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Tag: Bruce M. Spiegelman
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Campus & Community
Three named Damon Runyon Fellows
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers, has named 15 new Damon Runyon Fellows, including three from Harvard.
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Health
Scientists create energy-burning brown fat in mice
Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural energy-burning type of fat that counteracts obesity. If such a strategy can be developed for use in people, the scientists say, it might open a novel approach to treating obesity and diabetes. A…
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Health
Scientists identify switch for brain’s natural anti-oxidant defense
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report they have found how the brain turns on a system designed to protect its nerve cells from toxic “free radicals,” a waste product of cell metabolism that has been implicated in some degenerative brain diseases, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and aging. Potentially, the researchers say, it may be possible…
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Health
Scientists discover chemical switch that determines muscle fiber type
Published in the Aug. 15, 2002 issue of the journal Nature, findings from a multi-institutional team describe the pivotal role of a molecule called PGC-1 in transforming “fast twitch” fibers (Type II) to “slow twitch” fibers (Type I). “Fast twitch” fibers create the bulkier, strong but quickly fatigued muscles of weightlifters or sprinters. Most muscles…