In their quest to build a beating heart from scratch, Harvard University researchers looked to the sea for inspiration, building a tiny swimming “jellyfish” out of rat heart cells and a thin, jellyfish-shaped polymer film. Harald Ott, HMS instructor in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
Should all U.S. children get tested for high cholesterol? Doctors are still debating that question months after a government-appointed panel recommended widespread screening that would lead to prescribing medicine for some kids. Matthew Gillman, HMS professor of population medicine and Sarah De Ferranti, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, are quoted.
Ronald Schouten, HMS associate professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, talked with The LA Times about the issues the victims of Friday’s shooting in Colorado will face on their road to mental and physical recovery.
U.S. doctors tend to share patients with colleagues who have similar personal and practice styles, according to a new study. Bruce Landon, HMS professor of health care policy, is the lead author of the study.
Sanofi SA, the French drug giant that bought Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp. for $20.1 billion last year, announced a research collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
As scientists successfully decode and isolate human DNA in the race for new drugs, the ability to protect and profit from what they find has yet to be mapped. A federal appeals court is poised to tie that loose end when it hears arguments on whether it should be legal to obtain U.S. patents on genetic material and on methods of using that DNA for medical diagnoses and treatments. Madeleine Ball, HMS research fellow in genetics, is quoted.
The author wrote an opinion piece about the fact that medical school graduates make less money than business-school grads, yet take on far more risk and asks whether this is a sustainable model.
The Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence is being dedicated today in Rwanda. Organizers of the project, which include the Rwandan ministry of health, Partners In Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, hope the only specialized cancer facility in the country can serve as a model for addressing the rapid rise of cancer in the developing world. Paul Farmer, the Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS; Neo Tapela, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and Lawrence Shulman, HMS associate professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, are quoted.
A new colon cancer study is the first part of the $100-million-a-year Cancer Genome Atlas project, a sweeping effort that is expected to produce a flood of discoveries for a wide range of cancers. Raju Kucherlapati, the Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics at HMS, is the lead researcher of the colon cancer project. Charles Fuchs, HMS professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is an author of the paper. Todd R. Golub, HMS professor of pediatrics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is also quoted.
