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Genetics/Epigenetics

HSCI scientists recognized for “High-Risk, High-Reward” research

October 3, 2019

Two HSCI researchers will receive the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award. Jason Buenrostro, Ph.D. and Ryuji Morizane, M.D., Ph.D. have been recognized for their highly innovative biomedical research that has transformative potential.

“Each year, I look forward to seeing the creative approaches these researchers take to solve tough problems in biomedical and behavioral research,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins in the award...

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HSCI-supported research leads to new class of therapeutics

December 13, 2018

Biotech company Moderna, co-founded by HSCI scientist Derrick Rossi, is set to bring a new class of treatments to patients.

Summary

  • Derrick Rossi’s research into using mRNA as a new kind of therapeutic was initially supported by HSCI seed funding, and gave rise to biotech company Moderna Therapeutics.
  • Moderna’s public offering of $600 million is the largest ever of a venture-capital-backed biotechnology company, reflecting the potential of its new technology: mRNA therapeutics
  • Moderna’s success in creating therapies that will benefit patients reflects the crucial role of HSCI in enabling early-stage, high-risk research.

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Reinventing painkillers

November 5, 2018

Clifford Woolf wants to reboot drug discovery to find a new way to treat pain: effectively and responsibly.

  • Woolf’s goal is to stop the opioid crisis by rejecting the conventional approach to drug discovery and developing painkillers that do not harm people or communities. 
  • He is using stem cells to create models of pain, outside the body and in a dish, that can be used to screen for drugs swiftly and on a large scale.
  • The new approach requires ‘all hands’: expertise, equipment, and collaboration in stem...
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Assassinating cancer

November 1, 2018

Mario Suva and Ramesh Shivdasani are tackling some of the toughest, meanest cancers to clear a path to better treatments.

  • Suva and Shivdasani are using every approach in their arsenal to figure out what makes cancer cells arise from healthy tissue.
  • Armed with enough new knowledge about how cancer arises, they want to take truer aim at cancer cells, the cancer cell lineage, and factors that make cells go awry.
  • Their new approach to cancer management would combine gene and cell therapies to kill the cancer...
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Cell therapy for all

November 1, 2018

Chad Cowan is on a quest for the universal donor, which would make cell therapy available to populations – not just individuals.

  • Harvard scientist Chad Cowan aims to make off-the-shelf cellular products, and democratize access to new medicines.
  • His lab is working to make cellular therapies that can work for anyone, not just a single patient. 
  • Their ambitious goal is to modify therapeutic cells that can be transplanted into many people, without being rejected.

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