Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Press Releases - EIN Presswire

Published on August 19, 2024 - 21:51 GMT

A common fatty acid may help restore healthy vaginal bacteria after infection

More than half of women globally experience bacterial vaginosis (BV) — an imbalance of naturally occurring microbes in the female genital tract — at least once in their life. The condition can cause painful symptoms and vaginal discharge, and although …

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Published on August 8, 2024 - 01:13 GMT

Machine learning approach helps researchers design better gene-delivery vehicles for gene therapy

Gene therapy could potentially cure genetic diseases but it remains a challenge to package and deliver new genes to specific cells safely and effectively. Existing methods of engineering one of the most commonly used gene-delivery vehicles, adeno- …

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Published on August 7, 2024 - 18:06 GMT

Six scientists named as new core institute members at Broad

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has named six new core institute members: Gad Getz, Anna Greka, Nir Hacohen, Evan Macosko, Benjamin Neale, and Pardis Sabeti. “We are thrilled to recognize these distinguished scientists for their track record of …

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Published on July 26, 2024 - 10:14 GMT

Researchers identify cheap and effective biomarkers for DCIS tumor stage

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a pre-invasive tumor, accounts for about 25 percent of breast cancer diagnoses, a leading cause of cancer death. While doctors generally recommend treatment, they lack the appropriate evidence to reliably decide which tumor …

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Published on July 25, 2024 - 21:48 GMT

Q&A: How a stem cell bank is helping scientists understand psychiatric disorders

When Ralda Nehme, a cell biologist and neuroscientist, first started her lab at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2018, she realized a gap in the field. She was adept at growing stem cells in the lab, …

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Published on July 24, 2024 - 01:13 GMT

#WhyIScience Q&A: A mechanical engineer builds microscopes to give new spatial views of cells and tissues

At some point during her education, self-described “space nerd” Lindsey Erion-Barner traded gazing through telescopes for peering into microscopes. “There are many commonalities between astronomy and microscopy, they’re just at different scales,” she …

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Published on July 19, 2024 - 15:37 GMT

An immune factor in the brain plays critical roles in neuron function and aging

Immune cells in the central nervous system called microglia produce a protein called C1q, which helps the immune system prune synapses (the junctions between neurons) in the developing brain. A new study reveals that C1q can also enter neurons, where it …

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Published on July 18, 2024 - 00:54 GMT

De-risking drug discovery with predictive AI

Developing a new drug can take years of research and cost millions of dollars. Still, more than 90 percent of drug candidates fail in clinical trials, with even more that never make it to the clinical stage. Many drugs fail because they simply aren’t safe …

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Published on July 12, 2024 - 04:08 GMT

Targeted drug treatment leads tumor cells to imitate viral infection

A number of cancers, including certain brain and liver tumors, as well as myeloid leukemias, are driven by mutations in the enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase 1, or IDH1. Drugs that block mutated IDH1 (mIDH1) have recently come onto the market and effectively …

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Published on July 10, 2024 - 19:59 GMT

Prime editing efficiently corrects cystic fibrosis mutation in human lung cells

Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common genetic disorders, causing thick mucus build-up in the lungs and other parts of the body, breathing problems, and infection. A three-drug cocktail known as Trikafta has greatly improved patient quality of life …

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Published on July 9, 2024 - 12:17 GMT

Brain chimeroids offer window into relationships between genetics and exposures

Researchers at the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have developed a new platform for modeling at the cellular level how the human brain responds to a variety of stimuli. Described …

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Published on June 27, 2024 - 23:12 GMT

A therapy candidate for fatal prion diseases turns off disease-causing gene

Prion diseases lead to rapid neurodegeneration and death and are caused by misshapen versions of the prion protein in the brain. There are currently no treatments, but researchers from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Broad Institute of …

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Published on June 25, 2024 - 20:33 GMT

Gut microbiome changes align with increased risk of type 2 diabetes

The largest and most ethnically and geographically comprehensive investigation to date of the gut microbiome of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), prediabetes, and healthy glucose status has found that specific viruses and genetic variants within bacteria …

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Published on June 18, 2024 - 20:34 GMT

Simple test for flu could improve diagnosis and surveillance

Fewer than one percent of people who get the flu every year get tested in part because most tests require trained personnel and expensive equipment. Now researchers have developed a low-cost paper strip test that could allow more patients to find out which …

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Published on June 14, 2024 - 22:39 GMT

Some CRISPR screens may be missing cancer drug targets

CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing has made possible a multitude of biomedical experiments including studies that systematically turn off genes in cancer cells to look for ones that the cancer cells heavily depend on to survive and grow. These genes, or “cancer …

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Published on June 11, 2024 - 19:30 GMT

#WhyIScience Q&A: A biochemist uses mass spectrometry to find proteins involved in cancer

When Moe Haines first moved from Beirut, Lebanon to the United States for college, his goal was to earn a degree in pharmacy. Haines was the first person in his family to pursue science, and most people he knew with similar interests had chosen a career in …

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Published on June 10, 2024 - 17:17 GMT

Improved prime editing system makes gene-sized edits in human cells at therapeutic levels

Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have improved a gene-editing technology that is now capable of inserting or substituting entire genes in the genome in human cells efficiently enough to be potentially useful for therapeutic applications …

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Published on May 16, 2024 - 18:00 GMT

New gene delivery vehicle shows promise for human brain gene therapy

In an important step toward more effective gene therapies for brain diseases, researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have engineered a gene-delivery vehicle that uses a human protein to efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver …

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Published on May 14, 2024 - 12:45 GMT

Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology awarded to F. William Studier for development of widely used protein- and RNA-production ...

“The T7 system has been influential in biomedicine and has had important clinical implications for many years, but Bill Studier’s contribution to the field has really not been as celebrated as it ought to be,” said Harold Varmus, chair of the Merkin Prize …

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Published on May 9, 2024 - 12:30 GMT

Calico and Broad Institute extend collaboration, adding focus on age-related neurodegeneration

In March of 2020, Broad Institute converted a clinical genetics processing lab into a large-scale COVID-19 testing facility in less than two weeks. We've screened more than 1,275 cancer cell lines as part of the Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap). Broad …

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