all Kevin Kit Parker stories

GlaxoSmithKline and Harvard Stem Cell Institute announce major collaboration agreement

404132862 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:00:05 -0400

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) today announced that they have entered into a five-year, $25 million-plus collaborative agreement to build a unique alliance in stem cell science to hasten the development of treatments and cures for a range of diseases.

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.

Engineering Idol

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:26:49 -0400

The winner of this year's ES100-100hf senior engineering design project course competition aimed straight for the heart by recording an electrical "ballad." The runners-up (a tie for second), meanwhile, worked themselves to the bone and relied on "heavy metal" riffs. All three, narrowed down from a group of more than a dozen talented Harvard seniors, impressed the panel faculty judges with their performances (and of course, those colorful PowerPoint presentations).

War stories of a soldier/scientist

705287540 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:08:57 -0500

Kit Parker's 9 mm pistol lay on the table next to the laptop as he typed. He was stripped to the waist in the 130-degree heat, sweating and writing while he waited for a flight home from Afghanistan.

After 10 months on patrol for the U.S. Army south of Kandahar, Parker's other life was demanding attention. He had a grant proposal due Aug. 22.

"It was miserable," Parker said of the heat, the stress of making the deadline, and the need to get cracking at a time when most soldiers would be thinking of finally relaxing. "But I dig my science."