Flying can be unpleasant for anyone, but for some people it results in excruciating ear pain. Can a balloon procedure ease a painful ear condition? Dennis S. Poe, HMS associate professor of otology and laryngology at Boston Children’s Hospital, is the co-author of a new study.
It takes only a moment to step over the line, especially when no one knows exactly where the line is. Kindness to friend and duty to patient: Are they one and the same? Or separated by a barbed-wire fence? Opinion is all over the map. An experience by Gordon Schiff, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is cited.
Good news for everyone whose go-to afternoon snack is a handful of almonds. Researchers from HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital found an association between nut consumption and decreased risk of pancreatic cancer in women. Ying Bao, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is the study researcher.
Alzheimer’s disease has no cure or effective long-term treatment. Many drug trials have failed to show lasting delays or reversals of symptoms in people who already have dementia. That’s why scientists are exploring what signatures Alzheimer’s disease might create in the body before symptoms ever begin. Rudy Tanzi, the Kennedy Professor of Neuroscience at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital, and Reisa Sperling, HMS professor of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, are quoted.
The U.K.’s newly launched Personal Genome Project seeks volunteers. George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at HMS, started the first Personal Genome Project in the U.S.
WBUR features the story of a mother whose daughter was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal genetic disorder. It is primarily an audio piece with a written introduction. Annie Brewster, HMS instructor in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a producer of the audio, as well as author of the piece.
U.S. researchers began an early stage clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent genital herpes disease by removing two key proteins so the virus cannot multiply. The vaccine was developed by David Knipe, Higgins Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology and chair of the Harvard Program in Virology at HMS.
Zebrafish experiments by Harvard University researchers yielded new chemicals that prod stem cells to make muscle tissue, an advance that may lead to treatments for muscular dystrophy and related disorders. Leonard Zon, professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at FAS and Boston Children’s Hospital, is one of the leaders of the study. Amy Wagers, professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at FAS and Joslin Diabetes Center, co-wrote the paper.
Rumor has it the worst time and place to be sick is in a teaching hospital in July, when new doctors-in-training enter the wards and others are promoted. A new study of heart attack patients shows this pattern of worse outcomes known as the “July effect” may indeed be true - but only for the sickest people. Anupam Jena, HMS assistant professor of health care policy, led the research.
