By combining retinal imaging, genetics, and big data, physician-researchers from Harvard Medical School, Mass. Eye and Ear, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have found that they can estimate how likely a person is to develop eye and systemic diseases in the future.

Yichun He and Hailing Shi share new work from labs of Jia Liu and Xiao Wang, on the creation of publicly accessible spatial atlas of the mouse brain with unprecedented level of detail—featuring an analysis of over one million individual cells that pinpointed approximately 230 unique molecular cell types and delineated 106 distinct molecular tissue regions.

Harvard Gazette article on new research from an international team co-led by Bruce Fischl (MGH/Harvard) and Patrick Hoff (Mount Sinai School of Medicine). By combining different noninvasive imaging techniques such as MRI, optical coherence tomography, and light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, their team created a comprehensive cellular atlas of a region of the human brain known as Broca’s area, critical for producing language.

Harvard Gazette article on new research from the labs of Xiaowei Zhuang and Catherine Dulac, first author William E. Allen. They used the imaging method MERFISH to examine the relationship between inflammation and cognitive impairment as we age. Their results suggest this may be due to a cellular chain reaction.

HMS News article on new research from Michael D. Fox and colleagues, co-first authors Juho Joutsa, Khaled Moussawi, Shan H. Siddiqi, using a new lesion network mapping technique to map addiction remission to entire brain circuits rather than specific brain regions.

Harvard Gazette article summarizing a recent online lecture by Carole Hooven on the wide-reaching effects of testosterone in the human body, and across society, powering acts of aggression, violence, and the large disparity in their commission between men and women.

Harvard MCB Department News article on new research from the lab Aravi Samuel, first author Vladislav Susoy, using whole-brain calcium imaging to examine the mechanisms behind the mating behavior of male worms at single-neuron resolution.

HMS News article on new research from Clas Linnman and colleagues, on the development of a new imaging technique allowing researchers to capture images of injuries caused by whiplash that previously eluded scans.

Harvard Gazette article on research from the lab Dushan N. Wadduwage and colleagues about the development of a new process of computational imaging that uses complex algorithms and machine learning in order to get high-resolution images 100 to 1,000 times faster than other state-of-the-art technologies.

Xiaopeng Song from the lab of Fei Du at McLean Hospital shares new human brain imaging work revealing that an impairment in energy production may underlie the problems in functional neural connectivity observed in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Harvard Gazette article on a recent Facebook Live event "The Coronavirus Pandemic: Grieving and Mental Health". This article highlights the work of Christy Denckla, a postdoc at the Broad Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School, whose research focuses on resilience following exposure to trauma.

Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.

Harvard Gazette article on new research from the labs of Keith A. Johnson and colleagues, first author Justin Sanchez, on the development of an automated method that identifies and tracks the development of harmful tau deposits in a patient’s brain.

Harvard Gazette article on a preliminary MR spectroscopic imaging study of the brain in COVID-19. COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms show some of the same metabolic disturbances in the brain as patients who have suffered oxygen deprivation from other causes, but also notable differences. From Eva-Maria Ratai and colleagues, co-first authors Otto Rapalino and Akila Weerasekera.

Nature Technology Feature highlights the work of Jeff Lichtman, Aravi Samuel and other scientists across the world who are eager to apply advances in AI and microscopy to mapping the wiring diagrams of nervous systems.

Aaron Kuan of Wei-Chung Lee’s lab discusses a new method for mapping neural circuits, which allows quicker imaging of volumes of tissue that are currently too large for comprehensive electron microscopy analysis.

Chiara Maffei writes about Science Rehashed, a podcast dedicated to making science free and easily accessible for anyone with an internet connection.

Davide Valeriani shares new research from the Dystonia and Speech Motor Control Laboratory on the development of DystoniaNet, a 3D convolutional neural network capable of diagnosing dystonia from raw structural MRI data.

HMS News article on new research showing that a machine learning-based sleep test may help diagnose and predict dementia in older adults. From M. Brandon Westover, Alice Lam, and colleagues, first author Elissa Ye. Also featured in the Harvard Gazette.

Harvard Gazette Q+A with Laura Kubzansky on a new study finding a host of health benefits accompany an optimistic attitude.

Harvard Gazette article on a new study led by MGH researchers suggesting light therapy is safe and may help patients with moderate brain injury. From Rajiv Gupta, Benjamin Vakoc and colleagues, co-first authors Can Ozan Tan and Maria Gabriela Figueiro Longo.

Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.

Prof. Venki Murthy will assume the directorship of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard on July 1st. We are pleased to announce that he will accordingly assume the position of co-director for HBI at that time.

New research from Arthur Sugden and colleagues in the lab of Mark Andermann examines how the brain changes during learning in mice—specifically, how the cortex replays neural activity patterns linked to recent sensory experiences.

Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.

By Shan H. Siddiqi, MD: We’ve known for over a century that different brain regions have different functions. Now we can finally translate this into symptom-specific treatment targets.

The Longwood Chorus has recently released a music video featuring a virtual performance of “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, highlighting members' contributions to fighting COVID-19.

Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.

HMS News article on new research from the lab of Jacob Hooker, first author Nicole Zürcher, showing abnormally low levels of a key protein observed in brains of young men with autism spectrum disorder.

HMS News article on new research from the labs of Chenghua Gu and Bernardo Sabatini, first authors Brian Chow and Vicente Nunez, revealing how the brain and arteries communicate to increase blood flow for neural activity.

HMS News article on new research from the labs of Bernardo Sabatini and colleagues on the development of a new light-based method to capture and pinpoint the epicenter of neural activity in the brain. 

New research from the labs of Sara Lazar and colleagues, first author Gunes Sevinc, suggests that mindfulness meditation training alters how we process fearful memories.

New research from Jennifer Gatchel and colleagues, suggesting depression symptoms and Alzheimer's disease pathology could be warning signs for cognitive decline in older adults.

Study using brain imaging suggests why zebrafish facing a threat surprisingly opt to keep mating rather than flee.

Harvard Gazette story highlighting technology from the lab of Adam Cohen (first author Yoav Adam), which enables a live broadcast of optical recordings from multiple neurons in the hippocampus of mice as they walk.

Dr. Hrvatin aims to understand the neuronal circuits that initiate and regulate this profound hypometabolic state as a means to ultimately harness the potential of these adaptations to develop new medical treatments.

Since 1985, the LEGO® Prize has been awarded to individuals or organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to the lives of children and are champions of learning through play.

The prize, named for MCB faculty John Dowling, honors neuroscience concentrators who produce outstanding thesis work.

The award, presented by the GSAS Graduate Student Council (GSC), recognizes a handful of faculty who go above and beyond in supporting and advising their graduate students.

The NAS Award in Molecular Biology is supported by Pfizer Inc. and recognizes a recent notable discovery by a young scientist who is a citizen of the United States. The award is presented with a medal and a $25,000 prize.

The Harvard College Professorships were launched in 1997 through a gift from John and Frances Loeb. They are five-year appointments that include extra support for research or scholarly activities, and a semester of paid leave or a summer salary.

Awardees are selected from an applicant pool of 1,767 for their potential to make significant contributions to United States society, culture or their academic fields, & will receive up to $90,000 in funding for the graduate program of their choice.

The Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI) Bipolar Disorder Seed Grant Program supports research relevant to the basic understanding and eventual treatment of bipolar disorder.

Congratulations to Bill Carlezon, Kerry Ressler, Elena Chartoff, Vadim Bolshakov, Edward Meloni, Isabelle Rosso, Scott Rauch, Sabina Berretta & colleagues!

Cindy Chau (‘19) and Mark Czeisler (‘19), have been awarded prestigious fellowships from the Office of Undergraduate Research Fellowships and Australian-American Fulbright Commission respectively.

Congratulations to Kritika Gupta (Lab of Phillipe Cluzel), Nathan Lord (Lab of Alex Schier), Athar Malik (Lab of Nao Uchida), Annika Nichols (Lab of Alex Schier), and Yasuyo Tanaka (Lab of Nao Uchida).

He was honored for his world-leading research in global mental health and his pioneering approaches for the prevention and treatment of mental health in low-resource settings.

Congratulations to Barbara Kahn, Ronald Kessler, Jeremy Wolfe, and Danesh Moazed.

Harvard Gazette article on how new research from the labs of Sam Patz (BWH), Ralph Sinkus (King’s College, London), and colleagues led to the development of new a technique for measuring brain activity that’s 60 times faster than traditional fMRI.

Stat News article describing how the origins of a collaboration between Clifford Woolf, Bruce Bean, along with later input from Bruce Levy, sparked the creation of a biotech start-up aimed at developing a treatment for chronic cough and pain.

Brain imaging reveals neural network changes that may explain resistance to changes in brain structures caused by childhood maltreatment.

New technique enables rapid, high resolution imaging of entire fruit fly brain and mouse neuronal circuits.

HMS scientist David Corey is working to prevent hereditary deafness with the support of the Bertarelli Foundation

The December 2018 issue of Scientific American highlights hearing research from labs of David Corey, Gwenaëlle Géléoc, and Jeff Holt

The Department of Systems Biology celebrated the leadership of Marc Kirschner at the first annual Systems Biology Symposium at HMS.

He was honored at the Outstanding Postdoc Fellow Awards Symposium on November 7th.

Catherine Dulac was awarded the 2018 Karl Spencer Lashley Award by the American Philosophical Society.

Harvard Medical School received a transformational gift of $200 million from the The Blavatnik Family Foundation -- the largest gift in the school's history, to accelerate therapeutic discovery and spur scientific advances.

The $15,000 award recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions made by young neuroscientists who have demonstrated scholarly independence.

Harvard Gazette article on recent work from the labs of Xiaowei Zhuang, Catherine Dulac and colleagues, creating a first-of-its-kind cellular atlas of an important region in the brains of mice, the hypothalamic preoptic region.

Chenghua Gu, along with systems biologist Marc Kirschner and cancer researcher David Weinstock, received the Allen Distinguished Investigator award

HMS News article on recent research from the lab of Joseph El-Khoury about how immune checkpoint therapy may reduce damaging inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases.