When Jerry Berrier dreams, he hears and touches and smells and talks, but he doesn’t see. Blind since birth, he rarely remembers his dreams, however, because his sleep has been so poor. Though physicians haven’t given him a formal diagnosis, scientists believe he suffers from a rare condition called non-24 sleep-wake disorder, or “non-24.” Steven Lockley, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of the lead researchers in an ongoing clinical trial investigating sleep disorders in the blind.
MIT and Harvard scientists have figured out a way to harness a tiny electric current in the inner ear. The work could make it possible some day to make self-powered implantable medical devices to diagnose and treat disorders of the ear or even the brain. Konstantina Stankovic, HMS assistant professor of otology and laryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, was one of the leaders of the research.
Cancer patients, while thankful for life saving treatments, are often living with side effects including chronic pain, fatigue and other disabilities. Julie Silver, HMS assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, created a comprehensive program specifically designed to help cancer patients with rehab after their treatment.
Harvard’s i-lab is celebrating its first anniversary this month and is a place that offers all the university’s students an opportunity to tap into the entrepreneurial boom sweeping Boston. Involvement with HMS and the Longwood Medical Area is mentioned.
A report from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice offers medical students a glimpse of the kind of doctors they’re likely to become, depending where they do their residency. HMS-affiliated hospitals are mentioned in the report.
Josephine Lee Murray, a former pediatrician at Judge Baker Children’s Center, died in October at the age of 91. William Beardslee, the George P. Gardner and Olga E. Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at HMS, is quoted.
Susan E. Pories, HMS assistant professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and award-winning breast surgeon and surgical educator at Mount Auburn Hospital, was recently elected president of the Association of Women Surgeons council at the AWS’s 31st annual fall conference in Chicago, Ill.
Scientists have found yet another reason to be glad it’s Friday. A new study found that the feeling we all have from time to time—that the work week gives us a headache—might not be all in our minds. Clas Linnman, HMS instructor in anaesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital, led the research.
If Congress doesn’t avoid the year-end “fiscal cliff,” billions of dollars worth of medical research and defense contracts would be slashed, and perhaps nowhere would that be more keenly felt than in Massachusetts. Harry Orf, HMS principal associate in genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
A study published recently in Nature found new genetic links between Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two autoimmune gut diseases that affect as many as 1.4 million people in the United States. Ramnik Xavier, HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was one of the authors.
