Mass General Researchers Identify Pattern of Brain Inflammation in Fibromyalgia Patients
A team of researchers at Mass General, in collaboration with a team form the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, recently identified a pattern of brain inflammation in the brains of fibromyalgia patients that could be the key to diagnosing this elusive disorder.
Regulating Microglia’s Three Roles May Be the Key to Managing Inflammation in the Brain
Experts have long thought of microglia as the immune cells of the brain because they support and defend cells within the central nervous system. To help describe their various functions, scientists have classified microglia into three different roles: sentinels, warriors and nurturers. But what happens to the brain when these microglia aren’t doing their job […]
Mass General Researcher Explores Links Between Sleep and Disease
Richa Saxena, PhD, a principal investigator for the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is looking at the genetics of sleep and its link to disease. Dr. Saxena is a Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport MGH Research Scholar 2017-2022. What is the most exciting sleep research that you and your team are doing? What’s been most exciting […]
Event Highlights Progress on Brain Disease Research
Determined collaboration and groundbreaking technology have led to exciting advances in efforts to solve the challenges of brain diseases, researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases(MIND) told patients, families and friends recently. On May 16, 2018, nearly 100 people attended the event at the MIND labs at the Charlestown Navy Yard. MIND’s Visiting Day gathering […]
Snapshot 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 […]
Brain Stimulation During Sleep Could Help Schizophrenia Patients with Debilitating Memory Deficits
Have you ever heard the expression that bad things happen in threes? While this concept is generally regarded as a superstition, there is a ring of truth to it for individuals with schizophrenia, who frequently suffer from three distinct sets of problems. The first type, known as positive symptoms, occur when individuals start to display […]
Are Genetics the Body’s Natural Alarm Clock? One Mass General Researcher Hopes to Find Out
If you own a white noise machine, sleeping mask or high-tech mattress, you may feel like you’re in control of your sleep. But what if there were factors outside your control that influence how many hours of sleep you get every night? In addition to environmental factors like temperature, noise and light, our genes are […]
Snapshot of Science for July 2018
What’s new in research at Mass General? Here’s a snapshot of studies recently published in top-tier scientific journals: Understanding the biological pathways underlying atrial fibrillation A team led by Patrick Ellinor, MD, PhD, at the Mass General Heart Center conducted a massive genomic analysis for atrial fibrillation (AF) – an irregular and often rapid heart […]
Blueprint Grant Will Help Mass General Researcher Advance Strategies to Limit Stroke Damage
When it comes to assessing the damage caused by natural disasters, experts often think in terms of primary and secondary effects. A primary effect of a flood, for example, would include the damage to homes and buildings caused by the rushing waters, while a secondary effect would be power outages resulting from downed trees and […]
Could 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 […]