Researchers at Galenea Corp. will share a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) with Kevin Spencer of the VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School to develop new biomarkers to measure the effectiveness of drugs aimed at schizophrenia.
Scientists say they have mapped the underlying regulatory system that switches DNA on and off, potentially spurring a wave of new research into the molecular basis of complex diseases such as Type 1 diabetes. The ENCODE consortium and Bradley Bernstein, HMS associate professor of pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, are cited. Stephen Elledge, Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and of Medicine, is quoted.
Emerging evidence suggests that these newest American combat veterans former GIs and Marines in their 20s and 30s appear to be growing old before their time. A VA study is seeking to understand these alarming findings. William Milberg, a HMS professor of psychology is quoted.
Stephen Blacklow has been named chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, effective Oct. 1, 2012. A member of both BCMP and the Department of Cancer Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Blacklow has deep roots at HMS, as an MD-PhD student, a post-doctoral trainee in pathology, and for the last 14 years, a faculty member in pathology and then at BCMP.
For 25 years, hospitals and clinics have paid as much as $1,200 a year to use the most popular set of standards for the electronic exchange of health information. On Tuesday, the nonprofit organization responsible for developing those standards said its intellectual property will be available for use free of charge beginning in the first quarter of 2013.“This announcement is the most significant standards development in the past decade,” said John Halamka, CIO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and HMS professor of medicine.
Two major clinical trials are testing for the first time whether treating inflammation can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke, potentially opening up a new line of attack in the battle against cardiovascular disease. Both trials are led by Paul M. Ridker, Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at HMS and director of the center for cardiovascular-disease prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Edmund B. “Ned” Cabot, a retired surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and scion of a Boston Brahmin family, drowned Saturday off the coast of Newfoundland when a rogue wave swept him from his yacht, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Sunday.
