https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Chronic inflammation can raise a person's risk of cancer, and a new study reveals key details about how that might happen in the gut and points to better ways to identify and reduce risk. Scientists at the Broad Institute and Harvard University have revealed in mice that after colitis (chronic intestinal inflammation), seemingly healed gut tissues may retain the memory of earlier inflammation through molecular "scars" that make it easier for cancer to take hold later on. These memories are encoded as changes in the epigenome that are handed down from cell to cell through many generations of cell division, with long-lasting effects on gene activity that can later drive tumor growth. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-inflammation-prime-gut-cancer.html Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:00:11 EDT news693590821 An autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland, called autoimmune hypothyroidism (AIHT), is the most common autoimmune disease, yet it remains largely understudied. New research from scientists at Broad Institute, University of Helsinki, and other institutions has now found more than 400 genetic markers linked to the disorder, far more than previous studies. Nearly 50 of these pinpoint protein-coding changes in genes involved in immunity and thyroid function. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-reveals-genetic-autoimmunity-cancer.html Genetics Thu, 26 Feb 2026 17:40:03 EST news691347001 A genetic test developed by researchers at Broad Clinical Labs and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is now enabling a large, nationwide clinical trial aimed at improving health care for men at increased risk of developing prostate cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in U.S. men. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-clinical-trial-explores-genetic-early.html Oncology & Cancer Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:24:38 EST news689876641 No matter how much they brush their teeth, some people still get more cavities than others, in part because of differences in genetics and the make-up of the microbes in their mouths. A new study has found human genetic factors that influence the oral microbiome and may increase risk of cavities and tooth loss in some people. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-genes-microbes-mouths-dental-health.html Genetics Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:12:31 EST news688835521 Scientists at the Broad Institute and Mass General Brigham have built a generative AI model that creates short DNA segments that can control gene activity in specific cells. These sequences, called cis-regulatory elements (CREs), make up a large part of the human genome, and synthetic versions of these bits of DNA could one day be part of gene therapies that tune gene activity to treat disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ai-generates-short-dna-sequences.html Biotechnology Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:29:34 EST news688649341 An estimated 3 million Americans have an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. But a lucky few individuals are far less likely to develop IBD because they have a rare variant of a gene called CARD9. This protective gene variant prevents the long-term digestive tract inflammation that can cause tissue damage and lead to disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-small-molecules-crohn-disease-mimicking.html Inflammatory disorders Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:30:01 EST news688040550 When inflammation in the body goes unchecked, it can cause fibrosis, or tissue scarring that may lead to organ dysfunction or even failure. This can happen in conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease), chronic viral infections, interstitial lung fibrosis, chronic autoimmune skin diseases such as scleroderma, and scars associated with heart disease. Patients have few options for treating fibrosis, but new research points to a molecular pathway that could open the door to future treatment possibilities. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-uncover-molecular-roots-tissue-scarring.html Inflammatory disorders Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:00:49 EST news687024001 A team of researchers at the Broad Institute, led by gene-editing pioneer David Liu, has developed a new genome-editing strategy that could potentially lead to a one-time treatment for multiple unrelated genetic diseases. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-prime-potentially-multiple-genetic-diseases.html Genetics Wed, 19 Nov 2025 14:47:06 EST news682786021 An alliance of scientists at the Broad Institute and Bayer Pharmaceuticals have developed a drug candidate, sevabertinib, that could be a new treatment for a group of lung cancer patients who have few options today. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-collaboration-drug-candidate-hard-lung.html Medications Fri, 17 Oct 2025 10:19:04 EDT news679915141 In June, Google DeepMind took the wraps off AlphaGenome, its latest machine learning model for biological discovery. While DeepMind's Nobel Prize-winning AlphaFold model focuses on proteins and how they fold, AlphaGenome predicts how genetic variants affect the processes that control when and where genes are turned on and off. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-massive-datasets-generated-powering-latest.html Biotechnology Thu, 04 Sep 2025 07:51:05 EDT news676191062 The FDA's approval of the first CRISPR-Cas9–based gene therapy marked a major milestone in biomedicine, validating genome editing as a promising treatment strategy for disorders like sickle cell disease, muscular dystrophy, and certain cancers. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-scientists-technology-precision-genome.html Biotechnology Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:50:04 EDT news673771696 Researchers from the Broad Institute and Mass General Brigham have shown that a low-oxygen environment—similar to the thin air found at Mount Everest base camp—can protect the brain and restore movement in mice with Parkinson's-like disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-oxygen-air-parkinson-movement-mice.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Aug 2025 05:00:01 EDT news673592193 By analyzing tens of thousands of genes, proteins, and protein modifications in hundreds of lung tumors, an international research team has uncovered new factors linked to poor outcomes in lung adenocarcinoma in both smokers and people who have never smoked. These factors include a pattern of DNA damage and signatures of exposures to chemicals found in processed foods and cosmetics. The findings could lead to better precision medicine strategies for this most common type of lung cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-large-scale-gene-analysis-biomarkers.html Oncology & Cancer Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:48:00 EDT news673184874 By the time they are a few months old, infants born with alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) begin experiencing terrifying episodes of paralysis and seizures, and will soon show developmental delays and intellectual disability. There is no cure or effective treatment for this rare genetic disease, but new research suggests a potential path to one. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-prime-childhood-brain-disease-mice.html Biotechnology Mon, 21 Jul 2025 11:00:02 EDT news672042816 Up to half of patients with Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, develop a complication called fibrosis, where the gut becomes scarred and obstructed, causing pain and bloating. Currently, the only treatment option for these gut "strictures" is surgery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-spatial-reveals-network-cells-genes.html Genetics Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:46:04 EDT news670081561 In May 2025, researchers announced that K.J. Muldoon, a baby boy born without the ability to process dietary protein properly, had become the first person to be treated with a customized gene-editing therapy. Based on a technology developed by Broad Institute core member David Liu's laboratory, the treatment is the first in a series of new medicines being tested to treat rare diseases by repairing patients' particular genetic misspellings. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-scientist-bold-vision-demand-treatments.html Genetics Wed, 25 Jun 2025 08:14:08 EDT news670058042 Researchers have created a pipeline for discovering unique combinations of molecules that increase the effectiveness of antibiotics against drug-resistant bacteria. The team, led by scientists at the Broad Institute and the Tufts University School of Medicine, used a microfluidic approach to screen more than 1 million combinations of antibiotics, small molecules, and bacteria. They identified a small molecule that boosts the power of the antibiotic rifampin in certain bacteria by weakening their defenses. The team also developed another molecule that was even more potent. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-combinatorial-screening-uncovers-molecules-antibiotics.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 28 May 2025 12:51:04 EDT news667655461 Broad Institute researchers have developed a way to edit the genetic sequences at the root of Huntington's disease and Friedreich's ataxia. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-gene-disrupts-huntington-mutation-mice.html Genetics Tue, 27 May 2025 12:40:04 EDT news667568401 A new risk assessment score developed by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital reveals how multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, begins and progresses from precancerous to malignant states by tracing DNA mutations. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-genomic-score-patients-multiple-myeloma.html Oncology & Cancer Wed, 21 May 2025 15:56:04 EDT news667061761 Scientists at the McGovern Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have reengineered a compact RNA-guided enzyme they found in bacteria into an efficient, programmable editor of human DNA. The engineered protein, called NovaIscB, can be adapted to make precise changes to the genetic code, modulate the activity of specific genes, or carry out other editing tasks. Because its small size simplifies delivery to cells, NovaIscB's developers say it is a promising candidate for developing gene therapies to treat or prevent disease. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-cas9-ancestor-compact-genome-tool.html Biotechnology Thu, 15 May 2025 13:30:01 EDT news666534359 Spatial transcriptomics technologies opened the door for new kinds of biological measurements, allowing scientists to generate detailed maps of where genes are expressed in tissue. But most methods rely on expensive and time-intensive imaging that requires specialized equipment. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-scientists-scale-spatial-genomics.html Biotechnology Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:36:04 EDT news662902561 Recently, scientists have been able to explore gene circuitry in individual cells using methods that suppress particular genes and measure the impact on the expression of other genes. These methods, however, fail to capture spatial information such as the effects from, or on, neighboring cells, which can provide important clues to a cell or gene's role in health and disease. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-technology-spatial-lens-crispr-screening.html Biotechnology Wed, 12 Mar 2025 13:25:59 EDT news661004753 Two studies led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Mass General Brigham have greatly expanded the number of known genetic variants that boost the risk for atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart condition marked by an irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke and heart failure. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-reveal-genetic-roots-atrial-fibrillation.html Genetics Thu, 06 Mar 2025 12:49:06 EST news660487743 Scientists from the Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap) at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Columbia University have discovered that about 5% of adult cancers rely heavily on a gene called PELO to survive and that disabling the gene kills those cancer cells. These cancers have mutations in one of two genes, FOCAD or TCC37. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-mutations-gene-pairs-drug-adult.html Oncology & Cancer Wed, 05 Feb 2025 12:38:04 EST news657981481 Visualizing cells after editing specific genes can help scientists learn new details about the function of those genes. But using microscopy to do this at scale can be challenging, particularly when studying thousands of genes at a time. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-genome-wide-atlas-cell-morphology.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 27 Jan 2025 12:52:16 EST news657204724 Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, and McLean Hospital have discovered a surprising mechanism by which the inherited genetic mutation known to cause Huntington's disease leads to the death of brain cells. The findings change the understanding of the fatal neurodegenerative disorder and suggest potential ways to delay or even prevent it. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-genetic-mutation-huntington-disease-disorder.html Genetics Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:00:05 EST news656244482 Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have developed a gene-editing treatment for prion disease that extends lifespan by about 50% in a mouse model of the fatal neurodegenerative condition. The treatment, which uses base editing to make a single-letter change in DNA, reduced levels of the disease-causing prion protein in the brain by as much as 60%. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-gene-lifespan-mouse-prion-disease.html Genetics Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:57:05 EST news656074621 The core components of CRISPR-based genome-editing therapies are bacterial proteins called nucleases that can stimulate unwanted immune responses in people, increasing the chances of side effects and making these therapies potentially less effective. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-scientists-crispr-enzymes-evade-immune.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 Jan 2025 12:36:08 EST news655648561 Over the past two decades, large genetic studies have linked tens of thousands of DNA variants to thousands of human traits and diseases. Yet, correcting the effects of those variants to treat disease has been hampered in part by the lack of precise molecular tools to do so. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-scientists-vast-library-compounds-disease.html Biochemistry Mon, 06 Jan 2025 17:05:04 EST news655405501 The intestine maintains a delicate balance in the body, absorbing nutrients and water while maintaining a healthy relationship with the gut microbiome, but this equilibrium is disrupted in parts of the intestine in conditions such as celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease. Scientists don't fully understand how different regions of the organ resist or adapt to changes in the environment and how that is disrupted in disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-scientists-region-mouse-gut-tightly.html Immunology Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:37:21 EST news651335830