Featured series 
Tag: Diabetes
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Health
Poised for progress
A discovery by scientists at Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute may lead to an effective way of operating the immune system’s internal “control panel,” improving therapies for a variety of diseases.
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Science & Tech
Importance of stem cell research
A temporary restraining order that blocked federal funding for certain kinds of stem cell research was viewed by many as a blow to cutting-edge science. In response, President Drew Faust said, “We hope that the temporary injunction will soon be lifted and that Congress will take the steps necessary to ensure that stem cell scientists…
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Health
Rare variants in gene coding may up risk of autoimmune disorders
Rare variants in the gene coding of an enzyme that controls the activity of a key immune cell occur more often in people with autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes, Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found in a multi-institutional study. The researchers’ report, published in the journal Nature, identifies a pathway…
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Campus & Community
Child weight loss reduces diabetes risk
Researchers at Harvard University find that overweight girls who lose weight before adulthood reduced their risk of diabetes.
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Campus & Community
Daily battle to improve health
Harvard School of Public Health student Lyle Ignace hopes to use his experience as an American Indian physician and his new understanding of public health systems to make a difference in the Native American community.
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Health
Detailed metabolic profile gives “chemical snapshot” of the effects of exercise
Using a system that analyzes blood samples with unprecedented detail, a team led by Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed the first “chemical snapshot” of the metabolic effects of exercise. Their findings, reported today’s edition of Science Translational Medicine, may improve understanding of the physiologic effects of exercise and…
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Campus & Community
Diabetes drug tied to reduced breast cancer risk
Women who have used the diabetes drug metformin for more than five years may have a lower risk of breast cancer than diabetic women on other treatments, a new study finds…
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Health
Novel artificial pancreas controls blood sugar more than 24 hours
An artificial pancreas system that closely mimics the body’s blood sugar control mechanism was able to maintain near-normal glucose levels without causing hypoglycemia in a small group of patients. The system, combining a blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technology with software that directs administration of insulin and the blood-sugar-raising hormone glucagon, was developed at…
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Health
Infant mortality down, ailments persist
José Cordero, dean of the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Public Health, said that the progress made in the 20th century on infant mortality has revealed new health concerns stemming from that success: how to reduce birth defects and provide care for the greater number of children who are surviving them.
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Health
A molecule that destroys normal metabolism is found
Overeating in mice triggers a molecule once considered to be only involved in detecting and fighting viruses to also destroy normal metabolism, leading to insulin resistance and setting the stage for diabetes, according to the results of a new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The research specifically links…
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Health
The hunt for healthy answers
JoAnn Manson leads a nationwide study to assess whether vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids can boost immunity and protect against ailments from heart disease to cancer.
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Health
Open innovation challenge seeks solutions to type 1 diabetes
The best scientific insights, which ultimately may lead to the solution of the world’s great puzzles, do not always come from the experts in the fields in question. Sometimes they come from outliers who approach a problem from an entirely new perspective — just as unknown English clockmaker John Harrison demonstrated that longitude could be…
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Health
Want to live well?
Harvard faculty members from a range of fields give tips on how to live healthy.
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Campus & Community
Diabetes Medication May Get New Life as Cancer Treatment
A national tax of 1 cent per ounce of soda and other sugary drinks could stem the United States’ obesity epidemic, while generating $14.9 billion the first year alone, health experts say.
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Campus & Community
A Stem Cell Discovery Could Help Diabetics
This week, scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) reported the first success in generating new populations of insulin-producing cells using skin cells of type 1 diabetes patients.
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Health
Low blood sugar in hospital linked to higher death risk
Harvard researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) found that diabetics hospitalized for noncritical illnesses who develop hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) during hospitalization have an increased likelihood of remaining hospitalized longer and a greater risk of mortality both during and after hospitalization. This research appears in the July 2009 issue of Diabetes Care. Previous research…
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Health
Safer stem cells for therapy
When stem cell researchers in Japan and the United States announced in 2007 that they had developed long-sought methods to return fully developed adult human cells to an embryonic-like state, the world of stem cell research was turned upside down.
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Health
Shining light on leptin’s role in brain
In investigating the complex neurocircuitry behind weight gain and glucose control, scientists have known that the hormone leptin plays a key role in the process. But within the myriad twists and turns of the brain’s intricate landscape, the exact pathways that the hormone travels to exert its influence have remained a mystery. Now, a study…
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Health
Majority of new cases of diabetes in older U.S. adults could be prevented
Even as science searches for more clues about the causes of diabetes and medications to prevent it, the vast majority of new cases of the disease in older adults could be prevented by following a modestly healthier lifestyle, according to research led by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). In a study…
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Health
Smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight top three preventable causes of death in the U.S.
Smoking, having high blood pressure, and being overweight are the leading preventable risk factors for premature mortality in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), with collaborators from the University of Toronto and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University…
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Health
C. Ronald Kahn first to win Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research
C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and head of the Head Section on Obesity and Hormone Action at the Joslin Diabetes Center, has been named the first winner of the Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research. “Joslin Diabetes Center is delighted that one of our world-renowned…
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Science & Tech
A protein found to restore blood glucose in type 1 diabetes model
A protein made by the liver in response to inflammation and used to treat patients suffering from a genetic form of emphysema has been shown to restore blood glucose levels in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes mellitus, according to a new study led by Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess…
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Health
Driven:
When the baby vomited again, Gail Melton knew something was seriously wrong with her second child, a son she and her husband, Doug Melton, had named Sam. She phoned Doug and took Sam to Harvard Health Services in Holyoke Center. Doug hurried to the clinic from his Fairchild Biochemistry Building lab on Divinity Avenue, where,…
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Health
Potential diabetes treatment selectively kills autoimmune cells from human patients; study confirms feasibility of human trials
In experiments using blood cells from human patients with diabetes and other autoimmune disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have confirmed the mechanism behind a potential new therapy for type 1 diabetes. A team led by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory, showed that blocking a metabolic pathway regulating the immune…
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
HBS’S LAURA ALFARO NAMED YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER MELTON TO RECEIVE DIABETES CHAMPION AWARD NATIONAL PARKS GROUP TO HONOR E.O. WILSON
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Health
MGH initiates Phase I of its diabetes trial
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have initiated a Phase I clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes. The trial is exploring whether the promising results from the laboratory of Denise Faustman can be applied in human diabetes.
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Health
Stem cells open window on disease processes
A panel of Harvard Stem Cell Institute experts said recently that stem cell research’s biggest impact on patients’ health likely won’t come from therapies that inject stem cells or implant tissues made from them, but rather from the knowledge gained by examining diseased tissues grown from the cells. Kenneth Chien, head of the Harvard Stem…
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Health
Initial human trial of Type 1 diabetes treatment begun
Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes. The trial is exploring whether the promising results from the laboratory of Denise Faustman, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, can be applied in human diabetes. A phase 1 trial is usually designed to…
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Health
Restricting insulin doses increases mortality risk
A new study led by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has found that women with type 1 diabetes who reported taking less insulin than prescribed had a three-fold increased risk of death and higher rates of disease complications than those who did not skip needed insulin shots. The new research appears in the March…
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Health
Diabetes drug dramatically boosts power of platinum chemotherapy
A widely used diabetes drug dramatically boosted the potency of platinum-based cancer drugs when administered together to a variety of cancer cell lines and to mice with tumors, report scientists from Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.