Tag: Life Sciences

  • Nation & World

    ‘Death protein’ may lead to drugs that force cancer cells to self-destruct

    Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a previously undetected trigger point on a naturally occurring “death protein” that helps the body get rid of unwanted or diseased cells. They say it may be possible to exploit the newly found trigger as a target for designer drugs that would treat cancer by forcing malignant cells…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Cabot Science Library catches migration in exhibit case

    Roadkill may seem an odd inspiration for a library exhibition, but when a colleague mentioned an article about the rising number of migratory animals killed on roads and highways, Cabot Science Reference Librarian Reed Lowrie knew he’d stumbled onto his next exhibit.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    NYU chemist Robert Shapiro decries RNA-first possibility

    Back in the depths of time, an event almost miraculously improbable happened, creating a long, unlikely molecule. And life arose on Earth. Or, if you prefer, back in the depths of time, in a soup of small, relatively common molecules, an unknown chemical reaction occurred, sustained itself, replicated … and life arose on Earth.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Major step forward in cell reprogramming

    Imagine, if you can, a day within the next decade when a physician-scientist could remove a skin cell from your arm and with a few chemicals turn that fully formed adult cell into a dish of stem cells genetically matched to you.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Arctic ice is thinning steadily

    There was a polar bear sighting at Harvard last week. At Pforzheimer House on Thursday (Oct. 2), global warming expert James J. McCarthy delivered a crisp summary of how fast ice is melting in the Arctic — and why we should care. The audience of 80 took in his companion slide show, including images of…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hansjörg Wyss gives $125M to create institute

    Engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, M.B.A. ’65 has given Harvard University $125 million to create the Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The pine beetle’s tale: Destructive insect has pharmaceutical potential

    Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have discovered how beetles and bacteria form a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship — one that ultimately results in the destruction of pine forests. In addition, they’ve identified the specific molecule that drives this whole phenomenon.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Financial risk-taking behavior is associated with higher testosterone

    Higher levels of testosterone are correlated with financial risk-taking behavior, according to a new study in which men’s testosterone levels were assessed before participation in an investment game. The findings help to shed light on the evolutionary function and biological origins of risk taking.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Seeing what they hear, to better understand ourselves

    It was a long drive from St. Louis to Florida, but Darlene Ketten had finally made it. Standing in the warm surf of St. George Island, she watched with delight as tiny, colorful bean clams popped out of the sand and then quickly reburied themselves as the waves foamed around her calves.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Ken Burns to headline Theodore Roosevelt celebration

    Theodore Roosevelt is considered a principal architect of the U.S. national park system. To help mark his 150th birthday this fall, noted filmmaker Ken Burns will come to Harvard to offer remarks and show clips from his upcoming documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” due out in fall 2009. Scheduled for Oct. 3 at…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Stem cell summit hails bench progress, looks to bedside future

    New discoveries concerning cell reprogramming over the past year have boosted stem cell researchers in the lab and encouraged efforts to transfer test tube and lab animal advances to humans suffering degenerative diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard faculty members net MacArthur fellowships

    Three biologists — one current and two future faculty members at Harvard — have won MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, $500,000 no-strings-attached awards intended to encourage creativity, originality, and innovation in a broad array of fields.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Driven to succeed

    When the baby vomited again, Gail Melton knew something was seriously wrong with her second child, a son she and her husband, Doug Melton, had named Sam. She phoned Doug and took Sam to Harvard Health Services in Holyoke Center. Doug hurried to the clinic from his Fairchild Biochemistry Building lab on Divinity Avenue. Together…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Jamaican lizards’ calisthenics mark territory at dawn, dusk

    What does Jack LaLanne have in common with a Jamaican lizard? Like the ageless fitness guru, the lizards greet each new day with vigorous push-ups. That’s according to a new study showing that male Anolis lizards engage in impressive displays of reptilian strength — push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When genetics gets personal

    Just five years after the Human Genome Project announced it had decoded the first human DNA, the era of personal genetics is dawning, bringing with it not just the promise of targeted, personalized medicine and a new level of self-knowledge, but also a host of ethical, legal, and practical issues. A new project out of…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Next-generation tool for visualizing genomic data introduced

    Researchers are collecting vast amounts of diverse genomic data with ever-increasing speed, but effective ways to visualize these data in an integrated manner have lagged behind the ability to generate them. To address this growing need, researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have developed the Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV), a novel and…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Daley and colleagues create 20 disease-specific stem cell lines

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researcher George Q. Daley, associate director of the Stem Cell Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, has with HSCI colleagues Chad Cowan and Konrad Hochedlinger of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) produced a robust new collection of disease-specific stem cell lines, all of which were developed using the new induced pluripotent stem…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Daley and colleagues create 20 disease-specific stem cell lines

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researcher George Q. Daley, associate director of the Stem Cell Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, has with HSCI colleagues Chad Cowan and Konrad Hochedlinger of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) produced a robust new collection of disease-specific stem cell lines, all of which were developed using the new induced pluripotent stem…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When threatened, a few African frogs can morph toes into claws

    Biologists at Harvard University have determined that some African frogs carry concealed weapons: When threatened, these species puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes, using the bones as claws capable of wounding predators.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Broad Institute earns grant to support pathbreaking diabetes study

    Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have received a grant to support novel, integrative research aimed at finding ways to encourage the human body to replenish the cells that are missing in type 1 diabetes.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Across species, genes evolve to minimize protein production errors

    Scientists at Harvard University and the University of Texas, Austin, have found that genetic evolution is strongly shaped by genes’ efforts to prevent or tolerate errors in protein production.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Ernst Mayr

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 20, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Ernst Mayr, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Mayr helped lay the foundations of contemporary evolutionary biology.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Aquatic genome captures foreign DNA

    Long viewed as straitlaced spinsters, sexless freshwater invertebrate animals known as bdelloid rotifers may actually be far more promiscuous than anyone had imagined: Scientists at Harvard University have found that the genomes of these common creatures are chock-full of DNA from plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Protective mechanism fails when obesity sets in

    Reporting in the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said they have shown for the first time that fat-storing cells, or adipocytes, contain a protective anti-inflammatory immune mechanism that prevents the cells from overreacting to inflammation-causing stimuli, such as fatty acids in the diet.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Cluzel named professor of molecular and cellular biology, applied physics

    Philippe Cluzel has been appointed professor of molecular and cellular biology and Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, effective July 1.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    John Passanese eyes the alternatives

    Yoga is a popular activity for many Harvard undergraduates looking to stay fit or reduce stress. For John Passanese, a Lowell House senior, yoga has additional importance — it can be an excellent tool for managing chronic pain. For more than 20 years, Passanese’s mother has suffered from multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurodegenerative disease that…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    GSAS Medal awarded to biologist, physicist, social scientist, art expert

    A biologist who has led groundbreaking research efforts on proteins, an art expert who leads one of the country’s foremost museums, an astrophysicist whose theories guide the study of galaxies and planets, and a social sciences professor who has shaped the course of East Asian studies received the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Ashton: A legacy written in trunk, limb, and leaf

    They were in a bind, no doubt about it.

    10 minutes
  • Nation & World

    SEAS initiative supported by up to $20 million in BASF funding

    The official opening of the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard was celebrated with an inaugural two-day symposium (April 29-30) on biofilms.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Animal interaction behind ‘Cambrian Explosion’?

    Harvard Professor of Biology and of Geology Charles Marshall presented his Tuesday (April 29), suggesting that it was an increase in interactions between species, such as predation, that drove an escalating evolutionary process that led to the development of teeth and claws and the wide variety of characteristics that we see among Earth’s animals today.

    5 minutes