Tag: Research

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 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

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Science & Tech

    Small suds make a big splash at SEAS

    The latest engineering feat to emerge from the laboratories at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been largely accomplished with the aid of kitchen mixers. Researchers have whipped up, for the first time, permanent nanoscale bubbles — bubbles that endure for more than a year — from batches of foam made from a…

  • Health

    New report finds low vitamin D levels appear common in ‘healthy’ children

    Many infants and toddlers may have low levels of vitamin D, and about one-third of those appear to have some evidence of reduced bone mineral content on X-rays, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

  • Health

    Video game technology may help surgeons

    In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) featured on the cover of this month’s Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, cardiac surgeons from Children’s Hospital Boston report good results with a simple technology borrowed from the gaming industry: stereo glasses.

  • Campus & Community

    Hoopes Prize winners number more than 80

    More than 80 Harvard College seniors have been named Thomas T. Hoopes Prize winners for outstanding scholarly work or research. The prize is funded by the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes ’19. The recipients, including their research and advisers, are as follows:

  • Health

    NIH awards HMS $117.5M, five-year grant for patient-centered research

    The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that Harvard Medical School (HMS) will receive $117.5 million over the next five years for the establishment of a Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) that will transform patient-oriented, laboratory-to-bedside research at HMS and its affiliated hospitals.

  • Campus & Community

    CES announces student grant recipients

    Continuing its tradition of promoting and funding student research on Europe, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) has announced its selection of nearly 50 undergraduates for thesis research grants and internships in Europe this summer.

  • Campus & Community

    Herchel Smith Research Fellows to begin this summer

    The Herchel Smith Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship provides financial support to Harvard undergraduates engaged in scientific research at established research centers and laboratories in the United States or abroad.

  • Campus & Community

    Committee on African Studies awards grants

    The Harvard Committee on African Studies has awarded nine research grants to Harvard students for travel to sub-Saharan Africa during the summer of 2008.