From his days in graduate school, through his postdoctoral fellowship, and now as a Harvard Stem Cell scientist, John Rinn, PhD, has been digging through the bulk of the human genome, challenging the prevailing belief that the bulk of the genome is biological “junk.” Ever since the Human Genome Project decoded the genome, the prevailing view has been that only the two percent of the genome making proteins, the building blocks of cells, was important. The rest of the genome was deemed not functional, or “junk.” Read more about Unique collaborative effort proves value of some “junk” genes
Harvard stem cell scientists have discovered a new signaling protein critical for embryonic development—the first such finding in more than a decade —by investigating RNAs that biologists hadn’t previously considered as generating proteins.
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have settled a century-old debate over whether occurrence of DNA methylation acts to silence gene expression, or if genes are turned off by other means before they are methylated.
Ten years ago, scientists announced the end of the 
New data showing human embryonic stem cell gene expression and epigenetic activity (e.g., tagging DNA to silence specific genes) reveals that stem cells prepare early to differentiate into their next form. The research, led by HSCI Principal Faculty member 
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have found a link between male infertility and a mutation in a gene critical for sperm production. If the gene, Elongator Protein 1/Inhibitor of KappaB Kinase-associated Protein (Elp1/IKAP), is turned off, male germ cells – which give rise to sperm – encounter errors during division