Taking vitamins E and C may do nothing to protect aging eyes from macular degeneration – the leading cause of vision loss in older adults, a new clinical trial finds. William G. Christen, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is the lead researcher.
Researchers in robotics, biology, math, and computer science are immersing themselves in the method resembling origami – to look at how materials and molecules wrinkle, drape, flex, and crease. Donald Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, is quoted. Research by Shawn Douglas, HMS research fellow in genetics at the Wyss Institute, is also highlighted.
The age of “omes” is here. It began with the genome, continued with the proteome, branched out with the memome and reached full flowering with the notion of the omome. An essay co-written by Alexa T. McCray, co-director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics at HMS, is highlighted.
Resveratrol, which is abundant in the skins of grapes, spares mice from the harmful effects of a fatty diet, and work in yeast, fruitflies and roundworms has suggested that the chemical lengthens the lives of these organisms by activating proteins called sirtuins. David Sinclair, HMS professor of genetics, is the lead author of the study.
New research shows that even if you exercise, sitting for long stretches isn’t healthy. Edward Phillips, HMS assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, is quoted.
The new accountable care organization model faces conflicting dangers: either it won’t be strong enough to upend entrenched incentives or it will be so successful it will prove too politically disruptive to survive. Michael Chernew, HMS professor of health care policy, is quoted.
Scientists have caught tiny amounts of a strangely shaped protein — a relative of a well-known suspect in Alzheimer’s disease — spreading destruction throughout the brains of mice. If a similar process happens in the human brain, it could help explain how Alzheimer’s starts, and even suggest new ways to stop the dangerous molecule’s spread. Rudy Tanzi, the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology
at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
Dr. C. Miller Fisher, HMS professor of neurology, emeritus, at Massachusetts General Hospital, whose pioneering discoveries in the causes and treatment of strokes created the basis for modern stroke treatments and saved countless lives, died April 14 at the age of 98.
Byron Good, HMS professor of medical anthropology and Mary-Jo Good, HMS professor of social medicine from the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, are researching innovative strategies for providing mental health care in areas of high trauma in the developing world.
