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RNA errors linked to ALS and dementia
A new Harvard Medical School study shows how malfunctioning RNA may lead to ALS and a form of dementia.
Mom, dad set in their ways? Maybe it’s not their fault
Research led by Hopi Hoekstra breaks new ground by uncovering links between the activity of specific genes and parenting differences across species
Why sing to baby? If you don’t, you’ll starve
A new study suggests that infant-directed song evolved as a way for parents to signal to children that their needs were being met, while leaving time for other tasks, like food foraging or caring for other offspring.
Geneticist Stephen J. Elledge wins Breakthrough Prize
Harvard Medical School geneticist Stephen Elledge won the 2017 Breakthrough Prize for unraveling the mechanism by which cells sense DNA damage and initiate self-repair.
‘If you’re not failing, you’re probably not trying as hard as you could be’
Interview with geneticist George Church as part of the Experience series.
Doubling up at Harvard
Harvard staff photographers interviewed four sets of twins currently enrolled as undergraduates at Harvard College, to gain a glimpse into these unusual relationships.
For groups in conflict, genes matter
Visiting professor Sasha Kimel examined whether information about genetic links can influence groups in conflict.
Faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences
Five Harvard faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kleckner receives Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal
Nancy Kleckner, the Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology, has been awarded the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal by the Genetics Society of America in recognition of her many significant contributions to our understanding of chromosomes and the mechanisms of inheritance.
History as mosh pit
Today’s discoveries in DNA technology are as exciting as another era’s moon missions, opening avenues of scientific inquiry and invigorating even longstanding fields, speakers at a Radcliffe science symposium on DNA said.
Improved accuracy in genome editing
A team of scientists has engineered a form of the genome-editing protein Cas9 that can be controlled by a small molecule and offers improved DNA specificity.
Creating ‘genomic origami’
Researchers have assembled the first high-resolution, 3-D maps of entire folded genomes and found a structural basis for gene regulation, a kind of “genomic origami” that allows the same genome to produce different types of cells.
Probing genes for disease risk
New research by Alkes Price, associate professor of Statistical Genetics at Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues focuses on new approaches to ...
Getting a detailed picture of Ebola
The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT is now “the world’s most powerful factory for analyzing genes from people and viruses,” according to an article in ...
The surprising origins of Europeans
Geneticists David Reich and Nick Patterson detailed recent work on human migrations that led to the populations of today’s Europe.
HSPH ‘molecular pathway’ discovery may lead to type 2 diabetes treatment
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found a novel mechanism causing type 2 diabetes that could be targeted to prevent or treat the ...
Toward genetic editing
Led by David Liu, professor of chemistry and chemical biology, a team of Harvard researchers developed a system that uses commercially available molecules called cationic lipids to deliver genome-editing proteins into cells.
Diabetes’ genetic variety
Harvard researchers working at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have uncovered nine rare genetic mutations that dramatically increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The discovery of the mutations highlights the dizzying genetic diversity of a disease rapidly spreading around the world.
‘Broken genes’ for a broken system
To David Altshuler, the recent discovery of a genetic mutation that protects against type 2 diabetes offers hope in fighting more than just diabetes. It ...
Researchers shed new light on schizophrenia
Harvard-affiliated researchers joined an international team to identify more than 100 locations in the human genome associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia in what is the largest genomic study published on any psychiatric disorder to date.
Viewing how neurons work
A new technique for observing neural activity will allow scientists to stimulate neurons and observe their firing pattern in real time. Tracing those neural pathways can help researchers answer questions about how neural signals propagate, and could one day allow doctors to design individualized treatments for a host of disorders.
New molecule links asthma, cancer
A newly discovered molecule may play a role in controlling both asthma-induced airway muscle thickening and tumor growth—and manipulating it may lead to ...
‘Junk?’ Not so fast
Research by Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists shows that much lincRNA, which had been generally believed useless, plays an important role in the genome.
Genetic variant may increase heart disease risk among people with type 2 diabetes
A newly discovered genetic variant may increase the risk of heart disease in people with type 2 diabetes by more than a third, according to a study led by ...
Clues to cholera resistance
Researchers have long understood that genetics can play a role in susceptibility to cholera, but a team of Harvard scientists is now uncovering evidence of genetic changes that might also help protect some people from contracting the deadly disease.
A learning gap is filled with plants
With classes in plant morphology fading in universities across the country, an Arnold Arboretum short course is seeking to plug the hole, bringing in top botany graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for an intensive, two-week course.
When timing is everything
In a new paper, Christopher Marx, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, says that beneficial mutations may occur more often than first thought, but many never emerge as “winners” because they don’t fall within the narrow set of circumstances required for them to dominate a population.
Digging yields clues
As described in a Jan. 16 paper in Nature, a team of researchers led by Hopi Hoekstra, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology and molecular and cellular biology, studied two species of mice – oldfield mice and deer mice – and identified four regions in their genome that appear to influence the way they dig their burrows.
Solving a biological mystery
A team of Harvard researchers has shown that insects like crickets possess a variation of a gene — called oskar — that is critical to the production of germ cells in “higher” insects. That discovery suggests that the oskar gene emerged far earlier in insect evolution than researchers previously believed.
CYCLOPS genes an Achilles’ heel in tumors?
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT used new technology to explore a 19-year-old theory, discovering what may be an Achilles’ heel for cancer cells: essential genes disrupted in the process of becoming cancerous that can be attacked further with drug therapy.
A fresh look at mental illness
In a paper published in Neuron, Joshua Buckholtz and co-author Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg identify a biological reason for why many mental disorders share similar symptoms, a situation that makes diagnosis challenging.
In the genes, but which ones?
A team of researchers, led Harvard Professor David I. Laibson and Christopher F. Chabris of Union College, has found that virtually all claims that intelligence is associated with specific genes are wrong.
Hyman to lead Broad research center
Steven E. Hyman, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist, University provost for a decade, and the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, has been named director of the Broad Institute’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, effective Feb. 15.
Dealing with data
A computer program developed by brothers David and Yakir Reshef, together with Professors Michael Mitzenmacher and Pardis Sabeti, enables researchers to scour massive data sets for meaningful relationships that might otherwise have been missed.
Mapping mollusks
Using genetic tools, researchers at Harvard and collaborating institutions have completed the most comprehensive evolutionary tree ever produced for mollusks. Described in the Nov. 2 issue of Nature, the work also serves as a proof-of-concept, demonstrating the power of genomic techniques to answer difficult evolutionary questions.
Understanding interference
In a discovery that might eventually lead to new biomedical treatments for disease, researchers from Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology have identified two types of RNA that are able to move between cells as part of a process called RNA-interference (RNAi).
Initiative challenges drug crisis
Taking aim at the alarming slowdown in the development of new and lifesaving drugs, Harvard Medical School is launching the Initiative in Systems Pharmacology, a comprehensive strategy to transform drug discovery by convening biologists, chemists, pharmacologists, physicists, computer scientists, and clinicians to explore together how drugs work in complex systems.
Finding ovarian cancer’s vulnerabilities
In their largest and most comprehensive effort to date, researchers from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard affiliate, examined cells from more than 100 tumors, including 25 ovarian cancer tumors, to unearth the genes upon which cancers depend. They call it Project Achilles.
Two are Abramson winners
Kevin Eggan, associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology, and David Elmer, assistant professor of the classics, are the winners of the 2011 Roslyn Abramson Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Kidney close-up
Scientists at Harvard have created breathtaking three-dimensional images of an entire organ, moving a step closer to understanding the complex development of the kidney.
Harnessing your creative brain
Shelley Carson, a researcher in the Psychology Department and lecturer at the Extension School, has penned a how-to book on harnessing your untapped abilities.
Beyond DNA
On a day when Harvard celebrated the accomplishments of the Human Genome Project, the Radcliffe Institute hosted a scientist whose work focuses not just on DNA, but on the mechanisms that control its expression.
Following the genomic road map
Harvard President Drew Faust hosted a panel discussion on the legacy of the Human Genome Project Feb. 22 at Sanders Theatre.
The map of us
To mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Human Genome Map, Harvard President Drew Faust will host a panel discussion on the project next week (Feb. 22) in Sanders Theatre.
‘Another set of fingers’
An interdisciplinary group of leading Harvard geneticists and stem cell researchers has found a new genetic aspect of cell reprogramming that may ultimately help in the fine-tuning of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) into specific cell types.
Progress on obesity
Researchers have identified 18 gene sites associated with obesity and 13 associated with body fat distribution, helping to unravel the riddle of obesity.
Hunting the missing health link
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are launching a study of 100,000 patients to determine the link among genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors in causing disease.
Mom’s influence comes first
Genome-wide analysis of mice brains has found that maternally inherited genes are expressed preferentially in the developing brain, while the pattern ...
Exploring a world within a world
Lichens provide an avenue for student scientific exploration of plant complexity.
Neanderthal genome tells a human story
A preliminary draft of the genome of the Neanderthal, our closest evolutionary relative, reveals in exquisite detail how this long-extinct member of the Homo genus relates to modern humans.
