For decades, researchers understood little about IBD, which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. But the new swell in Chinese cases offers researchers “an opportunity that is unparalleled” to understand what causes the disease and how it might ultimately be treated or prevented. Gail Cassell, senior lecturer on global health and social medicine, is quoted.
Pregnant women often fear taking the antidepressants they rely on. But not treating their mental illness can be just as dangerous. Lee Cohen, Edmund N. and Carroll M. Carpenter Professor of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
Five families have come to Children’s Hospital researchers for help diagnosing yet-to-be-identified diseases, and scientists are hoping clues to potential cures lie in genetics. Alan Beggs, Sir Edwin and Lady Manton Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital; and Isaac Kohane, inaugural chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and Lawrence J. Henderson Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, are quoted.
Top scientists are sounding the alarm over human gene-editing — now moving from the realm of science fiction into real labs — and they’re calling for an emergency summit on the medical technology that holds promise for people with deadly genetic diseases, but has raised fears. George Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, is quoted.
Jean Fain, teaching associate in psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, writes about the downside of diets and talked with University of Minnesota Psychology Professor Traci Mann about why diets don’t work.
