http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/stories/person/1202 Stories and external links referencing a person (RSS) en http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/gene-initiates-joint-formation <!--paging_filter--><p>Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a molecule that plays a central role in the initiation of joint formation. Studying limb formation in the developing chick, postdoctoral fellow Christine Hartmann and her adviser, Clifford Tabin, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics, found that a previously uncharacterized member of the <i>Wnt</i> family, <i>Wnt14</i>, was expressed early in regions of the embryo that become synovial joints. The presence of <i>Wnt14</i> in presumptive joint regions early in development led Hartmann and Tabin to investigate the role of <i>Wnt14</i> in the initiation of joint formation. Their work, which identified "the first gene reported to have the ability to initiate joint formation," says Hartmann, was reported in the Feb. 9, 2001, Cell.</p> Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:11:31 -0400 70652986 2935 at http://harvardscience.harvard.edu