Efforts focus on chronic but preventable conditions including obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, asthma, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Healthy lifestyles (including exercise and diet), genetics and the environment are also major foci, as is healthy aging.

CANCER

Malignancies are on the rise in developing countries

While it's well known that cancer is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, what is less recognized and understood is the significant growth of cancer in the developing world.

A New Twist on Inherited Cancer Risk

Slight DNA variations raise risk of common breast, prostate tumors

Ray of Insight

When it comes to radiation exposures, less is more says HSPH alum

OBESITY, DIABETES, AND HEART DISEASE

Obesity in China Portends A Diabetic Disaster
Can brown rice blunt an epidemic?

Public Health Takes Aim at Sugar and Salt
In the last few years, evidence has mounted that too much sugar and salt—often invisibly insinuated into beverages, processed foods, and restaurant fare—harms health.

Heart Disease
The impact of genetics, stress, and lifestyle

A Weighty Challenge

Pritzker scholarship winners fight the obesity epidemic from many angles

The Mystery of the Metabolic Supermice

A rare mouse gene variant casts light on obesity's human toll 

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NUTRITION/HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

Trans Fat 'Ban Wagon'

Prohibition in NYC restaurants delivers seismic aftershocks nationwide

Vitamin D:  How Much Is Enough?

Many Americans Are Deficient, Studies Show

AGE-RELATED DISEASES

Age-related vision loss

While most disorders result from a combination of both genetic and environmental factors, researchers say parsing out the roles of these two players is complicated business. But according to one new study of the common eye disease known as macular degeneration, it's possible to characterize and quantify the interplay between genes and lifestyle.

ASTHMA

Couple's combined expertise forges new directions for treating asthma and lead poisoning

HSPH faculty members Rosalind and Robert Wright

A Geographer of Health

Nicos Middleton, a research fellow in the HSPH-Cyprus Initiative for the Environment and Public Health, is studying the long-term health effects of traffic pollution in Boston and Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.

Clear as Glass

Shattering old ideas about cell behavior yields new insights into treating asthma and cancer.

 Funding Priorities