MIPS: News and Press Releases

Shaunte Henry was born into a career in science. With an engineer father, a mother who works as an RN, and an older brother in medical school, it was no surprise to anyone that she would prepare for medical school once she got to Duke University in 2003. Now, that preparation has taken the biology major to Harvard School of Public Health, where she works as an intern in the laboratory of Jay Mizgerd, associate professor of physiology and cell biology, Department of Environmental Health.

Source: HSPH Now, August, 4 2006
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Boston - April 11, 2006 - Almost a hundred years ago, scientists began dreaming about a "magic bullet," a drug that would attack infection without harming healthy cells. Effective drug targeting is still the Holy Grail for cancer drugs and antibiotics.

Source: WBUR.org
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One of the most astonishing characteristics of glass is that it can be as hard as, well, glass--yet malleable enough to assume the form of everything from a filigreed wisp to a womb-like hollow. Now new research led by Jeffrey Fredberg at the Harvard School of Public Health reveals--transparently--that our cells can essentially do the same.

Source: Harvard Public Health Review, Winter, 2006
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Boston, MA - An international team led by Jeffrey J. Fredberg, professor of bioengineering and physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, has found that the cell modulates its mechanical properties in much the same way as a glassblower shapes fine glassware. This new view of cellular functions sheds light on mechanical facets of phenomena as diverse as asthma, cancer, inflammation, and vascular disease. These findings appear in advance online from the July, 2005 issue of Nature Materials

Source: Harvard School of Public Health Press Release, June 20, 2005
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Obesity is a known risk factor for type II diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer. Evidence is now mounting that obesity is also a risk factor for asthma. Reports have shown that nearly 75 percent of emergency room visits for asthma have been among obese individuals and studies have shown that obesity pre-dates asthma. The risk for developing asthma increases with increasing obesity among individuals. Yet little is known about how obesity influences asthma.

Source: Harvard School of Public Health Press Release, May 10, 2005
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Pointing to persistent, tantalizing questions about the cardiac risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy, HSPH professor JoAnn Manson is not ready to forego research into the treatment. Two years after officials halted a federal study because of concerns that HRT increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, Manson has agreed to be an investigator on a privately funded study. For her and her fellow researchers, enough positive evidence about the use of HRT remains to wonder if the therapy could be good for some women.

Source: Harvard Public Health Now, August 16, 2004
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HSPH Assistant Professor Daniel Tschumperlin and a multidisciplinary group of scientists have identified a mechanism that helps explain how airways respond to constriction in asthma. The discovery strengthens the basic science known about a disease that affects an estimated 17 million Americans, and also introduces a previously unrecognized means by which physical changes outside the cell can affect cell behavior.

Source: HSPH Now, September 17,2004
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When Smith College sophomore Fallon Mattis thought about her summer vacation plans, beaches and camping trips did not come to mind. With a clinical-based internship at New York University Downtown Hospital already under her belt, the pre-med student wanted to find out if biological research was a career path she was interested in.

Source: HSPH Now, August 9,2002
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The advent of computers has brought a new kind of manual labor, one of small repetitive movements using a computer keyboard and mouse. Although those movements may seem insignificant, over time they can lead to musculoskeletal pain and injury, as anyone who has experienced carpal tunnel syndrome can testify.

Source: Harvard Focus Online, September 28, 2001
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Research from Joseph D. Brain showing how a sugar receptor on brain immune cells gums up viral infection

Source: Focus: March 23, 2007
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