HIRO | Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham researchers looked at the role of long-term diet and the gut bacteria, commonly found in yogurt, in colorectal cancer using data on participants who had been followed for three decades. They found that people who consumed two or more servings of yogurt per week tended to have lower rates of colorectal cancer positive for Bifidobacterium. The findings suggest that yogurt consumption may change the microbiome, leading to a protective effect for some types of colorectal cancer. https://spklr.io/6041NvoX #ColorectalCancerAwarenessMonth

In 2024, we didn’t just save lives—we set new milestones in transplants, living donation, and groundbreaking research, leading the region in total lives saved for the 13th year in a row. ?? We want to celebrate the selfless donors and their families who make these life-saving transplants possible. A huge thank you to our dedicated care teams and physician-scientists for their relentless efforts. Here’s to saving even more lives in 2025!

C. elegans worms may be small, but their impact on biomedical research is enormous. This tiny organism has been essential for groundbreaking discoveries, including work by our very own Gary Ruvkun, PhD, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for uncovering key genetic mechanisms in aging and development. A new study by Ruvkun and his colleague, Marina Kniazeva, PhD, highlights yet another way C. elegans helps us understand fundamental biology. Researchers found that the ZIP-2 transcription factor acts as both a sensor and a defense regulator against disruptions in translational elongation—one of the critical steps in protein synthesis. These findings shed light on how cells respond to stress and could have implications for understanding diseases linked to protein synthesis errors. From uncovering RNA interference to exploring cellular stress responses, C. elegans continues to be a powerhouse in research. Read the study: https://lnkd.in/dwBh8Pnc (Photo: Gary Ruvkun circa 1980s.) #MedicalResearch #Genetics #ScienceInnovation #MassGeneralResearch

Mass General Brigham?is collaborating with?Philips?to transform how real-time healthcare data is integrated and used to improve patient care. By combining AI with streaming data from medical devices, EMRs, and clinical notes, this collaboration will help clinicians analyze and act on insights as they happen, enhancing patient safety, operational efficiency, and clinical decision-making. Initial research will explore real-time heart monitoring to improve early detection of cardiac events—potentially saving lives and accelerating treatment. “This exciting collaboration marks a key step forward in healthcare innovation, harnessing the full potential of AI and medical device data to advance patient safety, operational efficiency, clinician ergonomics, while opening new discovery possibilities,” said Dr.?Thomas McCoy, Medical Director of Biomedical Engineering at?Massachusetts General Hospital.?“By mobilizing previously siloed medical device data into an integrated high speed, high resiliency, real time data fabric we will be able to deliver the transformative potential of software to the patients who need it most." ? Read more:?https://lnkd.in/ekJXZSiu ? #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #PatientCare

The nervous and immune systems don’t just coexist—they communicate in ways that shape health, disease and even behavior. In a recently published review in the Nature Portfolio, Mass General Brigham researchers Michael Wheeler and Francisco Javier Quintana explored the neuroimmune connectome, the full network of interactions between these two systems. Understanding this intricate dialogue between the nervous and immune systems could lead to new treatment pathways for a variety of autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gaiiFEix

What if creativity isn’t tied to just one part of the brain, but an entire circuit? A new Mass General Brigham-led study suggests just that. Researchers analyzed fMRI data from 857 participants and found that creative tasks—whether drawing, writing, or making music—map onto a common brain circuit. Interestingly, they discovered that some neurological diseases and brain injuries affecting this circuit can lead to increased creativity as well. “To be creative, you may have to turn off your inner critic,” said co-senior author Isaiah Kletenik, MD, of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The study found that brain regions involved in creativity are negatively connected to the right frontal pole, an area linked to self-monitoring and rule-based behaviors. These findings, published in JAMA Network Open, not only deepen our understanding of the brain but could also open new avenues for enhancing creativity through brain stimulation. Read more: https://lnkd.in/grgcJJFD Other Mass General Brigham authors included Michael Fox, Julian Kutsche, Joseph Taylor, Michael Erkkinen, Haya Akkad, Sanaz Khosravani, William Drew, Alexander Li Cohen, and Andreas Horn.

Mass General Brigham Sports Medicine has arrived at Boston Landing. The nearly 14,000-square-foot facility focuses on elite, amateur, and recreational athletes, and those recovering from injuries. Now open at The TRACK at new balance, the center features an orthopedics walk-in and a sports medicine practice offering sports physical therapy. "This center offers all levels of athletes the world-class sports medicine expertise of Mass General Brigham as well as enhances access for our community to this vital care," says R. Scott Gassett, vice president of Mass General Brigham Sports Medicine. The center provides a comprehensive range of orthopedic, rehabilitative and sports medicine services, all seamlessly connected to the broader Mass General Brigham system.

An ECG, which is a simple heart test that can even be done on a smartwatch, has now begun to show new diagnostic potential when paired with innovative #AI.? ? In a new study from Mass General Brigham, researchers used AI to show that the ECG contains information that can help detect over 600 diseases, including future conditions. This approach has the potential to help screen people for a number of important conditions they may not know they have or will develop in the future. ? Read more:?https://lnkd.in/eHaBPUs5 ? Mass General Brigham authors included Shaan Khurshid,?Rachael Venn, Xin Wang, Lu-Chen Weng, James Pirruccello,?Emily Lau, Christopher Anderson, Patrick Ellinor, and?Steven Lubitz.?