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NEWS ARCHIVE: 2008 |
| 12/12/2008 |
Just as dinner party guests who linger at the table long after coffee and dessert can strain the patience of their hosts, an over-extended stay at the replication fork by certain DNA polymerases can have deleterious consequences for their host, the cell. During DNA replication, the vast majority of the chromosome is replicated by the so-called "replicative" polymerases, pols delta and epsilon. These enzymes display both high processivity and high fidelity (one mistake per 100,000 nucleotides synthesized), two characteristics desirable in a polymerase whose job is to duplicate the genome in a timely manner.[more] |
| 12/10/2008 |
All tissues in our bodies require blood vessels for oxygen and nutrients. While all vasculature share certain features, their formation in distinct organ systems occurs by different modes and results in endothelial blood vessels that exhibit properties tailored to the organ’s need. In the brain and spinal cord, which together make up the central nervous system (CNS), the vasculature forms a tight seal generating a physical blood-brain barrier (BBB) quite distinct from the more porous vasculatures permeating other organs .[more] |
| 11/25/08 |
For the fourth year in a row, MCB's Human Resources is Organizing the Annual Toy and Clothing Drive [more] |
| 09/22/08 |
Fifty years ago, Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl – a Caltech grad student and post-doc, respectively – published an experiment in which they proved that DNA replication occurs when each strand copies itself to produce two identical daughter molecules, each a hybrid of old and new. The now-famous experiment was a validation of the double-helix model of DNA, which had been proposed five years before by James Watson and Francis Crick, but was still being hotly debated. Brilliantly conceived and expertly executed, the Meselson-Stahl work has been called “the most beautiful experiment in biology.” [more] |
| 11/19/08 |
The gene expression program in a cell is set in response to the level, timing and combination of hundreds of developmental and environmental stimuli. This precise control depends on a network of signaling pathways, transcription factors (TFs) and gene promoters that work together to not only process the information a cell receives but to create the appropriate output as well. But what do these networks look like and how do they work? [more] |
| 11/14/08 |
For the third year in a row, MCB Building Operations is organizing the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive [more] |
| 10/27/08 |
One of the main challenges in the postgenomic era is to understand how genetic information is translated into quantitative transcriptional output. Transcription factors bind DNA at specific sequence motifs and they bind more strongly to some sites than others. In eukaryotic cells, some binding sites are in nucleosome-free regions and are readily accessible to transcription factors, while some sites are in nucleosomal regions and require energy-driven chromatin remodeling to become accessible. [more] |
| 10/1/08 |
Briana Burton, Philippe Cluzel, Vlad Denic, Daniel Needleman, Sharad Ramanathan. [more] |
| 11/10/08 |
Alexander Rich, M.D., the William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will give the 2008 John T. Edsall Lecture on Thursday, November 13. Dr. Rich’s lecture, ”The Role of Z-DNA Binding Proteins in Infection and Innate Immunity,” will focus on his current research, which involves the biological roles of Z-DNA – also known as “left-handed” DNA – and the proteins that bind to it. [more] |
| 10/10/08 |
The vertebrate limb has been one of the central models for understanding the problem of complex pattern formation. The critical determinant is Sonic hedgehog, a posterior mesenchymal signal that is required for the establishment of the appropriate number and identity of digits. [more] |
| 09/09/08 |
A major outstanding question in neurobiology is how the brain can evolve to perform new computations. For instance, how did binocular brain areas, with access to information from both eyes, emerge from monocular ancestoral homologues primarily connected to one eye? Did these more complex networks arise from the exploitation of preexisting developmental rules or were fundamentally new ones required? [more] |
| 09/11/08 |
Many regions of the brain are organized in such a way that they form an ordered representation of our sensory experiences. Similar physical stimuli –nearby points of light or sounds of similar frequency– are typically represented by physically adjacent neurons. This organization allows many computations in the brain to be performed locally, which reduces the length of required connections as well as the energy needed for communication. [more] |
| 09/15/08 |
In mid-July, Bauer Café regulars might have noticed the threads of unfamiliar conversation in the air. High school biology teachers from Belfast, Maine to Sandwich, Massachusetts gathered over coffee to discuss students, state standards, and school cultures. Mainly, they were there to figure out how best to incorporate exciting new research into basic biology lessons. [more] |
| 06/16/08 |
A lot has changed since microbiologist Richard Losick came to Harvard University as a Junior Fellow in 1968. He is now a renowned Harvard College Professor, and biology has become a much more interdisciplinary field, which affects both Losick's teaching and research.[more] |
| 08/08/08 |
On September 11, 2008, Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Massachusetts 2009 Darwin Bicentennial Project will host “From Darwin to Dover and Beyond: On the Front Lines of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy”. [more] |
| 08/08/08 |
Researchers have long sought a factor that can trigger the brain’s ability to learn – and perhaps recapture the “sponge-like” quality of childhood. In the August 8 issue of the journal Cell, neuroscientists at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard report that they’ve identified such a factor, a protein called Otx 2. [more] |
| 08/07/08 |
The kidney is a remarkable organ. Its actions maintain an appropriate water/salt balance within tissue fluids, remove nitrogenous waste and modify blood composition and blood pressure. The rise in kidney disease, now the third biggest cost within the United States health care sector, makes an understanding of how this organ is built and repaired an urgent priority. [more] |
| 06/27/08 |
Movement plays important fundamental roles in basic chromosomal processes. Motion is most obvious when organized chromosomes congress and segregate at mitosis. However, other types of chromosomal movement occur throughout the cell cycle: disparate chromosomal loci colocalize during DNA replication, [more] |
| 06/25/08 |
The human brain represents approximately 2% of the total body weight, but accounts for about 20% of the energy consumed. Functional hyperemia (local increases in blood flow triggered by neuronal activation) ensures that local brain activity is always matched by an adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients through blood flow. This phenomenon was first described over 100 years ago, but the underlying cellular pathways have largely remained unknown.[more] |
| 06/26/08 |
It is widely assumed that alterations in synaptic connections between nerve cells accounts for the amazing adaptability of our nervous system. These alterations fall into two general categories: first, there are changes in efficacy of synapses that can occur rapidly and reversibly and second, there are changes in the number of synapses that are thought to be long lasting. [more] |
| 06/02/08 |
Two undergraduates working on research projects in MCB laboratories—Katie Rose Clapham, 2008 (Losick lab) and Elisa Zhang, 2008 (Maniatis lab)—were recently awarded Hoopes Prizes for their senior theses. According to the FAS Prizes website, the Hoopes Prize for Excellence in the Work of Undergraduates was established in 1982 from the estate of Thomas Temple Hoopes, 1919, to “grant awards to undergraduates on the basis of outstanding scholarly work or research.” [more] |
| 02/25/08 |
What type of research might appeal to a young scientist whose interests span the elegance of chemistry and the excitement of biology? For Andres Leschziner structural biology was the compelling choice. [more] |
| 05/30/08 |
The Boston Bacterial Meeting (BBM) 2008 will take place on Thursday June 12 and Friday June 13 at the Harvard University Science Center. The meeting will feature ~25 oral presentations and 60+ poster presentations by students and postdocs representing diverse areas of bacterial research, including bacterial cell and molecular biology, development, pathogenesis, ecology, and evolution. [more] |
| 05/29/08 |
Long viewed as straitlaced spinsters, sexless freshwater invertebrate animals known as bdelloid rotifers may actually be far more promiscuous than anyone had imagined: Scientists at Harvard University have found that the genomes of these common creatures are chock-full of DNA from plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals. [more] |
| 05/20/2008 |
As fifteen teenagers from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School shuffled into the Hunter lab's "tea room," their nonchalant demeanors seemed out of place. The students jockeyed for seats next to their friends and plopped themselves unenthusiastically into chairs. But when Hunter post-doc, Jacqueline Brooks, premiered her video-tour of the zebrafish facility, her audience quickly focused. [more] |
| 04/24/2008 |
If stretched end-to-end, the DNA inside a single human cell would measure approximately 2-3 meters. A fiber of this length is physically compacted a million-fold by a hierarchy of packing proteins to fit into the confines of a cell’s nucleus. At the gene level, 150 base pair segments of DNA are compacted by being spooled around protein particles known as nucleosomes. [more] |
| 05/01/2008 |
This year's Prather Lectures will be delivered by Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D.. Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics, Pediatrics, Neurology and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A Pediatric Neurologist, Dr. Zoghbi has discovered the genes mutated in several hereditary neurological diseases. In each case, she has then used her genetic insights as a starting point for elegant cellular and molecular analysis of disease pathogenesis and of normal developmental mechanisms.[more] |
| 03/27/2008 |
A mouse is small, close to the ground. Hawks and cats may attack it from above, but not much comes at it from below. Yet Harvard University researchers have discovered that mice have a remarkable type of nerve cell in the eye, seemingly specialized to tell the animal when objects in its world move upward[more] |
| 04/18/2008 |
On April 24, 2008, Dr. Ruth Lehmann, Professor of Cell Biology and Director of the Skirball Institute at NYU Medical Center will present the 2008 Bloch Lecture. The title of her talk is How Germ Cells Find Their Niche: Stem Cell Migration in Vivo. .[more] |
| 04/10/2008 |
On Saturday, April 5, the Engineering and Physical Biology (EPB) Symposium will be held at the Fairchild Lecture Hall, 7 Divinity Ave. Speakers from several fields – Physics, Engineering, Chemistry and Molecular Biology - will present significant recent findings in the area.[more] |
| 04/07/2008 |
Microbes (including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protests) are ubiquitous on Earth and affect every part of our lives, yet they are mostly invisible. Microbial scientists believe the vast majority of microbes are still unknown to us. On Saturday, April 5, Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative will host the Fifth Annual Microbial Sciences Symposium, an all-day event free and open to the public, to be held in the Science Center on the Cambridge campus. [more] |
| 04/03/2008 |
In a behaving animal, the brain processes information from sensory inputs, and communicates its intentions to muscles via the pattern of activity in descending projection neurons. In vertebrates, these cells transmit their motor command to the local networks of the spinal cord, which in turn initiate and coordinate muscle contraction. [more] |
| 04/02/2008 |
The process of vision begins in the retina. This neuronal network at the back of the eyeball receives incident light and extracts relevant visual information. Nerve cells in the retina then send on this information to different brain regions in the form of electrical pulses ("spikes"). [more] |
| 02/25/08 |
Jean Livet recently received first place the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competetion for his image of a “Brainbow” mouse brain stem. His image depicted different neurons in mouse brain circuits. [more] |
| 01/26/08 |
MCB supports the American Cancer Society's Daffodil Days |
| 01/22/08 |
Modern genetics textbooks highlight the concept of the ‘central dogma’ which states that DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) and that mRNA is subsequently translated into proteins. [more] |
| 01/22/08 |
Genomic DNA is under constant attack by various damaging agents, both endogenous such as reactive oxygen species generated in the cells during metabolism, and exogenous such as UV radiation and carcinogens in our food and environment. [more] |
| 01/22/08 |
Harvard Assistant Professors of Molecular and Cellular Biology Nicole Francis and Nao Uchida were recently honored. [more] |
| 01/22/08 |
Looking back on his career, Venkatesh (Venki) Murthy sees no direct path or single-minded passion. “I find there’s joy on the side roads,” explains the newly tenured Biophysics/Neurobiology Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) department. [more] |
| 1/9/07 |
David Jeruzalmi: Making Strides in Structural Biology
For MCB Associate Professor David Jeruzalmi, the lure of research lies in the minute molecular engines that drive what he calls the "broad strokes" of biology. Most of biology’s big-picture views have been well defined, he says, but they can also be changed by what scientists learn about their internal features. "And that’s what interests me," he says. "I want to understand how the broad strokes can be changed by the details." [more] |
