all foundations stories

Experiment advances understanding of cell reprogramming

404132862 — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:54:35 -0400

The announcement last year by scientists in Japan, at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), and at the Whitehead Institute that they had each — independently — coaxed adult cells into reverting to an embryonic stem cell-like state was arguably the biggest news in developmental biology since the cloning of Dolly the ewe.

Steven Pinker’s ‘Ideas on the Fringe’

jake — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:29:15 -0400

Not long ago, Steven Pinker appeared on “The Colbert Report.” He managed to explain the functioning of the human brain to Stephen Colbert in only five words: “Brain cells fire in patterns.”

Stem Cell Summit draws 500 participants

404132862 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:44:43 -0400

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Wednesday (Oct. 3) called on those attending the second day of a Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI)-sponsored Stem Cell Summit to support his proposed $1 billion life sciences initiative “so we can get partnering with you.”

While Massachusetts has a unique concentration of researchers, academic institutions, biotech companies, and investment in the life sciences, “we can’t just rest on our laurels,” Patrick said. “I ask you to make your voices heard,” the governor continued. “Make your interests known. When the bill comes out for hearings — show up.”

Harvard astronomers share dark prize

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:02:27 -0400

Two teams who upset everyone's ideas about how the universe works and its future will share the $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize for discovering that 70 percent of the universe is nothing but a strange form of energy.

In 1998, a group called the High-z Supernova Search Team published irresistible evidence that the universe is expanding at a rate that may never slow down. Eleven of the 19 members of the High-z team are or were affiliated with Harvard University. Months later, a second team, the Supernova Cosmology Project, independently confirmed the startling finding. That team was lead by Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley.

Digging for solutions to energy crisis

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:20:06 -0400

In the 1970s, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Today it is one of the richest, with a per capita GDP higher than that of Denmark, from which it won full independence in 1944.

How did it accomplish this remarkable transformation? A key element was the shift from imported coal and oil to geothermal energy. Iceland now uses geothermal energy to generate a large portion of its electricity and nearly all of its heating needs.

CfA reveals Magellanic Clouds are first-time visitors

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:36:07 -0400

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are two of the Milky Way’s closest neighboring galaxies. A stunning sight in the southern hemisphere, they were named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who explored those waters in the 16th century. For hundreds of years, these galaxies were considered satellites of the Milky Way, gravitationally bound to our home galaxy. But new research by Gurtina Besla of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and her colleagues shows that the Magellanic Clouds are recent arrivals — on their first visit to the Milky Way’s neighborhood.

Scientists synthesize memory in yeast cells

404132862 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:03:55 -0400

Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers have successfully synthesized a DNA-based memory loop in yeast cells, an experiment that marks a significant step forward in the emerging field of synthetic biology.

After constructing genes from random bits of DNA, researchers in the lab of Pamela Silver, a faculty member in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Systems Biology, not only reconstructed the dynamics of memory, but also created a mathematical model that predicted how such a memory “device” might work.

Stem cells make new heart valves

404132862 — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:00:56 -0400

Harvard researchers have coaxed adult stem cells into forming artificial heart valves that could one day mean fewer surgeries for children suffering from heart defects.

The scientists, at Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital, grew the valves from a type of stem cell that normally gives rise to the inner lining of blood vessels. They used a biodegradable scaffold to give the cells shape and a mix of proteins and growth factors to stimulate the cells to grow into the proper tissue type.

Biohybrid of elastic film and muscle cells packs a punch

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:04:05 -0400

In an innovative marriage of living cells and a synthetic substrate, bioengineers at Harvard University have found that a rubberlike, elastic film coated with a single layer of cardiac muscle cells can semi-autonomously engage in lifelike gripping, pumping, walking, and swimming. The tissue engineering feat was reported in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Science.

The researchers, led by Kevin Kit Parker and Adam W. Feinberg, report that the exact movement undertaken by these hybrid muscular thin films (MTFs) can be tailored by controlling muscle alignment relative to the shape of the flexible film. Some of the MTFs even contract spontaneously, an intrinsic property of cardiac muscle that allows the devices to move around without user intervention.

First robust genetic link to height in humans identified

404132862 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:55:03 -0400

Over a century ago, scientists first proposed that height is a complex trait — one influenced by environmental factors and multiple genes. While subsequent studies revealed that most of the variation in adult height is genetically determined, there has been little success in pinpointing the responsible genes. Some clues have come from rare syndromes of extreme height or shortness caused by severe alterations in specific gene sequences, but by and large, these changes do not explain the normal spectrum of human height.

First orchid fossil puts showy blooms at some 80 million years old

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:27:21 -0400

Biologists at Harvard University have identified the ancient fossilized remains of a pollen-bearing bee as the first hint of orchids in the fossil record, a find they say suggests orchids are old enough to have coexisted with dinosaurs.

Their analysis, published this week (Aug. 29) in the journal Nature, indicates orchids arose some 76 to 84 million years ago, much longer ago than many scientists had estimated. The extinct bee they studied, preserved in amber with a mass of orchid pollen on its back, represents some of the only direct evidence of pollination in the fossil record.

New science provides compelling framework for early childhood investment

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:10:00 -0400

A remarkable convergence of new knowledge about the developing brain, the human genome, and the extent to which early childhood experiences influence later learning, behavior, and health now offers policymakers an exceptional opportunity to change the life prospects of vulnerable young children, says a new report from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

The report, "A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy," integrates new research findings in neuroscience with extensive evaluations of early childhood programs, and provides a highly credible, comprehensive guide for evidence-based policymaking. It was released today (Aug. 6) in Boston at a press conference at the Annual Meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Oceans are back on Mars

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:40:25 -0400

Since spacecraft sent back the first close-up images of Mars more than 30 years ago, some experts have insisted that oceans once existed on the now dry, cold planet. Critics have maintained for decades that such an idea is the product of unrestrained imaginations. Now, a study published in the June 14 issue of the British journal Nature reports new evidence that our neighbor in space once boasted an ocean or oceans as big, relative to planet size, as the Atlantic on Earth. "We were able to lay to rest one of the main objections to the idea that there once were oceans on Mars," says Taylor Perron, a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Major progress toward cell reprogramming

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:34:31 -0400

Two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers and scientists at Whitehead Institute and Japan's Kyoto University have independently taken major steps toward discovering ways to reprogram cells in order to direct their development - a key goal in developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

Additionally, the group led by Kevin Eggan, an HSCI principal faculty member - whose study is featured on the cover of the latest issue of the journal Nature - has disproved a long-held view of developmental biologists by demonstrating in mice that it is possible to use previously fertilized ova to produce disease-specific stem cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) - commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning.

A tale of two scholars: The Darwin debate at Harvard

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:41:37 -0400

Few people have left a more indelible imprint on Harvard than Louis Agassiz.

An ambitious institution-builder and fundraiser as well as one of the most renowned scientists of his generation, he founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) and trained a generation of naturalists in the precise methods of observation and categorization developed in Europe. His wife Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the other half of this Harvard power couple, was co-founder and first president of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, the precursor of Radcliffe.