Latin America’s growing prosperity is fueling a cancer epidemic that threatens to overwhelm the region unless governments take urgent preventive action, a new study warned. Paul Goss, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, led the research.
A group of scientists reported that they have pieced together the back story of a gene known as CD33 that could lead to exciting new ways of removing the amyloid plaques that build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and cause so many problems with memory and cognitive functions. Rudolph Tanzi, the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, led the study.
The Middlesex District Medical Society has announced the contribution of $100,000 to each of the four Massachusetts medical schools – including HMS – in order to establish endowed funds for the benefit of Massachusetts medical students during an unanticipated financial emergency. A statement by Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard University, is mentioned.
Harvard University researchers have discovered a naturally-occurring hormone in mice that sharply increases the number of precious, insulin-producing cells found in the pancreas—the beta cells that are lost during diabetes. Douglas Melton, the Xander University Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and his postdoctoral fellow, Peng Yi, led the research.
A new study raises the possibility that analyzing the placenta after birth may provide clues to a child’s risk for developing autism. Jonathan L. Hecht, HMS associate professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is quoted.
Doctors spend about 40 minutes getting approvals from insurance companies to get a psychiatric patient from the emergency room to a hospital bed, according to a new study. J. Wesley Boyd, HMS assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, is the senior author of the study.
Angelo Volandes, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, has created a low-tech, high-empathy plan to revolutionize end-of-life care. Aretha Delight Davis, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Mt. Auburn Hospital and Muriel Gillick, HMS clinical professor of population medicine, are quoted.
Initially preoccupied by the severe injuries sustained by victims of the Boston bombings, hospitals are now grappling with a more subtle medical consequence: widespread hearing loss among those closest to the blasts. Daniel Lee, HMS assistant professor of otology and laryngology and Alicia M. Quesnel, HMS instructor in otology and laryngology, both of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; and Selena E. Heman-Ackah, HMS instructor in otology and laryngology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, are quoted.
