Tag: basic research

  • Science & Tech

    Uncovering how cells become organs

    Tiny sensors are embedded into stretchable, integrated mesh that grows with the developing tissue, allowing scientists to track how cells grow into organs.

    Contraction of cyborg human cardiac organoid
  • Science & Tech

    A way to make Mars habitable

    Researchers from Harvard University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, and the University of Edinburgh suggest that regions of the Martian surface could be made habitable with a material — silica aerogel — that would mimic Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse effect.

    Robin Wordsworth
  • Science & Tech

    A product idea with legs

    Dakota McCoy, in collaboration with David Haig, led a group of researchers at Harvard studying the black spider and its ultrablack coat with microlenses that could lead to innovations in solar panels and sunglasses glare.

    Peacock spider.
  • Science & Tech

    So you think he can dance?

    Snowball the dancing cockatoo is the subject of a study by Radcliffe fellow and Tufts neuroscientist Ani Patel, who suggests the bird’s ability to move in time to music is connected to the way humans groove to a beat.

  • Health

    Debunking old hypotheses

    Biology Professor Cassandra G. Extavour debunks old hypotheses about form and function on insect eggs using new big-data tool

    Cassandra Extavour in her office
  • Science & Tech

    Single letter speaks volumes

    Scientists have used an optimized version of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to prevent hearing loss in so-called Beethoven mice, which carry a genetic mutation that causes profound hearing loss in humans and mice alike.

  • Campus & Community

    One thing to change: Think more like children

    Abraham “Avi” Loeb, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, argues that academia shouldn’t just be about proving theories, but about exploration.

  • Science & Tech

    Speeding up single-cell genomics research

    Harvard researchers have devised a time-saving method that makes it possible to speed up the process of profiling gene regulation in tens of thousands of individual human cells in a single day, a development that promises to boost genomics research.

    Image of a cell
  • Health

    Fears arise that new federal fetal-tissue restrictions will hobble a ‘workhorse’ of research

    With the Trump administration halting fetal tissue research at two prominent scientific institutions and new plans to review such research elsewhere, Harvard Medical School Dean George Daley discussed the importance of research using these tissues, which would otherwise be discarded, in creating vaccines and treatments and enhancing our understanding of human biology.

    George Daley speaking into a microphone
  • Science & Tech

    Leave those calluses alone

    A running-studies pioneer takes a look at walking, with and without shoes, and gives calluses a thumbs-up.

    Nick Holowka, Postdoctoral Researcher, performs an ultra sound on callouses
  • Health

    Chemists’ breakthrough in synthesis advances a potent anti-cancer agent

    Chemists at Harvard and Eisai, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, have synthesized halichondrin, a potent anti-cancer agent found naturally in sea sponges. Because of the molecule’s “fiendishly complex” design, the feat took three decades.

    Yoshito Kishi sitting in his office
  • Science & Tech

    Beyond the cloud

    Every day, more and more information is filed in less and less space. Even the cloud will eventually run out of space, can’t thwart all hackers, and gobbles up energy. Now, a new way to store information could stably house data for millions of years.

    Brian Cafferty works in the lab.
  • Science & Tech

    Forward thinking

    Research led by scientists at Harvard and the Broad Institute has optimized the process of making human brain “organoids” — miniature 3D organ models — so they consistently follow growth patterns observed in the developing human brain.

    Scientists
  • Science & Tech

    Editing genes at the source

    Study shows how genes could be edited in stem cells within intact organs, without having to remove them from their normal environment. The new approach could treat a variety of diseases.

    uninjected and injected cells
  • Science & Tech

    A new vision for neuroscience

    For decades scientists have been searching for a way to watch a live broadcast of neurons firing in real time. Now, a Harvard researcher has done it with mice.

    Researchers Adam Cohen and Yoav Adam examine their experiment in the lab
  • Science & Tech

    Researcher connects the dots in fin-to-limb evolution

    With an innovative technique called anatomical network analysis, clear patterns emerge that help solve the puzzle of how fins became limbs 420 million years ago.

  • Science & Tech

    Learning why cancer drugs work (or don’t)

    Assistant Professor Brian Liau of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department has answered the question of why some new drugs for acute myeloid leukemia don’t work by combining CRISPR gene editing with small-molecule inhibitor treatments in a technique he calls CRISPR-suppressor scanning.

    Professor sits in front of a white board
  • Science & Tech

    The evolution of flightless birds

    Based on an analysis of the genomes of more than a dozen flightless birds, including an extinct moa, a team led by Harvard researchers found that while different species show wide variety in the protein-coding portions of their genomes, they appear to turn to the same regulatory pathways when evolving flight loss.

    Researchers display skeletons of flightless birds.
  • Science & Tech

    Easy on the eyes

    New computer program uses artificial intelligence to determine what visual neurons like to see. The approach could shed light on learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and other neurologic conditions.

    Photo manip of a person in profile, over clouds
  • Science & Tech

    AI model predicts TB resistance

    A Harvard undergrad, working with Harvard Medical School scientists, has designed an artificial intelligence model that predicts tuberculosis resistance to 10 most commonly used drugs. The new model outperforms previous machine-learning tools, and incorporating it into clinical tests could dramatically enhance early detection and prompt treatment of drug-resistant TB.

    Secondary tuberculosis in lungs and close-up view of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, 3D illustration
  • Science & Tech

    Day of the golden jackal

    The surprising success story of the golden jackal in Europe holds lessons about nature’s resilience and about how nature might respond to the evolutionary pressure exerted by humans as we change the natural landscape. The Gazette spoke with doctoral student Nathan Ranc for insight.

  • Science & Tech

    Written in the bones

    Harvard doctoral students offered a glimpse of the future of evolutionary inquiry, outlining projects that touch on the human pelvis, butterfly hybrids, field and forest mice, and the mystery of an ancient pile of bones.

  • Science & Tech

    The genetics of regeneration

    Led by Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Mansi Srivastava, a team of researchers is shedding new light on how animals perform whole-body regeneration, and uncovering a number of DNA switches that appear to control genes used in the process.

    Three-banded panther worms.
  • Science & Tech

    Sensors go undercover to outsmart the brain

    Harvard scientists have created brain implants so similar to neurons that they actually encourage tissue regeneration in animal models. They may one day be used to help treat neurological diseases, brain damage, and even mental illness.

    Charles Lieber.
  • Science & Tech

    Seeing things in a different light

    Harvard researchers are using a chemical process known as triplet fusion upconversion to transform near-infrared photons into high-energy photons. The high-energy photons could be used in a huge range of applications, including a new type of precisely targeted chemotherapy, in which low-energy infrared lasers that penetrate deep into the body could be used to transform…

  • Science & Tech

    Making sense of how the blind ‘see’ color

    A new Harvard study suggests that although the congenitally blind experience abstract visual phenomena such as rainbows and color differently, they still share with the sighted a common understanding of them.

    Conceptual illustration of MRI scans.
  • Science & Tech

    Brainy birds

    A new study shows that African grey parrots can perform some cognitive tasks at levels beyond those of 5-year-old humans. The results not only suggest that humans aren’t the only species capable of making complex inferences, but also point to flaws in a widely used test of animal intelligence.

    Scientist Irene Pepperberg with African grey parrot, Griffin.
  • Science & Tech

    Focusing on the fovea

    Researchers have created the first cellular atlas of the primate retina and discovered that, while the fovea and peripheral retina share most of the same cell types, the cells are in different proportions, and show different gene expression patterns.

    detail of an eye
  • Science & Tech

    Facing crocodiles head-on

    Despite often being portrayed as living fossils that have remained virtually unchanged for millions of years, a new Harvard study shows crocodiles have repeatedly altered their developmental patterns, leading to much of the diversity found in modern, living crocodiles.

    CT scans of crocodile skulls.
  • Science & Tech

    Solving colibactin’s code

    In an effort to understand how colibactin, a compound produced by certain strains of E. coli, may be connected to the development of colorectal cancer, Harvard researchers are exploring how the compound damages DNA to produce DNA adducts.

    Emily Balskus.