Harvard Medical Labcast

As a teenager, Joan Brugge expected to become a math teacher. Then her sister developed a fatal brain tumor, and Brugge shifted to devote her career to uncovering the fundamental workings of cancer.Now a world-renowned cell biologist, Brugge investigates how cancers form, spread and become resistant to therapy. Whether she's probing the startling variety of cells within tumors or building 3D models to study cancer development in structures that more closely resemble the human body, Brugge continues to illuminate cancers of the breast, ovaries, lungs and more.In this episode, Brugge tells the story of her path into cancer biology and discusses her latest endeavors. She also shares her thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing the field today and the skills she believes will best serve the next generation of cancer researchers.Brugge is the Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and co-director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School, which brings toge

Note: This interview was recorded in 2019. For updates on Sequist's work during the COVID-19 pandemic, read our new Q&A.Traveling between New York, Albuquerque and Taos Pueblo while growing up and transitioning from computer chip engineering at Intel to enrolling in medical school, Thomas Sequist has never quite followed a straightforward path.After training in primary care and health care policy, Sequist found his way toward pursuing a great passion: improving health care quality and equity for all patients, with a special focus on American Indian communities.Now, Sequist helps new generations of American Indian students find their own paths into medicine, biomedical research and health care policy. For his part, he's not sure where he's going next.Sequist is professor of health care policy in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also chief patient experience and equity officer at Partners HealthCare. Download the full transcri

Note: This interview was recorded in 2019. For updates on Inouye's work during the coronavirus pandemic and the link between COVID-19 and delirium, read our new Q&A.Each year, more than 7 million hospitalized people in the U.S. slide into delirium: an acute state of confusion that raises risk of serious health complications and death.Only a few decades ago, medical professionals believed they couldn't do anything to prevent delirium. Then Sharon Inouye proved otherwise. Her programs, adopted by hundreds of hospitals, have helped reduce cases of the condition by an estimated 40 percent. Inouye is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Aging Brain Center in the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife.In this episode, Inouye shares the story of how she became interested in delirium, describes how caregivers and clinicians can identify and prevent it, and explores the connection between delirium and dementia. She also talks about the family roots of her interest

Neal Baer is an award-winning television writer and producer—and a Harvard Medical School-trained pediatrician (MD ’96). Through his pioneering work on hit shows such as ER and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as his leadership in connecting media producers with doctors and scientists, Baer has helped shape public perceptions of medicine, illness and health disparities, with a special focus on issues that disproportionately affect LGBTQ communities. In this month’s podcast, Baer recounts his unconventional journey and explains how storytelling is central to being both a writer and a doctor. Along the way, he reveals how medical school inadvertently prepared him to be an executive producer. Baer is an adjunct professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a part-time lecturer on global health and social medicine at HMS.

Dentists take care of our mouths, and doctors take care of the rest of us—but it’s becoming increasingly clear that oral health and overall health are inextricably linked. In this month’s podcast, dentist and future physician Lisa Simon talks about the potential benefits and challenges of bringing dentistry and medicine back together after a 150-year separation. A graduate of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Simon is currently the HSDM Fellow in Oral Health and Medicine Integration and a medical student at Harvard Medical School.

Staci Gruber, HMS associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital, describes what she and other researchers are learning about the effects of recreational and medical marijuana on brain structure, brain function and quality of life in teens and adults. Along the way, Gruber counters common misconceptions about marijuana research and shares many of the puns that are inevitable in her line of work.

Economist and physician Anupam “Bapu” Jena, the Ruth L. Newhouse Associate Professor of Health Care Policy at HMS, analyzes compelling health care issues ranging from physician behavior to prescription drug abuse to the economics of medical innovation. Here, he talks about finding research questions in unusual places, what happens when a result contradicts “common knowledge,” what’s fun and challenging about his work, and learning when to let a project go. And in this month’s abstract, researchers in the lab of Timothy Mitchison uncover potential clues about how immature egg cells remain dormant in the body for years. Read the full story.

Jessica Halem, program manager of the LGBT Office within the Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership at HMS, shares some of the ways the Harvard Medical School community is working to reduce health care disparities for transgender patients. Efforts range from medical education and faculty training to research programs to environmental modifications, such as on doctor’s office intake forms and bathroom signs.

Joseph Betancourt, HMS associate professor of medicine, shares stories about the challenges of cross-cultural communication in health care, both as a doctor today and as a child from a bilingual, bicultural household who accompanied his grandmother to the doctor’s office. He also describes the progress he has seen in reducing racial and ethnic health care disparities as director of the Disparities Solution Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. And in this episode's abstract, research from HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital shows how understanding the personal, political, ecological and economic factors behind the Ebola pandemic is critical for preventing future disease outbreaks.

Ting Wu, HMS professor of genetics, talks about ways scientists are striving to optimize astronauts' physical and mental health—and anticipating the biomedical challenges ahead as humankind considers long-term space travel. And in this episode's abstract, a study led by Brittany Charlton at HMS and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offers reassurance for women and their health care providers about the safety of taking oral contraceptives during or just before pregnancy.

Reisa Sperling, HMS professor of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, shares her family's personal connection with Alzheimer's disease and describes ongoing research into early diagnosis and intervention. And in this episode's abstract, researchers in the lab of George Church use the gene-editing tool CRISPR to inactivate retroviruses in the pig genome with the hope of one day making organs safer for transplant into humans.

Dragana Rogulja, assistant professor of neurobiology at HMS, runs a sleep lab in which hundreds of thousands of fruit flies are studied as they snooze. Rogulja’s goal is to identify genes involved in sleep that are also conserved in human beings. And in this episode’s abstract, researchers in the HMS Department of Health Care Policy have found that hospitals can be penalized for serving vulnerable populations.

Dominic Hall, curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum in the Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, talks about how individual medical artifacts can bring to life multiple narratives and inform today’s doctors and researchers. Along the way, he explores just a few of the 15,000 objects in the 160-year-old collection, including a giant skull and a tray of model eyes. And in this episode’s abstract, researchers at HMS and Mass Eye and Ear recreate ancient viruses to deliver modern gene therapies in mice.

Physician and poet Rafael Campo describes how medicine and poetry are interconnected at the most basic levels. According to this HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, language and metaphor reveal medical and humanistic insights into the body in ways that go far beyond data and checklists. And in this episode’s abstract, researchers in the lab of HMS professor and Wyss Institute core faculty member Pamela Silver transplant a circadian clock into a non-circadian species.

Robert Truog, a Harvard Medical School professor at Boston Children’s Hospital and director of the HMS Center for Bioethics, teaches doctors and nurses to become more aware of the ethical decisions they make every day—including the conscious and unconscious biases that shape the words they use and the way they frame conversations with patients and families. This kind of “microethics” education aims to help doctors and patients alike achieve more compassionate care. And in this week’s abstract, a new research tool from the lab of HMS geneticist Stephen Elledge can reveal a person’s entire viral history from a single drop of blood.

John Brownstein, HMS associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, explains why your most important Facebook friend might be your doctor. Brownstein, a computational epidemiologist, also describes how our online behavior forms a “digital phenotype” that says more about our health than we might think. And in this week’s abstract, HMS neurobiologists discover a new pathway in the brain that might help explain how antipsychotic drugs work. Read more about this finding from the lab of HMS neurobiologist Bernardo Sabatini.

David Reich, professor of genetics at HMS, studies modern and ancient DNA to probe human history and learn about health and disease. In this podcast, he shares his excitement about new genetic technologies and tells the story of his winding path from social studies and physics to becoming one of the world's foremost population geneticists. And in this month's abstract, HMS geneticist Connie Cepko is investigating a new antioxidant gene therapy in mouse models of inherited blindness. Read more about her work: Seeing the Light.

For many students and young researchers today, pursuing a career in science can seem more frightening than energizing. A wealth of qualified postdocs seeking a limited number of academic positions, ever-shrinking funding, and pressure to publish all fuel a hypercompetitive atmosphere in which the quality of science can suffer. In this month's conversation, postdocs Kristin Krukenberg and Jessica Polka, lead organizers of Future of Research and authors of the Science article Making Science a Desirable Career, discuss ways the scientific enterprise can be changed to alleviate some of these challenges and make room for the next generation. And in this month's abstract, a study by genetics professor Susan Dymecki finds a new twist to serotonin neurons in the brain. Read more about the work here.

Amy Wagers, professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard and Joslin Diabetes Center, is motivated by both the prospect of treating disease and the thrill of discovery. Watch for the Winter 2013 issue of Harvard Medicine magazine for a Q&A with her.

Plastic surgeon Sumner Slavin has pioneered methods of tissue reconstruction for patients—including women with breast cancer—to restore body parts to a more usual appearance. After spending time in the Middle East, he also started a fellowship program to teach plastic surgeons from the region advanced techniques and procedures. Slavin is an HMS associate clinical professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and serves in a number of leadership roles.