All articles


  • Campus & Community

    A new way to identify cancers is found

    Scientists are surprised and delighted that a recently discovered group of small molecules show an unexpected potential for easily distinguishing healthy cells from tumors and one type of cancer from others. These molecules, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), provide fingerprints that may enable doctors to quickly and inexpensively diagnose any type of cancer. When miRNAs are…

  • Science & Tech

    Judah M. Folkman, MD

    In the early 1970s Folkman refined his theory that tumors have the capability to grow their own blood vessels, thereby obtaining the nourishment they need to keep growing in a body. Folkman never quit thinking about why this happens and how he might use that information to treat cancer patients.

  • Health

    Higher levels of systemic inflammatory markers associated with progression of AMD

    Researchers led by Johanna M. Seddon, M.D., at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, conducted a prospective longitudinal study to examine several biomarkers for cardiovascular disease, including CRP and IL-6, to measure the relationship between these biomarkers and incidence rates of progression of AMD. They found…

  • Health

    Studies chip away at sex hormone roles in prostate and breast cancers

    In recent work, Myles Brown and colleagues combined chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChiP) assays with measures of DNA structure and large-scale gene chip analyses to study where, when, and how androgen and estrogen receptors attach to DNA and control gene transcription. Their results should lead to new ways of manipulating receptor activity and shutting down cancer genes…

  • Health

    Fetal-cell transplants reverse Parkinson’s in two patients

    The two patients were part of a small exploratory study in Halifax. In the study, the cells were bathed in the trophic factor GDNF before being implanted into the striatum, the target of dopamine-producing cells. One patient also had cells implanted into the substantia nigra, the origin of the dopamine neurons involved in Parkinson’s. The…

  • Health

    Gene clue to brain asymmetry revealed on right side

    Although many assumed that the asymmetry-producing genes, when found, would be more highly expressed on the left side of the brain than the right, Sun Tao, Christopher A. Walsh, and their colleagues found otherwise. One gene, LMO4, that showed the most consistent difference was much more highly expressed on the right. The researchers found that…

  • Health

    Disease mutation tracked down, ending ‘curse’ for Colombian families

    Three years later, Joseph Arboleda-Velasquez, an HMS graduate student who led the scientific team that identified the mutations, and his collaborators have worked out an early step in the events leading from the mutated gene to the disease phenotype. The findings were published online April 27, 2005 in Human Molecular Genetics. The new paper may…

  • Campus & Community

    Radcliffe names 2005-06 fellows

    Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Lincoln Professor of History, has announced the names of 51 women and men selected as 2005 – 06 Radcliffe Institute fellows. While at the institute, the fellows – among them creative artists, humanists, social scientists, and scientists working on projects ranging from cancer…

  • Campus & Community

    CES lists grants, fellowships, internships

    The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) has announced its student grants and internships for the 2005-06 academic year. The center will support the projects of 52 undergraduate and graduate students with awards that total more than $320,000. In addition to funding research conducted abroad, CES has been working with Harvard alumni clubs…

  • Campus & Community

    Pets and song as therapy

    Michelle Whites love of animals has shown her a way to reach out to others and is leading to a possible lifetimes work as a veterinarian.

  • Campus & Community

    Who is Tumi Makgetla?

    Having an identity crisis is not uncommon for college students. Who am I? Where do I belong? What is my purpose in life? These are questions that haunt many a young person preparing for the plunge into adulthood.

  • Campus & Community

    Oarsman welcomes rough waters

    Aaron Holzapfel looks about as youd imagine the captain of Harvards championship heavyweight crew would look – 6 foot 3, 220 pounds, with a trim beard and longish, wavy blond hair.

  • Campus & Community

    Fledgling orators launch on rhetorical flights

    Nobodys perfect, not even Harvard students, Alicia Menendez 05 will tell graduates and their families today.

  • Campus & Community

    The long view: 50 years from Harvard

    Harvard alumni celebrating their 50th reunion have been out of school more than twice as long as most graduating seniors have been alive. What have they learned in all that time? What do they remember of their student days? How does life look from the perspective of 50 years out? We talked to some members…

  • Campus & Community

    Women of achievement honored at Radcliffe

    The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University will honor, among others, writer and editor Ann Fadiman 75, pianist Ursula Oppens 65, and biologist Susan Lindquist Ph.D. 76 at its annual Radcliffe Day celebration on Friday (June 10). The awards will be presented and the recipients will speak at the Radcliffe Awards Symposium, Discovering…

  • Campus & Community

    Museums seek docents for training

    Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) is currently seeking volunteers interested in public art education for its museum docent program. The program consists of approximately 35 volunteer guides who give tours of the Fogg Art Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

  • Campus & Community

    Certificates awarded by South Africa Fellowship Program

    Professor Felton Earls, director of the Harvard South African Fellowship Program, recently awarded special certificates signed by President Lawrence H. Summers to eight South African Fellows who studied in various programs throughout the University this past year. The Harvard South African Fellowship Program is funded by the Presidents Office and the individual Schools that the…

  • Campus & Community

    Soldiers Field

    …in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing….

  • Campus & Community

    In brief

    PBHA and Class of ’55 fete 100 years of service More than 100 members from the Class of 1955 kicked off their 50th reunion at a June 5 dinner reception in celebration of the centennial of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). As part of PBHA’s Centennial Campaign, the Class of 1955 has raised over…

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard Business School dean to step down, move on

    Harvard Business School Dean Kim B. Clark announced Monday (June 6) that he will step down on July 31, in order to accept the role of president of Brigham Young University, Idaho, shortly thereafter. Clark was named dean of Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1995 he is the eighth dean in the Schools 97-year history.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard awards 8 honorary degrees

    Mary Ellen Avery Doctor of Science Mary Ellen Avery, recipient of an honorary doctor of science degree, received the National Medal of Science in 1991 for her discovery of the cause of respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants and in devising a strategy to prevent and treat the ailment. Since 1996, Avery has been the…

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending June 6. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • Campus & Community

    A year of action, achievement, discovery

    So much happens at Harvard University during the year, its quite a task to winnow all thats worth noting into a two-page summary.

  • Campus & Community

    Extension School students and faculty are honored with prizes for outstanding work

    This year, the Harvard University Extension Schools Commencement Speaker Award will go to Monica Antoinette Brooker A.L.B., cum laude. Brooker will speak on the topic Commencement as Perfection this afternoon (June 9).

  • Campus & Community

    354th Commencement: Harvard confers 6,580 degrees and 224 certificates

    Today the University awarded a total of 6,580 degrees and 224 certificates. A breakdown of the degrees by schools and programs follows. Harvard College granted a total of 1,590 degrees.

  • Campus & Community

    Two win Fisher Prize in GIS User’s Group

    The committee of the Howard T. Fisher Prize in Geographical Information Science (GIS) at Harvard has announced the recipients of the award for the 2004-05 academic year.

  • Campus & Community

    Davis Center names 2005-06 award winners

    Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies has announced the recipients of its 2005-06 fellowships, prizes, research travel grants, and internships. A total of eight postdoctoral and senior fellowships have been awarded for research at Harvard in the humanities and social sciences on Russia and the Soviet successor states. The recipients, including their affiliations and…

  • Campus & Community

    Area educators receive Conant Fellowships

    The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) recently presented five outstanding educators in the Boston and Cambridge public school systems with James Bryant Conant Fellowships. The awards, which were given by HGSE Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tom Payzant, and Cambridge Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn, provide a one-year stipend for study…

  • Campus & Community

    African Studies awards summer research grants

    The Harvard Committee on African Studies has awarded 11 research grants for undergraduate and graduate students to travel to sub-Saharan Africa during the summer of 2005.