It’s time to share our top 5 research stories from 2019! Read on to learn more about some of the most exciting work Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have done over the past year.

5. How A Small Fish Could Make a Big Difference in the Future of Cancer Research

A Massachusetts General Hospital research team has developed a new zebrafish model for cancer that could vastly improve our ability to match patients to the right treatments and identify new therapies for cancer.

4. Nutritional Psychiatry: Mental Health from a Nutrition and Lifestyle Perspective

Your brain, like all other vital organs, is working 24/7 to take care of various functions throughout the body. Without good fuel, how can we expect it to be at its best?

That’s why one Massachusetts General Hospital clinician-researcher is conducting research and practicing within the newly emerging field of Nutritional Psychiatry.

3. How Mothers Help Build the Immune Systems of their Children During Pregnancy

Throughout pregnancy, mothers transfer nutrients and immune cells to their child via the placenta, and it is these cells that serve as the base for the child’s immune system.

A research team at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard led by Galit Alter, PhD, Samana Cay MGH Research Scholar 2017-2022, decided to learn more about the selection and transfer process with the hope of increasing the protection that babies receive before birth.

2. Alzheimer’s Disease Expert Says Future Treatment Success Will Require a Shift in Strategy and Timing

What will the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease look like 35 years from now?

That was one of the compelling questions tackled during a panel discussion earlier this year at the Partners Innovation World Medical Innovation Forum.

The discussion was inspired by a series of predictions that the noted author Isaac Asimov made in 1984 about what life would be like 35 years later in 2019.

1. How An Unexpected Finding Could Lead to New Ways to Predict and Prevent Acute Kidney Injury

There’s a good reason why acute kidney injury (AKI) is known as “the silent killer.” A complex and often deadly condition, AKI usually occurs as a secondary effect of another major health issue, such as undergoing major surgery, getting injured in accidents or developing sepsis.

It kills more people than prostate cancer, breast cancer, heart failure and diabetes combined, and yet it often goes undetected until it’s too late because it has no symptoms. Sylvie Breton, PhD, has found a way to track the silent killer through her research into cell sensing and pH balance in kidneys.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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