Medicine
Mass General Researcher Explores Links Between Sleep and Disease
Even though we sleep so much of our life, we don’t know exactly what goes on in our brain when we sleep. But genetic studies can point a clear path for further investigation into the role of sleep.
Read MoreSnapshot of Science: Genetic Insights into Our Food Choices, New Diagnostic Device for Lymphoma and More
What’s new in research at Mass General? Here’s a snapshot of studies recently published in top-tier scientific journals: Effect of folic acid on child brain development Have you ever noticed that everything from cereal to pasta to pancake mix has folic acid listed as an ingredient? This is due to a government-mandated folic acid fortification…
Read MoreNew Insights Into How Shigella Bacteria Cause Disease
In the battle between bacteria and humans, the best defense may be a good offense.
Read MoreCould There be a Link Between Herpes Virus and Alzheimer’s Disease?
A new research study from Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, and Robert Moir, PhD, researchers in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, has uncovered a Jekyll and Hyde role for a naturally occurring protein in the brain most commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In conjunction with new findings from another research team at Icahn School of…
Read MoreLab Day Provides Exclusive Look Behind the Scientific Curtain
When you love music, you go to a concert. When you love art, you go to a gallery. But when you love science you can’t just go to a laboratory — or can you?
Read MoreInvestigating the Relationship Between MRSA and the Lymphatic System
Dennis Jones, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Edwin L. Steele Labs at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Jones won an award for a poster detailing the results of a research study that shows how MRSA infections contribute to recurrences of lymphedema by damaging muscle cells with bacterial toxins. Continue reading to learn more about…
Read MoreOn the Hunt for New Strategies to Defeat a Killer Fungus
At first glance, Candida auris (C. auris) seems like the fungus equivalent of a comic book supervillain—at least from a human perspective. A new species of infectious fungus that arrived seemingly out of nowhere a decade ago, C. auris is resistant to all known forms of antifungal drugs, and it sticks to surfaces so well that it resists standard…
Read MoreNew Tool for Predicting C. Difficile Infections Shows Promising Results
For patients in hospital and healthcare settings, a Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection is a complication that can result in serious complications and even death. C. difficile is caused by a bacterium and the symptoms of infection include diarrhea, fever and severe abdominal cramps. While some cases may be mild, some can be fatal—particularly in elderly, very…
Read MoreLooking for Insights into Mucolipidosis IV
Amanda Furness, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her poster, Therapeutic insight into Mucolipidosis IV via in vitro glia models, recently won an award at Mass General’s Research Fellow Poster Celebration. We asked Dr. Furness about her research: What problem(s) are you addressing with this…
Read MoreA Newly Discovered Link Between Gut Bacteria and Cholera
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Duke University and the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have used machine learning algorithms to find patterns within communities of bacteria living in the human gut. These patterns could indicate who among the approximately one billion people at risk of cholera infection around the globe will…
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