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 cells scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MIT can now engineer cells that are more easily controlled following transplantation, potentially making cell therapies, hundreds of which are currently in clinical trials across the United States, more functional and efficient.... Read more about Harvard scientists control cells following transplantation, from the inside out

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.

The protein, named Toddler by Harvard Stem Cell Institute...

Harvard stem cell scientists have a new tool to see how nimble cells are in response to changes in their environment. Rather than looking at the proteins that cells actively make, the researchers surveyed the proteins that cells choose to destroy. This investigation in cell behavior, by...