Tag: Biochemistry

  • Nation & World

    Why there might be life out there unlike any on Earth

    Researchers create synthetic species without biochemistry, find they operate according to Darwinian evolutionary principles.

    3 minutes
    Juan Perez-Mercader
  • Nation & World

    To clean up the mine, let fungus reproduce

    Harvard-led researchers have discovered that an Ascomycete fungus that is common in polluted water produces environmentally important minerals during asexual reproduction.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    New hope for the cure

    For the 20 percent of patients with so-called triple-negative breast cancer, the outcome is bleak. Now, however, researchers from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Baylor College of Medicine have identified a critical molecular component to the disease, one that suggests potential therapies involving combinations of FDA-approved, readily available drugs.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A man of endless curiosity

    Emre Basar seeks to understand how small interfering RNA (siRNA) can be harnessed and integrated into cells with the goal of silencing the expression of certain proteins that allow diseases like breast cancer and HIV to proliferate inside the body.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The art of science

    Susan Mango, professor of molecular and cellular biology and MacArthur award winner, brings her unorthodox approach to research.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Jack Strominger receives AAI mentoring award

    Jack Strominger, the Higgins Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, was recently honored with the AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award “in recognition of exemplary career contributions to a future generation of scientists,” by the American Association of Immunologists.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    How growing cells move together

    Our cells are more than inert bags of proteins and genes whose complex signaling networks confound the world’s most powerful computers. They also have a physical side whose brawny feats…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Knowles memorial set for May 30

    A memorial service for former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles will be held May 30 at 11 a.m. at the Memorial Church. The Amory Houghton Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Knowles died April 3.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Rajan Sonik hopes to cure bodies while energizing hearts and souls

    Rajan Sonik arrived at Harvard four years ago aspiring to a career in science or maybe law, but a 14-year-old boy with sickle cell disease Sonik met in his sophomore year through a hospital mentoring program changed everything.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Comprehensive model first to map protein folding at atomic level

    Scientists at Harvard University have developed a computer model that, for the first time, can fully map and predict how small proteins fold into three-dimensional, biologically active shapes. The work…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Snaring secrets of the Venus flytrap

    While “speed” is not a word most people associate with the plant kingdom, the Venus flytrap closes its v-shaped leaves in just one-tenth of a second – fast enough to…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Disparate proteins structurally identical

    Gerhard Wagner, the Elkan Blout professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, and Tucker Collins, the S. Burt Wolbach professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital, made…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    RNA-making apparatus seen to uncoil and recoil DNA

    Eukaryotic cells like to keep their DNA under wraps, winding the long strands of nucleic acid around millions of little protein complexes. This bead-on-a-string structure, called chromatin, ensures that the…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Matrix-buster inhibitor has second way to throttle angiogenesis

    Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their regulators, the tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), form an intriguing partnership. MMPs work by breaking down the dense matrix surrounding cells, freeing them to wander…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Researchers make new compounds from protein

    Over the years, scientists have repeatedly sought to use a cell’s protein-making process to create new drugs and other compounds. They have had some dramatic successes, such as inducing bacteria…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    New multiple sclerosis drugs are found

    Five years ago, scientists at Harvard University began to take a close look at Copolymer 1, a treatment for multiple sclerosis, that is put together from a string of amino…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Remote-control immunity up close

    When we receive a wound, disease-fighting cells rush to the scene to do combat with bodily invaders. But how does this work? When we receive a wound, cells near the…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Protein may play double role in issuing genetic gag order

    So cells can differentiate and maintain their specialized identities, large sections of unneeded genes must be turned off. During cell division, the stability of every chromosome depends upon sections of…

    1 minute