Science & Health

A 10-tone skin scale developed by Harvard sociologist Ellis Monk is reshaping medical diagnostics worldwide—helping health care providers more accurately detect conditions in patients with darker skin and saving lives in the process.

After three decades of research, Harvard Medical School professor Merit Cudkowicz achieved a breakthrough in the fight against ALS. A new study co-led by Cudkowicz found that the drug tofersen can radically slow—and in some cases reverse—the course of the disease in a small subset of patients with a rare genetic variant, proving for the first time that this illness can be stopped.

An experimental gene therapy for people with an inherited form of deafness led to durable hearing improvements, according to new study by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Mass Eye and Ear, and Fudan University. 

Harvard Medical School professor Stuart Orkin and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute researcher Swee Lay Thein received the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their work leading to transformative treatments for two inherited blood disorders: sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

Three Harvard Medical School students have been awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans—a merit-based award that supports outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate education in the United States—in recognition of their work advancing infectious disease treatment, AI-driven approaches to patient care, and cancer therapeutics.

Harvard Medical School researcher Michael A. Moskowitz has made multiple discoveries that have revolutionized thinking about the condition, deepened knowledge about why some treatments work, and led to new treatments that are available and prescribed now.

Research led by Harvard professor of human evolutionary biology Christopher Kuzawa shows that the brain’s energy needs peak at age five. Now he’s studying the implications for nutrition, society, and public health.

Maya Talukdar PhD '25, MD '28 explores how X chromosome genes may lower autism risk in females—findings that could also shed light on broader protective effects across other developmental conditions.

The Aramont Fellowship Fund for Emerging Science Research provides vital support for early-career faculty and postdoctoral scholars across four Harvard Schools. Responding to the urgent need for research support after federal funding cuts, a generous new gift from the foundation doubles the size of this year’s cohort from the previous year.

A discovery in a Harvard lab may open a new path for treating certain cardiovascular diseases. By re-engineering the hormone relaxin so it can stay longer in the body, researchers created a therapeutic approach that could help counter fibrosis and improve heart and vascular function for patients with limited treatment options.