of Harvard Medical International (HMI), will join Saeed Al Montafiq, chief
executive officer of Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), and Dr. George Thibault
of Harvard Medical School to break ground on the Harvard Medical School Dubai
Center (HMSDC). Scheduled for completion in 2005, the Center will house the
Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research. The Center will be managed
by HMI, which has a strategic relationship with DHCC to develop the quality
management infrastructure and education programs for the entire site.
Three
Harvard Medical School Endowed Chairs Named Simultaneously in Sleep
Medicine
May 11, 2004 Harvard Medical School (HMS) is taking steps to dramatically advance
the field of Sleep Medicine through the simultaneous
establishment of three endowed chairs all devoted to this emerging critical
field of medicine.
New Papillomavirus Target Could Lead to First Specific Antiviral Drugs
for Precancerous Cervical Lesions
April 30, 2004 Harvard Medical School researchers
have uncovered a missing link in our understanding of how human papillomaviruses
gain their foothold in the rapidly dividing cells of the skin and
mucous membranes. The discovery, reported in the April 30 Cell,
could lead to new treatments for a host of human papillomavirus-related
conditions,
from the nuisance of plantar and genital warts to life-threatening
precancerous cervical lesions.
Most Massachusetts
Physicians Endorse Single-Payer National Health Insurance
February 9, 2004 Nearly
two-thirds (64%) of Massachusetts physicians favor single-payer national
health
insurance, far more than
support managed care (10%) or fee-for-service care (26%) according to a
Harvard Medical School study published today in the Archives of Internal
Medicine. National health insurance (NHI) received majority support from
physicians of virtually every age, gender and medical specialty – even
among surgeons a plurality supported NHI.
3D
Images Reveal Key Step in Viral Entry into Cells
January 7, 2004 Researchers at Children’s
Hospital Boston, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Harvard Medical
School have
detailed visually the final steps by which a diverse family of viruses
enter and infect cells. The work, published in the January 22 edition
of Nature,
is a significant advance in the understanding of how viruses cause infection,
and offers two possible strategies for blocking these infections with antiviral
drugs or vaccines.