Molecule Makers
A unique chemical library offers new hope for hard-to-treat diseases By Kate Becker and photos by Dan Aguirre. Can a molecule be beautiful? As director of BU’s Center for Molecular Discovery (CMD), John Porco has helped to create some 7,000 new molecules. To a chemist’s eye, their ornate “architecture” makes them beautiful, says Porco. But […]
$1.6 NIH Grant for Pneumonia Research
Medical School professor will study how immunity to the disease develops and how it protects certain people “The goal of this study is to better define the immune mechanisms preventing pneumonia during late childhood and much of adulthood,” says Joseph Mizgerd. Photo by Cydney Scott. Joseph Mizgerd, a professor of medicine, microbiology, and biochemistry at […]
Fighting a Deadly Virus
Hartwell Award to help MED prof explore new ways to tackle RSV Rachel Fearns, a MED associate professor of microbiology and winner of a 2014 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award, studies the molecular mechanisms within RSV, a common virus that is a major cause of pneumonia in infants and young children. Photo (to the left) […]
University Launches Biological Design Center
Chen and Khalil lead synthetic bio team in quest to reengineer building blocks of life to solve societal problems Imagine the state-of-the-art 21st-century life sciences and engineering lab. It would bring together forward-thinking researchers from the hottest fields in bioengineering. These scientists would combine genomic technologies like DNA sequencing and synthesis, 3-D printers, and robots […]
Catching Lung Cancer Early
New test may prevent invasive procedures and save lives Lung cancer is responsible for the most cancer deaths in the United States. According to the National Cancer Institute, it will kill an estimated 158,000 people in 2015, more than breast, prostate, and colon cancer combined. Because lung cancer grows and spreads so quickly, many healthy […]
RNA Rising
Dental school scientist wins $2 million from NIH to study RNA in African sleeping sickness By: Barbara Moran Biologist Inna Afasizheva was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the NIH. Her decades of work have increased our understanding of a process called RNA editing. Photo by Michael D. Spencer. In 1953, James Watson […]
Untangling the Connectome
Narayanan “Bobby” Kasthuri on how our wiring makes us human By: Barbara Moran Bobby Kasthuri needs a map. Not your everyday, get-me-to-Kenmore-Square kind of map. He’s got something else in mind. What Kasthuri needs is a map of all the connections in the human brain—kind of a wiring diagram for neurons. Kasthuri, an assistant professor […]
Preventing an Antibiotic Apocalypse
The business model for drug innovation is broken — universities key to figuring out fixes, says health law prof By: Sara Rimer Kevin Outterson is a leading scholar on the economic and legal global framework needed to combat resistance and keep antibiotics available for future generations. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi. When Kevin Outterson, a professor […]
Beating the Binge
Alzheimer’s drug may reduce urge to eat compulsively BU professors Pietro Cottone and Valentina Sabino hope their research could eventually lead to new treatment for the disorder. Photo by Michael D. Spencer. Binge-eating disorder affects nearly 10 million American adults, by some estimates. It’s a vicious condition in which people repeatedly eat huge amounts of […]
Five BU Medical Campus Faculty Honored by Their Peers
Elected Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Five faculty at the Boston University Medical Campus have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. David Michael Center, BU School of Medicine (MED) professor of medicine and biochemistry and associate provost […]