HarvardScience

NHGRI/NIH awards team $6.5M to advance DNA sequencing using Nanopores

404132862 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:27:03 -0400

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), awarded a $6.5 (over 4 years) grant to a team of Harvard University researchers to further develop electronic sequencing in nanopores. The grant is part of more than $20 million in total funding
given by NHGRI/NIH to spur innovative sequencing technologies inexpensive and efficient enough to sequence a person's DNA as a routine part of biomedical research and health care.

Eli and Edythe L. Broad endow the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT with additional $400 million

404132862 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:12:08 -0400

Los Angeles-based philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad today declared the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT an unprecedented success as an experiment in science and philanthropy, and announced that they have increased their total gift to the Broad by $400 million to $600 million. The $400 million will be an endowment to convert the institute — which was originally launched as a 10-year “venture” experiment — into a permanent biomedical research organization aimed at transforming medicine.

Broad Institute awarded $86 million NIH grant

404132862 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:15:02 -0400

Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have been chosen to receive a six-year, $86M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify and develop molecular tools known as “small molecules," which can probe the proteins, signaling pathways and cellular processes that are crucial to human health and disease.

Value of direct-to-consumer drug advertising oversold, study finds

404132862 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:00:58 -0400

Direct-to-consumer advertising may not be giving big pharma such a big bang for their five billion bucks after all. Despite the billions spent on bringing drug marketing campaigns straight into patients’ living rooms, such strategies have a modest effect at best—and in some cases, no effect at all.

“People tend to think that if direct-to-consumer advertising wasn’t effective, pharma wouldn’t be doing it,” says Harvard Medical School professor Stephen Soumerai, principal investigator on the study. “But as it turns out, decisions to market directly to consumers is based on scant data.”

Samuel Kou appointed professor of statistics

404132862 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:58:46 -0400

Samuel Kou, whose modeling of nanoscale processes within molecules has opened up important new frontiers at the intersection of statistics and chemistry, has been appointed professor of statistics in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2008.

Kou, 33, was previously John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard, where he has been on the faculty since 2001.

Leon Eisenberg to receive Juan Jose Lopes Ibor Award

404132862 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:19:55 -0400

Professor Leon Eisenberg, MD, will receive the Juan José López Ibor Award from the World Psychiatric Association on September 23, 2008, in Prague, Czech Republic. The Award, named after Juan José López Ibor - one of the most important leaders of the world psychiatry in the second half of the 20th Century - was created by The Juan José López-Ibor Foundation in order to recognize and honour individuals or institutions that made significant scientific contributions leading to a better understanding of psychiatric diseases while being actively engaged in activities enhancing the human dignity of patients and their families.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers turn one form of adult mouse cell directly into another

404132862 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:40:13 -0400

In a feat of biological prestidigitation likely to turn the field of regenerative medicine on its head, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) co-director Doug Melton and post doctoral fellow Qiao "Joe" Zhou report having achieved what has long been a dream and ultimate goal of developmental biologists – directly turning one type of fully formed adult cell into another type of adult cell.

Driven:

404132862 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:29:50 -0400

When the baby vomited again, Gail Melton knew something was seriously wrong with her second child, a son she and her husband, Doug Melton, had named Sam.

Jamaican lizards mark their territory with shows of strength at dusk and dawn

404132862 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:40:48 -0400

What does ageless fitness guru Jack LaLanne have in common with a Jamaican lizard?

Like LaLanne, the lizards greet each day with vigorous push-ups. That's according to a new study showing that male Anolis lizards engage in impressive displays of reptilian strength - push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap called a dewlap -- to defend their territory at dawn and dusk.

The lizards are the first animals known to mark dawn and dusk through visual displays, rather than the much better known chirping, tweeting, and other sounding off by birds, frogs, geckos, and primates.

Potential diabetes treatment selectively kills autoimmune cells from human patients; study confirms feasibility of human trials

404132862 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:02:03 -0400

In experiments using blood cells from human patients with diabetes and other autoimmune disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have confirmed the mechanism behind a potential new therapy for type 1 diabetes. A team led by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory, showed that blocking a metabolic pathway regulating the immune system specifically eliminated immune cells that react against a patient’s own tissues.

Joslin study identifies protein that produces ‘good’ fat; finding may lead to ways to treat, prevent obesity

404132862 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:01:29 -0400

A study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has shown that a protein known for its role in inducing bone growth can also help promote the development of brown fat, a “good” fat that helps in the expenditure of energy and plays a role in fighting obesity.

“Obesity is occurring at epidemic rates in the U.S. and worldwide and that impacts the risk and prognosis of many diseases,” said Yu-Hua Tseng, Ph.D. an Assistant Investigator in the Joslin Section on Obesity and Hormone Action and lead author of the paper published in the August 21 issue of Nature. “We hope this study can be translated into applications to help treat or prevent obesity.”

Bone marrow stem cells may help control inflammatory bowel disease

404132862 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:37:21 -0400

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School investigators have found that infusions of a particular bone marrow stem cell appeared to protect gastrointestinal tissue from autoimmune attack in a mouse model. In their report published in the journal Stem Cells, the team from the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine report that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), known to control several immune system activities, allowed the regeneration of the gastrointestinal lining in mice with a genetic mutation leading

Five faculty members named young innovators by Technology Review

404132862 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:24:12 -0400

Work on flying robots, surgical tape modeled on gecko feet, energy tips gleaned from plants, new ways to grow stem cells, and dramatically smaller medical imaging equipment has landed five Harvard faculty members on a list of the world’s top 35 young innovators.

The annual list is compiled by Technology Review magazine and features what the editors and a panel of judges see as the 35 top innovators in business and technology who are under the age of 35.

Researchers find sleep selectively preserves emotional memories

404132862 — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:45:07 -0400

As poets, songwriters and authors have described, our memories range from misty water-colored recollections to vividly detailed images of the times of our lives.

Now, a study led by Harvard researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston College offers new insights into the specific components of emotional memories, suggesting that sleep plays a key role in determining what we remember – and what we forget.

Center on the Developing Child names Richmond Fellows

404132862 — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:57:12 -0400

To support its goal of creating a new generation of leaders who have a broad perspective on the promotion of healthy child development and who recognize the need to bring strong scientific knowledge to bear on policies and programs that support the well-being of children, the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University today announced the recipients of its annual Julius B. Richmond Fellowships.

This school year, the Center will award Richmond Fellowships to support the research of four Harvard University doctoral students: David Deming, Deborah Stone, Malavika Subramanyam, and Adrienne Tierney.

New study outlines formula for effective community partnerships with a lens on mental health of students in urban schools

404132862 — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:05:08 -0400

Addressing and improving mental health outcomes for students is a particularly complex issue in urban public schools. Proposed solutions to critical situations are usually prepackaged suggestions from research conducted outside of the communities seeking help.

A new study approaches community partnerships and their ability to problem-solve in-depth right in their own backyards. In an article published this month in the Journal of Community Psychology, a community-based research group composed of a child psychiatrist, two researchers, and a school principal analyze the key principles to establish successful partnerships and build an alliance for educational systemic change.

Daley and colleagues create 20 disease-specific stem cell lines

404132862 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:48:17 -0400

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher George Q.

Women in India Abused by Husbands at Far Greater Risk for HIV Infection

404132862 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:55:57 -0400

In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that married Indian women who experienced physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their husbands were approximately four times more likely to become infected with HIV than married women who were not abused. This first large-scale, national study to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) against wives and clinically verified HIV infection appears in the Aug. 13 issue of JAMA.

A rare glimpse of schizophrenia's genetic roots

404132862 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:19:40 -0400

The delusions and hallucinations of schizophrenia can be devastating for the 1% of the population struck by the disease. The condition clearly has a genetic component, evidenced by its tendency to run in families. However, the search for specific genes or chromosomal regions involved has led to few reproducible findings.

Microsoft gives Partners grant for diabetes home-health program

404132862 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:40:11 -0400

The Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, one of the nation’s leading integrated health care delivery systems, received funding from the Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund to develop a home-based glucose monitoring system for patients with diabetes. This new initiative, Diabetes Connected Health, will use available online technology to expand patient knowledge and support patient-physician communication to improve diabetes management and treatment outcomes. The Center for Connected Health is one of 15 request for proposal recipients of the Be Well Fund, selected from nearly 200 proposals submitted.