Modeling urinary tract disorders on a chip: Zohreh Izadifar
When a new tissue sample arrives from the Department of Urology, the Boston Children’s Hospital lab of Zohreh Izadifar, PhD springs into action. The tissue, from a child with urinary tract pathology, is whisked into the tissue culture room. Under a hood, lab members Dasvit Shetty, PhD, and Gretchen Carpenter, MSc, carefully isolate the cells ... Read More about Modeling urinary tract disorders on a chip: Zohreh Izadifar
Could peripheral neuropathy be stopped before it starts?
An increase in high-fat, high-fructose foods in people’s diets has contributed to a dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes. This, in turn, has led to an increase in peripheral neuropathy — nerve damage, typically in the hands and feet — that causes weakness, loss of sensation and, in some, a stabbing, burning, or tingling pain. ... Read More about Could peripheral neuropathy be stopped before it starts?
Modifying macrophages in the lung could head off pulmonary hypertension
In the 1980s, when Stella Kourembanas, MD, began her career in neonatology, she cared for newborns with pulmonary hypertension, a disease that results in abnormally high blood pressure in the lung arteries and can lead to heart failure. Since then, treatments like inhaled nitric oxide, new vasodilators, new modalities of mechanical ventilation, and extracorporeal membrane ... Read More about Modifying macrophages in the lung could head off pulmonary hypertension
A new tool could exponentially expand our understanding of bacteria
How do bacteria — harmless ones living in our bodies, or those that cause disease — organize their activities? A new study, combining powerful genomic-scale microscopy with a technical innovation, captured which genes bacteria turn on in different situations and in different spatial environments. The technology, described January 23 in Science, promises to take the ... Read More about A new tool could exponentially expand our understanding of bacteria
Could we cure or prevent food allergy by targeting an intestinal protein?
When is food simply nourishing and enjoyable, and when does it provoke an allergic reaction? The answer appears to lie in the balance of microbes that live in our intestine — and a specific protein secreted by intestinal goblet cells that influences that balance. Excess amounts of this protein, RELMß, change the profile of intestinal ... Read More about Could we cure or prevent food allergy by targeting an intestinal protein?
Mapping cells to create targeted treatments for interstitial lung disease
John Kennedy, MD, MSc, remembers the relative simplicity of his first genetic mapping project. In a Harvard Medical School lab, he helped map a gene for the neurological disease mucolipidosis type IV in less than a year. “I was fresh out of college. I thought with the global momentum of the Human Genome Project, we were going to ... Read More about Mapping cells to create targeted treatments for interstitial lung disease