Tag: Molecular Biology

  • Nation & World

    Bringing Stone Age genomic material back to life

    Scientific breakthroughs will enable exploration of Earth’s biochemical past, with hopes of discovering new therapeutic molecules.

    5 minutes
    Examining ancient teeth.
  • Nation & World

    A new spin on an old question

    Understanding how DNA and proteins interact — or fail to — could help answer fundamental biological questions about human health and disease.

    5 minutes
    A rendering of a DNA propeller
  • Nation & World

    Learning to understand their own DNA

    Harvard gives local high school students hands-on experience with biotechnology.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Paul Mead Doty

    At the Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on April 7, 2015, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Paul Mead Doty, Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus, was spread upon the records. Professor Doty played a leading role in establishing the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard. He…

    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

    Safer tanning?

    Harvard researchers have found a molecular switch that may someday make it possible to get a tan without exposure to harmful UV rays.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Two HSCI groups find residual genetic ‘memory’ in iPS cells;

    Two groups of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have independently made similar discoveries about the characteristics of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), but they have reached somewhat different conclusions about the implications…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    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 shifts decisively in favor of paternal influence by adulthood.…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faust calls global health one of her main priorities

    Declaring the University’s efforts to improve the state of global health knowledge, education, and capacity building to be one of her “very highest priorities” as president of Harvard, Drew Faust today (May 18) announced the appointment of Sue J. Goldie, Roger Irving Lee Professor of Public Health and director of the Center for Health Decision…

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Kaelin among Canada Gairdner Award recipients

    William Kaelin, a physician-scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has been named one of seven recipients of the 2010 Canada Gairdner Award.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Gene silencing may cause limitations of induced pluripotent stem cells

    Scientists may be one step closer to being able to generate any type of cells and tissues from a patient’s own cells, according to the results of a new study by Harvard…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The Postdocs

    Some physicists spend their lives obsessed with questions about the possibility of parallel universes, or of travel at the speed of light. Amy Rowat is obsessed with the mechanical properties of the tiny…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gelbart receives award from the Genetics Society of America

    William Gelbart, professor of molecular and cellular biology in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, was recently named the recipient of the 2010 George W. Beadle Award from the Genetics Society of America (GSA).

    1 minute
  • 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

    Fishing for new medications

    A robust new technique for screening drugs’ effects on zebrafish behavior is pointing Harvard scientists toward unexpected compounds and pathways that may govern sleep and wakefulness in humans. Among their…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Light maps neurons’ effects

    Scientists come up with method to track neurons as they interact with each other.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Light used to map effect of neurons on one another

    Harvard scientists have used light and genetic trickery to trace out neurons’ ability to excite or inhibit one another, literally shedding new light on the question of how neurons interact…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard team reports major step forward in cell reprogramming

    A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made a major advance toward producing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, that are safe enough to use in…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Jack Szostak 2009 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

    Jack Szostak, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for pioneering work in the…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How does a worm build a throat?

    Mention worms to most people, and they probably think of fishing, gardening, or trips to the vet. Mention them to Susan E. Mango, and she begins telling you how “absolutely…

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gary Ruvkun took a roundabout route to science

    Gary Ruvkun has made a career out of imagining the unimaginable, and of surrounding himself with like-minded thinkers who let the wheels of thought spin until they catch on something hard, gain traction, and take off.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Technique offers close-ups of electrons and nuclei

    Providing a glimpse into the infinitesimal, physicists have found a novel way to spy on some of the universe’s tiniest building blocks. Their “camera,” described this week (Oct. 1) in the journal Nature, consists of a special “flaw” in diamonds that can be manipulated into sensitively monitoring magnetic signals from individual electrons and atomic nuclei…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    NIH selects nine Pioneers, Innovators from Harvard

    Nine Harvard faculty members are among 47 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized Monday (Sept. 22) with the announcement of two grant programs through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Susan E. Mango named professor of molecular and cellular biology

    Susan E. Mango, whose study of pharynx development in nematode worms has provided biologists with one of their most robust models of organ development, has been named professor of molecular and cellular biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), effective July 1, 2009. Mango, 46, was previously professor of oncological sciences at the…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Ruvkun among Lasker Award winners

    Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigator Gary Ruvkun is one of three co-recipients of the 2008 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard Medical School, MGH researcher Gary Ruvkun to share 2008 Lasker Award

    Gary Ruvkun, a Harvard Medical School genetics professor in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, is one of three scientists named co-recipients of the 2008…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Broad Institute awarded $86 million NIH grant

    Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have been chosen to receive a six-year, $86M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify and develop molecular…

    4 minutes
  • 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

    Intestinal bacteria promote and prevent inflammatory bowel disease

    Scientists search for drug candidates in some very unlikely places. Not only do they churn out synthetic compounds in industrial-scale laboratories, but they also scour coral reefs and scrape tree bark in the hope of stumbling upon an unsuspecting molecule that just might turn into next year’s big block buster. But one region that scientists…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Flavell receives Weintraub Award

    Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate Steven Flavell has been selected, along with a dozen other graduate students from North America, to receive the 2008 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC).

    1 minute