North and South America were first populated by three waves of migrants from Siberia rather than just a single migration, say researchers who have studied the whole genomes of Native Americans in South America and Canada. David Reich, HMS professor of genetics, led the study.
The largest private-sector effort to tame medical spending in Massachusetts appears to be getting results, as doctors who agreed to work on a budget have cut costs by using less-expensive imaging and lab companies and expanding office hours to reduce emergency room use. Michael Chernew, HMS professor of health care policy, is the senior author of the study.
A gene that causes the rare,early-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease can also carry a mutation that produces the opposite effect, staving off the devastating illness, scientists announced yesterday. Rudolph Tanzi, the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
The lifesaving medicine called surfactant saves babies struggling to breathe and was discovered in 1959 by Mary Ellen Avery, Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus, at HMS and former physician-in-chief at Boston Children’s Hospital, who passed away last December.
George Xu and Stephanie Yaung, both second-year PhD students, have developed a device resembling a pregnancy test that, within minutes, could not only tell doctors whether a newborn has PKU, a rare condition in which a baby is born without the ability to properly break down an amino acid called phenylalanine.
A new study points to a single gene as a cause of autism-like behavior, with rapamycin, a commonly used immunosuppresant drug, working effectively to prevent these symptoms. Mustafa Sahin, HMS associate professor of neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, is the senior author of the study.
Sitting for less than three hours a day might add two years to your lifespan, suggests a newstudy. I-Min Lee, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of the researchers.
