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Could next-generation gene editing mean a cure for cystic fibrosis (CF)? There's been a lot of advancement on the disease in the last decade, but there are still those living with the disease who get no relief from current treatments - especially those for whom health disparities already exist. Paul McCray, M.D., professor of pediatrics, and...

Supporting cardiovascular health is important at every age, and early influences can improve health outcomes years later As the body ages, lots of changes happen that can increase a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Blood vessels narrow. Arteries stiffen. Cell mutations can occur, while genes can influence fate. Fortunately, researchers...

Just over a year ago, Susan Martin – not her real name – a retiree in her 60s from Boston, received a phone call just as she was about to settle into an episode of the West Wing. She wanted to ignore the call, but the name on the phone’s identifier – Framingham Heart Study (FHS) – made her think twice. Martin knew a lot about FHS, an NHLBI-funded...

Early studies show unusual approach might speed response times and save lives When you look to the sky these days, you never know what you might see — a bird, a plane, a shooting star, or…a drone carrying an automated external defibrillator (AED)? That’s right: A medical drone. A team of NHLBI-funded researchers is testing drones to deliver AEDs...

Longest running study of HIV survivors is marking its 40th anniversary this year. In the 1980s, infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was often viewed as a death sentence. With no treatments available and little understanding of the virus or the disease, hundreds of thousands of people in the United States ultimately lost their lives and...

Imagine being a paramedic treating a trauma patient who’s bleeding severely. You know your patient’s life is in danger, but there’s not much you can do because the patient needs an infusion of blood containing platelets. Platelets encourage clotting, help stop bleeding, and are critical in emergencies like this. Yet, on board your ambulance, none...

Planetary health and environmental justice at the forefront of an NHLBI workshop Some 55 years ago the poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry pondered the distressing harm to the planet that had resulted from the very modernization that seemed to be improving lives. “We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the...

Could also lessen likelihood of errors in measuring oxygen levels in Black patients Each year at least 1.7 million adults in the United States and millions more worldwide develop sepsis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune system has an extreme response to an infection. The condition, which can be difficult to detect and...

A smart bra aims to better detect and prevent heart problems in women When Alicia Chong Rodriguez was an electrical engineering computer science student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she became immersed in using large systems and computational datasets for cardiovascular research. She quickly saw how data had the power to...

Today we know that we co-exist in a world teeming with trillions upon trillions of microbes. They survive on the frozen tundra of the Antarctic, endure the thermal vents in the bottom of the ocean, and thrive in our guts and on our skin. Yet for centuries scientists pushed a theory that at least one part of our body – the lungs – were sterile...