A man’s symptoms appeared to signal Alzheimer’s, but doctors found it was something else: a treatable disorder caused by excess fluid on the brain. Mark Johnson, HMS associate professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a specialist who treated the patient.
We are all Henrietta Lacks. Or, according to privacy experts, we soon could be. Americans are giving their DNA to companies that research their family origins, scientists say, without thinking through the potential long-term consequences. George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at HMS, is quoted.
Research intended to help people with muscle-wasting diseases could be about to launch a new era in performance-enhancing drugs. Jerry Avorn, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
The longer a mother breast-feeds, the greater the benefit to the child’s brain development, a new study says. Mandy Brown Belfort, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, is the lead author of the study.
It isn’t just the beer that contributes to beer bellies. It could also be the extra calories, fat and unhealthy eating choices that may come with moderate drinking. Eric Rimm, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Children with chronic stomach pains are at high risk for anxiety disorders in adolescence and young adulthood, a new study has found, suggesting that parents may wish to have their children evaluated at some point for anxiety. Samuel Nurko, HMS associate professor of pediatrics, is quoted.
While only 1 in 200 American adults will develop anorexia nervosa in their lifetime, at least 1 in 20 (1 in 10 teen girls!) will struggle with restricting, bingeing and/or purging that doesn’t meet full diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder. Jennifer J. Thomas, HMS assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, co-authored a new book entitled, “Almost Anorexic.”
The Sontag Foundation, run by Rick and Susan Sontag, has given Brigham and Women’s Hospital $1 million toward creating an Adult Hydrocephalus Program, the only one of its kind in New England. Mark Johnson, HMS associate professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Researchers studying two seemingly unrelated conditions — autism and cancer — have unexpectedly converged on a surprising discovery. Some people with autism have mutated cancer or tumor genes that apparently caused their brain disorder. Mustafa Sahin, HMS associate professor of neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, was a leader of the study. Steven McCarroll, HMS assistant professor of genetics, is also quoted.
A large genetic study of hundreds of people in South Asia has allowed scientists to probe important transition points in the population’s history, pinpointing when two different groups of people mixed widely and then stopped. The study provides a genetic signature of cultural changes that occurred as the caste system was put in place in India. David Reich, HMS professor of genetics, is the senior co-author.
Cutting-edge “lung on a chip” technology is poised to revolutionize the way scientists test new drugs. The first-of-its kind device may be a faster, cheaper way to develop drugs and avoid the need to perform testing on animals. Donald Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard and the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at HMS, was recently a guest on “CBS This Morning.”
