Tag: Research

  • Campus & Community

    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
  • Campus & Community

    Program on U.S.-Japan Relations names associates, fellows

    The Program on U.S.-Japan Relations has announced its 16 Program Associates and Advanced Research Fellows for the 2008-09 academic year. This year’s class of Program Associates includes scholars, professors, government officials, businesspeople, and journalists from Japan, the United States, and elsewhere.

    10 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Du Bois Institute announces new fellows

    Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, has announced the appointment of 18 new institute fellows for the 2008-09 academic year.

    9 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    David Korn named University’s vice provost for research

    David Korn, a longtime leader in research policy and science administration, will become the University’s vice provost for research, Provost Steven E. Hyman announced today (Sept. 15). A distinguished pathologist who was dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine for more than a decade, Korn has served since 1997 in senior roles at the…

    4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Shorenstein Center announces fellows, visiting faculty

    The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, located at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, recently announced its fall fellows. “There has never been a more challenging — nor a more exciting — time to focus on the press, politics, and public policy, and our fellows and visiting faculty this…

    2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    NHGRI/NIH awards Harvard researchers $6.5M

    The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a $6.5 million grant (over four years) to a team of Harvard University researchers to further develop electronic sequencing in nanopores. The grant is part of more than $20 million in total funding given by NHGRI/NIH to spur innovative…

    1 minute
  • Health

    Jamaican lizards’ calisthenics mark territory at dawn, dusk

    What does Jack LaLanne have in common with a Jamaican lizard? Like the ageless fitness guru, the lizards greet each new day with vigorous push-ups. That’s according to a new study showing that male Anolis lizards engage in impressive displays of reptilian strength — push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap…

    3 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Semitic Museum extends docent deadline

    The Semitic Museum is currently seeking volunteer docents for the coming year. Docents will provide guided tours to school groups and the general public on the museum’s collection of archaeology of the ancient Near East.

    1 minute
  • Campus & Community

    Davis Center announces 2008-09 award recipients

    The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies has announced its fellowship, prize, research travel grant, and internship recipients for the 2008-09 academic year.

    7 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Eli and Edythe Broad make unprecedented gift

    Los Angeles-based philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Sept. 4 declared the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT an unprecedented success as an experiment in science and philanthropy and announced that they have increased their total gift to the Broad by $400 million to $600 million. The $400 million will be an endowment to convert…

    6 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Broad awarded $86M NIH grant to develop chemical probes for disease

    Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have been chosen to receive a six-year, $86 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify and develop molecular tools known as “small molecules,” which can probe proteins, signaling pathways, and cellular processes that are crucial to human health and disease.

    4 minutes
  • Health

    HSCI researchers see major breakthrough

    In a feat of biological prestidigitation likely to turn the field of regenerative medicine on its head, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) co-director Doug Melton and postdoctoral fellow Qiao “Joe” Zhou report having achieved what has long been a dream and ultimate goal of developmental biologists — directly turning a fully formed adult cell into…

    5 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    In brief

    Harvard-affiliated study runs in Journal of Community Psychology; Docents sought for Semitic Museum; Habitat for Humanity sale begins Aug. 23; HMS to host second ‘Freecycle’ event, donations sought; HMS to host quantitative genomics conference, poster component; Deadline for first print issue

    4 minutes
  • Health

    Next-generation tool for visualizing genomic data introduced

    Researchers are collecting vast amounts of diverse genomic data with ever-increasing speed, but effective ways to visualize these data in an integrated manner have lagged behind the ability to generate them. To address this growing need, researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have developed the Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV), a novel and…

    2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Susan Carey awarded Rumelhart Prize

    Susan Carey, a Harvard psychologist whose work has explored fundamental issues surrounding the nature of the human mind, has been awarded the 2009 David E. Rumelhart Prize, given annually since 2001 for significant contributions to the theoretical foundation of human cognition.

    3 minutes
  • Health

    Neurons created from skin cells of elderly patients with ALS

    Less than 27 months after announcing that he had institutional permission to attempt the creation of patient- and disease-specific stem cell lines, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) principal faculty member Kevin Eggan proclaimed the effort a success — though politically imposed restrictions and scientific advances prompted him to use a different technique than originally planned.

    6 minutes
  • Health

    Daley and colleagues create 20 disease-specific stem cell lines

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researcher George Q. Daley, associate director of the Stem Cell Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, has with HSCI colleagues Chad Cowan and Konrad Hochedlinger of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) produced a robust new collection of disease-specific stem cell lines, all of which were developed using the new induced pluripotent stem…

    4 minutes
  • Health

    Daley and colleagues create 20 disease-specific stem cell lines

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researcher George Q. Daley, associate director of the Stem Cell Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, has with HSCI colleagues Chad Cowan and Konrad Hochedlinger of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) produced a robust new collection of disease-specific stem cell lines, all of which were developed using the new induced pluripotent stem…

    4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Newsmakers

    HMS’s Burstein new editor-in-chief of cancer journal; Doctoral student receives prestigious national doctoral fellowship; Two students recognized for innovative solutions; Smith joins Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program; Dept. of Government of awards dissertation prizes; HMNH wins ‘Best Museum’ award; Melanie A. Samuel named Damon Runyon Fellow

    6 minutes
  • Health

    Science in brief

    Researchers identify promising cancer drug target in prostate tumors; Scientists find how neural activity spurs blood flow in the brain: Newfound mechanisms could bolster understanding of brain imaging, aging’s effects; World Health Organization creates new surgical tool to make operations safer everywhere; Invasive treatment appears beneficial for men and high-risk women with certain type of…

    8 minutes
  • Health

    When threatened, a few African frogs can morph toes into claws

    Biologists at Harvard University have determined that some African frogs carry concealed weapons: When threatened, these species puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes, using the bones as claws capable of wounding predators.

    3 minutes
  • Health

    Broad Institute earns grant to support pathbreaking diabetes study

    Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have received a grant to support novel, integrative research aimed at finding ways to encourage the human body to replenish the cells that are missing in type 1 diabetes.

    3 minutes
  • Health

    Young smokers recruited with menthol, study finds

    Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) explored tobacco industry manipulation of menthol levels in specific brands and found a deliberate strategy to recruit and addict young smokers by adjusting menthol to create a milder experience for the firsttime smoker.

    4 minutes
  • Health

    Genetic mechanisms linked to Parkinson’s disease uncovered

    A new genetic finding from a group of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), and the University of Ottawa may help pave the way for the discovery of therapies that could effectively treat Parkinson’s disease (PD).

    3 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    A new era in search for ‘sister Earths’?

    Research presented at a recent astronomical conference is being hailed as ushering in a new era in the search for Earth-like planets by showing that they are more numerous than previously thought and that scientists can now analyze their atmospheres for elements that might be conducive to life.

    4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Banda and Beauchamp awarded prestigious Trudeau Scholarships

    The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation recently awarded $150,000 prizes to Harvard doctoral students Maria Banda and Jonathan Beauchamp.

    1 minute
  • Health

    Research in brief

    BLACKS, HISPANICS LESS LIKELY TO GET FOLLOW-UP RADIATION THERAPY, BLACKS MORE LIKELY TO CHOOSE AGGRESSIVE CARE AT END OF LIFE

    2 minutes
  • Health

    Aquatic genome captures foreign DNA

    Long viewed as straitlaced spinsters, sexless freshwater invertebrate animals known as bdelloid rotifers may actually be far more promiscuous than anyone had imagined: Scientists at Harvard University have found that the genomes of these common creatures are chock-full of DNA from plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals.

    3 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Indigenous culture clarifies nature and limits of how humans measure

    The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all mathematics, is universal, says a study published in the journal Science, but the form of this universal mapping is not linear but logarithmic.

    4 minutes
  • Health

    Protective mechanism fails when obesity sets in

    Reporting in the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said they have shown for the first time that fat-storing cells, or adipocytes, contain a protective anti-inflammatory immune mechanism that prevents the cells from overreacting to inflammation-causing stimuli, such as fatty acids in the diet.

    1 minute