In the weeks that followed the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, doctors saw a flood of patients with a common injury: a ruptured eardrum. Ruptured eardrums aren’t rare — patients with chronic ear infections or some traumatic injury often develop them. But the influx of cases made it clear to otolaryngologist Aaron Remenschneider, at the time a resident at specialty hospital…
New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear indicates that the blood pressure drug losartan may benefit patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), a hereditary condition associated with vestibular schwannomas, or noncancerous tumors along the nerves in the brain that are involved with hearing and balance. The findings, which are published in Science Translational Medicine,…
Proper lung function relies on the precise balance of specialized epithelial cells (cells that line the surfaces of the body) that coordinate functions to maintain homeostasis. One important lung cell type is the goblet cell, which secretes mucus that helps protect the lining of the bronchus (major air passages of the lung) and trap microorganisms. Goblet cells are often increased in…
In 2013, neuroanatomist Charles “Chuck” Vanderburg received an unusual request. A sought-after expert in analyzing brain tissue on a micro-scale, Vanderburg was asked to study a unique specimen — a meteorite. Vanderburg went to work, using his microdissection skillset to study the composition of one of the oldest objects on Earth. At the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Vanderburg…
The US government is investing heavily to breed more monkeys at the national facilities that house primates for biomedical research, Nature has learnt. The goal is to offset an ongoing shortage of these animals, which grew worse in 2020 as scientists tested scores of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments on primates before trials began in people. To make room for more monkeys, the…
As of the end of June 2021, more than 150 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But questions remain about how long vaccinated people are protected against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and whether they will be protected from the viral variants circulating in the United States and globally, including the new highly transmissible delta (B.1.617.2) variant.…
Most of the tests that doctors use to diagnose cancer — such as mammography, colonoscopy, and CT scans — are based on imaging. More recently, researchers have also developed molecular diagnostics that can detect specific cancer-associated molecules that circulate in bodily fluids like blood or urine. MIT engineers have now created a new diagnostic nanoparticle that combines both of…
The trafficking of proteins such as aquaporin-2 (AQP2) in the exocytotic pathway requires an active actin cytoskeleton network, but the mechanism is incompletely understood. Here, we show that the actin-related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex, a key factor in actin filament branching and polymerization, is involved in the shuttling of aquaporin-2 (AQP2) between the trans Golgi network (TGN) and the plasma…
Two Harvard Medical School faculty members have been named to receive Honorific Awards from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and will be at the organization’s annual meeting in December. These awards recognize exemplary hematologists who have made significant contributions to the field. Margaret Shipp, HMS professor of medicine at Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, was named to receive the Ernest Beutler…
Terence D. Capellini has been interested in how joints work for almost three decades. Part of it is due to personal experience, as he suffered several joint injuries as a college ice hockey player and recently developed knee osteoarthritis. The principal investigator of Harvard’s Developmental and Evolutionary Genetics Lab has also seen the pain and limited mobility of loved ones…
