New approach offers promise for long-term efficacy

by Kelly Lawman, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 

Blood-contacting implantable medical devices, such as stents, heart valves, ventricular assist devices, and extracorporeal support systems, as well as vascular grafts and access catheters, are used worldwide to improve patients’ lives. However, these devices are prone to failure due to the body’s responses at the blood-material interface; clots can form and inflammatory reactions can prevent the device from performing as indicated....

The Anc80 virus delivered genes to the mouse retina that fluoresce green when expressed. Pictured here,...

Researchers experiment with single shot that slows rejection

A drug-secreting gel that holds back the immune system—developed to help treat diseases such as brain cancer, ulcerative colitis, and arthritis—has now been shown to slow hand transplant rejection, in rats, when delivered through a single shot. The...

Cross-Harvard collaboration explores new possibilities for personalized medicine

Harvard scientists have merged stem cell and ‘organ-on-a-chip’ technologies to grow, for the first time, functioning human heart tissue carrying an inherited cardiovascular disease. The research appears to be a big step forward for personalized medicine, as it is working proof that a chunk of tissue containing a patient’s specific genetic...