What separates apes from humans? What causes some people to doubt their own existence? Why can some associate colors with numbers while others associate them with musical notes? Dr. Vilyanur S. Ramachandran seeks to probe the inner workings of the human brain in his new book, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human.
Angelman syndrome (AS) is a severe neurological disorder often involving epilepsy, autistic tendencies, mental retardation and ataxia. The genetic locus of the disorder has been identified as an inability to inherit a functional maternal copy of the gene UBE3A, which encodes for a ubiquitin ligase involved in proteasome-mediated degradation. Here, Zapf and Anderson characterizes the effect of Ube3a on tissue development.
Despite India’s longstanding efforts to combat Iodine Deficiency Disorders through a Universal Salt Iodization program, only 51% of households were using iodized salt in 2005. In order to justify efforts to actively expand the program, it is crucial to establish a causal link between access to iodized salt and child health. This study examined household salt iodine concentration, anthropometric outcomes, and birth histories of over 18,000 children from the 1998 India National Family Health Survey.
Collaborative efforts between the Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Partners HealthCare founded the non-profit institution, the Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI). In this joint venture headquartered near the Boston University campus, industry meets academia to advance clinical research in multiple areas, from medical device trials to quality of life assessments.
The CCR5-∆32 deletion mutation is a naturally-occurring genetic polymorphism that confers strong resistance to HIV-1 infection. I propose the use of chimeric recombinase enzymes as a gene therapy method to safely emulate the natural mutation in CCR5 and therefore confer resistance to HIV-1.
While olfactory receptor neurons’ pre-synaptic activity have been extensively researched in anesthetized mice, little is known about odor-evoked synaptic activity in awake, freely moving animals. This project attempts to address this problem by adapting a fiber optic bundle imaging technique to the olfactory bulb.
A study that explores the effects of differential peptide cleavage on the immune system's response to HIV-1, specifically with respect to clearance of infected CD4+ T-cells.
The cell has developed a number of defenses against DNA damage; human 8-oxoguanine glycosylase 1 (hOGG1) is responsible for the excision of the damaged base oxoguanine (oxoG). In this study, the author presents the first reported structure of hOGG1 containing guanine in a fully wild type active site.
In ophthalmology, accommodation is the act of focusing from distant to near objects. One novel technique in the restoration of accommodation is Phaco-Ersatz, or lens refilling. This paper shows that Phaco-Ersatz is a viable future treatment for presbyopia.
Most genomes are made up of substantial portions of repetitive DNA, such as tandem repeats, sequences which are repeated head-to-tail at one specific locus within the genome. This paper studies tandem repeats and finds that repeats in promoters may allow quick evolution of gene expression levels to changing environments and selective pressures.
