all Forsyth Institute stories

NIH awards Harvard Medical School $117.5 million, five-year grant for patient-centered research

404132862 — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:42:32 -0400

The National Institutes of Health today 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.

Brain chemical serotonin involved in early embryo patterning

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:11 -0400

A study published in the May 10, 2005, Current Biology has ramifications for neuroscience, developmental genetics, evolutionary biology and, possibly, human teratology (a branch of pathology and embryology concerned with abnormal development and congenital malformations). Among other results, the study, which was carried on frog and chick embryos: • Provides the first molecular support for the idea that serotonin is utilized as a large-scale left-right patterning mechanism, thus offering new insight into the basis of position of the heart and other asymmetric, visceral organs. • Identifies a possible novel serotonin signaling pathway, providing evidence that serotonin can signal inside the cell. If also found in mammals, such signaling, which may be important in brain functioning, would suggest numerous new roles and possible targets for serotonin-related drugs like the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft) or the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). • Could lead to a greater understanding of potential health risks from drug families that target the serotonin pathway in human patients. • Sheds light on the evolutionary origin of a crucial neurological control system, suggesting that neuronal synapses using serotonin as a neurotransmitter may have arisen through the adaptation of ancient, fundamental cell-cell signals to a new purpose as nervous systems evolved. The team was led by principal investigator Michael Levin, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association.

Blue light suppresses oral pathogens

50443248 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:42:32 -0400

Scientists at the Forsyth Institute have found that blue light can be used to selectively suppress certain bacteria commonly associated with destructive gum disease.

The research, published in the April Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, suggests that light in the blue region of the visible spectrum might be useful in preventing, controlling, or treating periodontitis - an oral infection that can lead to loss of bone and teeth.

Key to dental enamel formation found

50443248 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:59:57 -0400

Scientists at Harvard-affiliated Forsyth Institute have found and replicated a key aspect of the mechanism by which dental enamel is formed.
The findings, published in the Feb. 14 Journal of Structural Biology, may lead, one day, to new, biological methods for repairing teeth and other mineralized tissues as well as to new, very hard ceramic materials.

Lead author Elia Beniash, staff scientist at Forsyth, explains that enamel, the hardest tissue in the human body, is composed mainly of calcium phosphate mineral crystals. "It is well known that enamel's strength and durability derive from the unique way in which those crystals are organized into parallel bundles called 'rods.'

"In the current research, carried out in test tubes, we demonstrated that the protein amelogenin plays a key role in regulating the organization and growth of these crystals and how it works. We also determined that newly forming enamel structure emerges as a result of cooperative interactions between forming crystals and assembling proteins, rather than sequentially, as in the formation of other mineralized tissues such as bone and dentin [the bony material found under enamel, in teeth]." The scientists worked with mouse amelogenin, which is very similar to the form of the protein found in human teeth.

Henry Margolis, chair of the Forsyth Department of Biomineralization and a co-author of the article, said, "The current findings are a crucial step toward understanding the process of enamel formation. We hope this work will one day lead to an ability to repair damaged tooth enamel."

Another long-term goal is the development of biomimetic, nanostructured materials with properties similar to those of dental enamel. Biomimetic materials or devices are those whose design, organization, and functional properties are modeled on biological systems. Nanostructured materials are those in which the organization is regulated at the submicron level during fabrication. "Such advances will rely on future collaborative studies involving chemists, biophysicists, biologists, and materials scientists," Margolis said.

In addition to his Forsyth appointment, Margolis is associate professor in the Department of Oral and Developmental Biology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. The team also included James P. Simmer, associate professor of biologic and materials sciences in the Division of Prosthodontics at the University of Michigan. The research was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and through support provided by The Forsyth Institute.

Scorpion venom blocks bone loss

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:33:30 -0400

Rats given kalitoxin, from scorpion venom, enjoyed 84 percent less jawbone loss than those that didn't get the injections. "We are very excited because this is the first demonstration that this type of compound may be useful in treating periodontal disease," says Martin Taubman, Harvard professor of oral and developmental biology who chairs the Department of Immunology at the Forsyth Institute. "We hope that our findings will lead to success in alleviating the bone-ravaging effects of many other diseases." Good candidates include rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. According to researcher Paloma Valverde, who had the original idea for the experiment, kalitoxin blocks Kv1.3, a protein that plays a major role in inflammation. When Kv1.3 is blocked, it decreases the activity of another protein that plays a key role in stimulating bone-eating cells known as osteoclasts. "This is the first study we know of to show that such a blocker can decrease alveolar (jaw) bone loss," Valverde notes. "Furthermore, we observed no toxic side effects. Therefore, we now have a novel and apparently safe strategy to ameliorate bone destruction associated with periodontal disease." Before experiments with humans begin, however, there will need to be toxicology tests. The rats came out fine, but the venom ingredient must be tested for safety in people.

Is your heart in the right place?

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:32:57 -0400

In a frog, the position of the heart is determined within the first hour in the womb, Harvard scientists have discovered. Researchers all over the world believe that frogs and humans develop in a similar way. Experiments show, for example, that some of the same mechanisms put the hearts of both creatures on the left side. The proteins responsible for shifting around a frog embryo's heart, gut, gall bladder, and other organs are also found in abundance in human embryos. "Our research shows the same protein family, known as 14-3-3, plays important roles across the three kingdoms of living things, fungi, plants, and animals," says Michael Levin, a biologist at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Forsyth Institute in Boston. "Our latest findings provide strong evidence that the determination of right-left asymmetry in vertebrates, possibly including humans, occurs at a much earlier time than previously believed." Levin and two colleagues from the Netherlands described their newest experiments in the Oct. 20, 2003 issue of the journal Development.

Regrowing missing teeth may someday be possibility

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:51 -0400

Regrowing missing teeth may someday be a possibility, based on work by a team of scientists at the Forsyth Institute, an independent, Harvard-affiliated research organization specializing in oral and craniofacial biology. Pamela Yelick, an assistant staff member at the Forsyth Institute and an instructor in oral and developmental biology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, says that the research she and her colleagues have carried out should result in a clinical product in about 15 years. "Or maybe sooner. That's probably a pretty conservative estimate," Yelick said. The successful tissue engineering experiment was reported in an article by Yelick and her colleagues in the Oct. 1, 2002, issue of the Journal of Dental Research.

How your heart got where it is

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:24:06 -0400

A team of scientists at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and The Forsyth Institute in Boston believes it has found the answer to how bodily organs are formed. And it's electrifying. "All living things generate all sorts of electric fields inside themselves," explains Michael Levin, an assistant professor at the Dental School and a researcher at The Forsyth Institute. "That's part of life. We have discovered a whole new role for these fields, not expected or explored before. We've found that they control the geometric arrangement, the shape, of visceral organs such as the heart, stomach, liver, spleen, and probably the brain." The researchers have also identified the genes that hold the blueprints of this organ geometry.

Mammalian teeth regrown in lab

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:24:27 -0400

A study involved seeding cells from the immature teeth of six-month old pigs onto biodegradable polymer scaffolds. The researchers then placed these structures into rat hosts. Within 30 weeks, small, recognizable tooth crowns had formed. These contained dentin; odontoblasts, cells that secrete dentin-forming protein; a well-defined pulp chamber; Hertwig's root sheath epithelia; cementoblasts, which form a mineralized tissue that covers the roots; and a morphologically correct enamel organ. The results, demonstrated in some two dozen experiments, represent the first successful generation of mature tooth crowns containing both dentin and enamel. They also suggest that it may be possible to grow teeth of a particular size and shape, according to principal investigator Pamela Yelick, Harvard School of Dental Medicine instructor in oral and developmental biology at the Forsyth Institute and an assistant member of the Forsyth staff. The research was reported in the Oct. 1, 2002, Journal of Dental Research.