HarvardScience

Hansjorg Wyss gives $125 million to create institute for biologically inspired engineering

404132862 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:48:09 -0400

Engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss MBA ’65 has given Harvard University $125 million to create the Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

Investigators at the Wyss Institute (pronounced “Vees”) will strive to uncover the engineering principles that govern living things, and use this knowledge to develop technology solutions for the most pressing healthcare and environmental issues facing humanity. Wyss’ gift is the largest individual gift in the University’s history.

Smoking and solid-fuel-burning in homes in China projected to cause millions of deaths

404132862 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:20:51 -0400

The pine beetle's tale

404132862 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:34:01 -0400

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have discovered how beetles and bacteria form a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship — one that ultimately results in the destruction of pine forests. In addition, they’ve identified the specific molecule that drives this whole phenomenon.

Global warming threatens his nation's existence, a president warns

404132862 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:55:55 -0400

During a talk at Harvard, the leader of the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati laid out an extraordinary plan that would scatter his people through the nations of the world as rising sea levels submerge the islands they have called home for centuries.

Harvard Forest:

404132862 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:14:06 -0400

Harvard may be rooted in Cambridge, but it has a lot more roots in the small north-central Massachusetts town of Petersham.

That's where you'll find the woods, streams, and fields of the Harvard Forest, a 3,500-acre research and teaching facility that's been part of the University for more than a century. Having been closely monitored since 1907 — and with a provenance dating to a Colonial farm established in the mid 1700s — the history of this tract is likely better-documented than that of any other forest in the United States.

Incoming School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk Receives Clinton Global Citizen Award

404132862 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:47:08 -0400

Julio Frenk, who will become Dean of Harvard School of Public Health in January, 2009, has received a Clinton Global Citizen Award.

In naming Frenk, along with four other individuals, former President William J. Clinton said: "The Global Citizen Awards are about honoring and inspiring service to humanity. Our award recipients were chosen from a pool of remarkable candidates. Their innovation, dedication and determination have changed lives, and their actions serve as models of what each of us can do to make a difference in the world."

Important new step toward producing stem cells for human treatment

404132862 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:15:13 -0400

A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists has taken an important step toward producing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that are safe to transplant into patients to treat diseases.

Excitement over the ability of researchers to create this form of stem cell by inserting four genes into adults cells has thus far been tempered by the fact that the genes have been inserted using retroviruses, which have the potential to turn on cancer genes and trigger tumor growth.

Seeing what they hear, to better understand ourselves

404132862 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:09:26 -0400

It was a long drive from St. Louis to Florida, but Darlene Ketten had finally made it. Standing in the warm surf of St. George Island, she watched with delight as tiny, colorful bean clams popped out of the sand and then quickly reburied themselves as the waves foamed around her calves.

“It was gorgeous, with incredible soft, white sand,” Ketten recalled. “In the surf were minute clams — pink, blue, orange and gold — popping out of the sand and then disappearing…. I dipped my hand in the water and tasted it.”

Three Harvard faculty members net MacArthur fellowships

404132862 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:28:21 -0400

Three biologists — one current and two future faculty members at Harvard — have won MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, $500,000 no-strings-attached awards intended to encourage creativity, originality, and innovation in a broad array of fields.

Stem Cell Summit hails bench progress, looks to bedside future

404132862 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:31:13 -0400

New discoveries concerning cell reprogramming over the past year have boosted stem cell researchers in the lab and encouraged efforts to transfer test tube and lab animal advances to humans suffering degenerative diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Leaders of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and Harvard President Drew Faust hailed advances in the last year as significant steps in the drive to understand and one day treat these diseases, which afflict millions around the world.

Transfer of hospitalized patient from one resident to another can lead to harm

404132862 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:19:49 -0400

A significant percentage of resident physicians report that patient handoffs – transfer of responsibility for a hospitalized patient from one resident to another – contributed to incidents in which harm was done to patients. The study, published in the October 2008 Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, identifies situations in which problematic handoffs are more likely to occur and factors that may interfere with the smooth transfer of crucial information.

NIH names Harvard Pioneers, Innovators

404132862 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:25:41 -0400

Harvard faculty members comprise almost 20 percent of the 47 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was today recognized with the announcement of two grant programs through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The grants, expected to total $138 million over five years for all recipients, recognize established researchers through the Pioneer Award and young scientists through the New Innovator Award.

The awards support potentially high-impact research whose approaches have the potential to transform biomedical and behavioral science.

New class of hormone from “healthy fat cells” benefits body metabolism in mice

404132862 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:12:20 -0400

Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have identified in mice a newly discovered class of hormones -- lipokines. In tomorrow's issue of the journal Cell they report that lipokine is a molecule in mice that helps stop, or even reverses obesity-related conditions such as insulin resistance and “fatty liver.”

Lipokines are hormones made from lipids, or fats. All other known hormones – chemical signals secreted into the blood that regulate distant cells and organs – are steroid or protein-based.

David Korn named University's vice provost for research;

404132862 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:37:37 -0400

David Korn, a former Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine long known as a leader in research policy and science administration, will become the University's vice provost for research, Provost Steven E. Hyman today announced.

A distinguished pathologist who was at Stanford for more than a decade, Korn has served since 1997 in senior roles at the Association of American Medical Colleges, where he is now the chief scientific officer.

Immune Disease Institute Wins Annenberg Grant to Support International TB and AIDS Care and Research

404132862 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:17:02 -0400

The Immune Disease Institute has received a two-year, $150,000 award from the Annenberg Foundation to support its ongoing work in international health. The funds will support efforts to combine basic scientific research and health care delivery with the goal of halting the twin epidemics of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Cambodia and other poor countries.

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

404132862 — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:06:07 -0400

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 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

When genetics gets personal

404132862 — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:38:04 -0400

Just five years after the Human Genome Project announced it had decoded the first human DNA, the era of personal genetics is dawning, bringing with it not just the promise of targeted, personalized medicine and a new level of self-knowledge, but also a host of ethical, legal, and practical issues. A new project out of a Harvard Medical School genetics lab is trying to make sure we’re prepared to deal with the potential benefits and pitfalls arising from these issues.

Harvard Initiative for Global Health recipient of NIH Global Health Nutrition grant

404132862 — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:19:38 -0400

The Harvard Initiative for Global Health (HIGH) has been selected to receive a prestigious $400,000 Framework Programs for Global Health grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center.

ATLAS detector seeks to illuminate universe’s mysteries

404132862 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:37:28 -0400

Scientists at Harvard and around the world held their breath earlier today, as colleagues switched on the most powerful particle accelerator ever built, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Geneva.

Efficiency of producing iPS cells markedly improved

404132862 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:55:30 -0400

Some of the most challenging obstacles limiting the reprogramming of mature human cells into stem cells may not seem quite as daunting in the near future. Two independent research groups, one lead by Harvard Stem Cell Institute Principal Faculty member Konrad Hochedlinger, and another at the Whitehead Institute, are describing new tools that provide invaluable platforms for elucidating the molecular, genetic and biochemical mechanisms associated with reprogramming.