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Systems Biology
Medical Education
Clinical Research
Ambulatory Care
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Harvard Medical School

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: Method Automates Capture of Cell Image Data
By taking and analyzing half a million snapshots of individual cells, researchers from HMS and Harvard University have generated a comprehensive picture of how 100 different drugs and toxins affect intact human cells in culture. This new type of drug profiling, based on automated analysis of microscope images, can reveal important information about the biological mechanism and toxicities of new drugs and will be used to speed work in drug discovery. The method, developed by Zachary Perlman (on left), Timothy Mitchison, and colleagues at HMS and Harvard's Bauer Center, is detailed in the Nov. 12 Science.

MEDICAL EDUCATION: HMS Hospitals Hone Plans for Deeper Cuts in Resident Hours
Two recent papers in The New England Journal of Medicine by HMS researchers showed that interns were more alert and made fewer serious medical errors when they worked shorter shifts and fewer hours. But teaching hospitals are already scrambling to cut back residents' hours to comply with recent guidelines. This second part of the story on resident hours looks at challenges that hospitals face as they adapt to the new schedules and struggle with the consequences of a changing lifestyle for residents.

CLINICAL RESEARCH: Earliest Cancer Trials May Offer Lower Risk But Lower Benefit
The earliest clinical tests of experimental cancer drugs seem to have become safer and slightly less effective for patients, report Thomas G. Roberts and his colleagues in the Nov. 3 Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis is the first systematic review of phase I oncology trials in more than a decade. The authors speculate that the improved risk-benefit ratio may be due, in part, to targeted and less toxic compounds coming out of laboratories and, in part, to greater attention to the safety of people participating in clinical trials.

AMBULATORY CARE: Postmarketing Study Answers Questions on Statin Safety
Statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States, but how safe are they? In 2001, a popular statin, cerivastatin (Baycol), was pulled from the market after it was linked to the severe, degenerative muscle disorder rhabdomyolysis. As part of a series of papers on this drug published in the Dec. 1 Journal of the American Medical Association, a study conducted by Richard Platt and colleagues shows that cerivastatin carries 10 times the risk of rhabdomyolysis compared to three other, commonly used statins.