Bayer will spend more than $30 million over the next five years to fund joint research projects with Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) at a new joint lab opened by the three to research new drug candidates to treat chronic lung diseases. The new joint lab is designed to combine Bayer’s capabilities in drug discovery…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C., announced today that it will stop conducting or funding studies on mammals by 2035. The move, which is already eliciting strong reactions from groups supporting or opposing experiments on animals, makes EPA the first federal agency to put a hard deadline on phasing out animal research. EPA’s decision “is a decisive win for…
Nitric oxide (NO) synthesized by the endothelial isoform of nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is a critical determinant of vascular homeostasis. However, the real-time detection of intracellular NO-a free radical gas-has been difficult, and surrogate markers for eNOS activation are widely utilized. eNOS phosphorylation can be easily measured in cells by probing immunoblots with phosphospecific antibodies. Here, we pursued multispectral imaging…
Megan Young, MD, assistant dean for student affairs and assistant professor of medicine in the section of geriatrics, has received the 2019 Women Physicians Section Inspiration Award from the American Medical Association (AMA). The award honors and acknowledges physicians who have offered their time, wisdom and support throughout the professional careers of fellow physicians, residents and students. Dr. Young is…
Charles M. Lieber and Shaun Patel, a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, see a field — their own — at a tipping point. In a perspective titled “Precision Electronic Medicine,” published this month in Nature Biotechnology, they argue that neurotechnology is on the cusp of a major renaissance. “The next frontier is really the merging of human cognition…
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease affecting both adults and children. It’s driven by “helper” T cells, white blood cells that mount an inflammatory attack on the brain and spinal cord, degrading the protective myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers. But there are many different kinds of T helper cells, and up until now, no one knew which ones were the…
One out of four adults with diabetes will ultimately develop kidney disease that can lead to kidney failure. These patients are often told that keeping their blood sugar levels under control should keep diabetic kidney disease (DKD) at bay. However, even when they do this, many patients still end up developing DKD. A new study that examined the genetics of…
Our everyday lives rely on planned movement through the environment to achieve goals. A new study by MIT neuroscientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT identifies a well-connected brain region as a crucial link between circuits guiding goal-directed movement and motivated behavior. Published Sept. 19 in Current Biology, the research shows that the lateral septum (LS), a…
Drug-eluting contact lenses, which gradually release drugs into the eye, offer a promising alternative to daily eye drops, which can be unpleasant and hard for patients to properly administer. In a 2016 pre-clinical study of glaucoma, the engineered lenses lowered eye pressure at least as well as daily eye drops. New work from Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Boston Children’s Hospital…
Massachusetts General Hospital will soon start the first clinical trial that simultaneously tests multiple potential ALS medicines in the hopes of getting results faster at lower costs. The elite Boston teaching hospital plans to launch the first “platform trial” in early 2020 at the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS, which was founded last year with $40 million…
