In a new study, Harvard researchers found that two pairs of dopamine-producing neurons in fruit flies may be exclusively linked with aggressive behavior. Edward A. Kravitz, the George Packer Berry Professor of Neurobiology, is lead author of the study. Olga V. Alekseyenko, postdoctoral fellow at HMS, is the study’s first author.
One of the economic mysteries of the last few years has been the bigger-than-expected slowdown in health spending, a trend that promises to bolster wages and help close the wide federal deficit over the long term — but only if it persists. Major new studies from researchers at Harvard University, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and elsewhere have concurred that at least some of the slowdown is unrelated to the recession, and might persist as the economy recovers. Michael E. Chernew, HMS professor of health care policy, is one of the lead authors.
More than 150 neuroscientists descended on Arlington, Virginia this week to begin planning the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative—an ambitious but still hazy proposal to understand how the brain works by recording activity from an unprecedented numbers of neurons at once. Van Wedeen, HMS associate professor of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
Doctors often struggle with conversations about death — navigating the murky waters of when and how to convey the risks of procedures and prospects for life expectancy. When doctors are less than forthcoming, out of sensitivity or haste, difficult situations become even more complex. Beth Lown, HMS associate professor of medicine at Mt. Auburn Hospital, was a guest on the program.
In the last three years, dozens of youth concussion clinics have opened in nearly 35 states — outpatient centers often connected to large hospitals that are now filled with young athletes complaining of headaches, amnesia, dizziness or problems concentrating. The proliferation of clinics, however, comes at a time when there is still no agreed-upon, established formula for treating the injuries. Several HMS affiliated faculty members are featured.
The Boston Marathon bombing shows how plotters can construct powerful bombs without attracting official attention. It offers a case study in the complex mix of personality and ideology at work in extremist violence. And it raises a pressing question: Is there any way to detect such plotters before they can act? Ronald Schouten, HMS associate professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
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.
Dr. Emil Frei III, an oncologist whose trailblazing use of combination chemotherapy — in which anticancer drugs are administered simultaneously rather than singly — helped make certain cancers curable for the first time, died on Tuesday at his home in Oak Park, Ill. He was 89. Frei was the emeritus director and emeritus physician- in-chief of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He was also the Richard and Susan Smith distinguished professor of medicine emeritus at HMS.
