The complex motion of the beating heart is accomplished by the spatial arrangement of contracting cardiomyocytes with varying orientation across the transmural layers, which is difficult to imitate in organic or synthetic models. High-fidelity testing of intracardiac devices requires anthropomorphic, dynamic cardiac models that represent this complex motion while maintaining the intricate anatomical structures inside the heart. In this work,…
Boston College faculty members Sara Cordes, Joshua Hartshorne, and Jaclyn Ford of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience have received National Science Foundation grants to support their research projects that focus on different aspects of human learning and memory. •Cordes, an associate professor, was awarded two grants: $870,968 for “The Developmental Emergence and Consequences of Spatial and Math Gender Stereotypes,”…
The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak presents enormous challenges for global health. To aid the global effort, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and our partner institutions have committed to freely providing information that may be helpful, including by sharing information that may be able to support the development of potential diagnostics. As…
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects 14 percent of adults in the U.S. There are several stages of CKD, but when it progresses to kidney failure, outcomes are quite poor, with those patients dying at a higher rate than patients with most advanced cancers. Patients who go on dialysis face both an exhausting treatment regimen and a high rate of death…
For some infants, a wet diaper is cause for an instant, vociferous demand to be changed, while other babies may be unfazed and happy to haul around the damp cargo for lengthy periods without complaint. But if worn too long, a wet diaper can cause painful rashes, and miserable babies — and parents. Now MIT researchers have developed a “smart”…
Real estate investment trust Healthpeak Properties Inc. plans to expand its local portfolio with a $320 million acquisition of The Post, a redeveloped former U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Waltham that is set to be home to the headquarters of robotics company Boston Dynamics. Irvine, California-based Healthpeak (NYSE: PEAK) disclosed the purchase agreement in its fourth-quarter earnings release. The Post spans 426,000…
In a new discovery, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have detected widespread inflammation in the brains of veterans diagnosed with Gulf War Illness (GWI). These findings, published online in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity on February 3, could serve as a guidepost for identifying and developing new therapies for people with GWI, as well as many other chronic conditions that…
The Forsyth Institute and former Boston Bruins hockey player and Hall of Famer Ray Bourque are hosting a reception on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at Bourque’s North End restaurant, Tresca. Forsyth’s CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Wenyuan Shi and Director of ForsythKids, Kerry Maguire, will give opening remarks. The event will kick off a campaign leading up to Forsyth’s…
As the coronavirus outbreak shows, viruses are a constant threat to humanity. Vaccines are regularly developed and deployed against specific viruses, but that process takes a lot of time, doesn’t help everyone who needs protection, and still leaves people exposed to new outbreaks and new viruses. Now, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have uncovered a novel potential antiviral drug…
A Caenorhabditis elegans worm squirms its way through a compost heap, sensory neurons in its nose helping it navigate oxygen and carbon dioxide cues as it searches for food. The lab of Harvard Medical School geneticist Max Heiman studies these neurons to illuminate nervous system development and uncover clues about how things go awry in humans, leading to neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration. Get more…
