Mass General Cancer Center, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham system, has received the largest gift in its 34-year history from philanthropists Jason and Keely Krantz to power the future of cancer research. In honor of their landmark contribution, the Cancer Center’s pre-eminent research division will now be known as the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research. The…
The gastrointestinal (GI) epithelium plays a major role in nutrient absorption, barrier formation, and innate immunity. The development of organoid-based methodology has significantly impacted the study of the GI epithelium, particularly in the fields of mucosal biology, immunity, and host-microbe interactions. Various effects on the GI epithelium, such as genetics and nutrition, impact patients and alter disease states. Thus, incorporating…
Remember the days before smartphone maps, when someone would give you verbal directions for how to drive from point A to point B? While these directions may have hit on all the main roads you needed to take to reach your destination, chances are they left out some small detail that would lead you to miss a side street or…
A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, suggests a common brain network exists among people with substance use disorder. By evaluating data from across more than 144 studies of addiction, the team found abnormalities across substance use disorders mapped to a common brain network across substances and…
Laminar Pharma announces that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Rare Pediatric Disease (RPD) Designation to LAM561 (idroxioleic acid, sodium) an investigational drug candidate for patients with Pediatric-Type Diffuse High Grade Glioma (pdHGG). “Pediatric patients who develop Pediatric-Type Diffuse High Grade Glioma face a significant unmet need with limited treatment options, presenting differential characteristics from adult patients…
High up in the mountains of Kenya are the lush Taita Hills — a vibrant and beautiful rainforest that seems entirely detached from the dry savannah common in the rest of the country. It is roughly halfway between the two largest cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, taking hours to reach by train and car. It’s also swarming with bats. Those…
Neurotransmitter release requires assembly of the SNARE complex fusion machinery, with multiple SNARE-binding proteins regulating when and where synaptic vesicle fusion occurs. The presynaptic protein Complexin (Cpx) controls spontaneous and evoked neurotransmitter release by modulating SNARE complex zippering. Although the central SNARE-binding helix is essential, post-translational modifications to Cpx’s C-terminal membrane-binding amphipathic helix regulate its ability to control synaptic vesicle…
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has selected Whitehead Institute postdoctoral researcher Maiko Kitaoka as a Hanna H. Gray Fellow. As one of 25 scientists selected for the prestigious appointment this year, Kitaoka will receive funding that supports her postdoctoral training and may continue into her early career year as independent faculty. “I’m incredibly thankful to HHMI for believing in…
Sylvia Abente, a clinical neurologist at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción in Paraguay, investigates the range of symptoms that characterize epilepsy. She works with indigenous peoples in Paraguay, and her fluency in Spanish and Guarni—the two official languages of Paraguay—allows her to help patients find the words to describe their epilepsy symptoms so she can treat them. Juan Carlos Caicedo…
The Koch Institute at MIT is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Angelika Amon Young Scientist Award, Johanna Gassler and Ruxandra-Andreea Lambuta. The prize was established in 2021 to recognize graduate students in the life sciences or biomedical research from institutions outside the United States who embody Dr. Amon’s infectious enthusiasm for discovery science. Both of this year’s…
