Gazette Stories of Note

A new platform for discovering antibiotics

A new platform for discovering antibiotics

May 20, 2016

Harvard researchers have created a greatly simplified platform for discovering antibiotics that may help solve the rising crisis of resistance to such helpful drugs.

In a study just published in the journal Nature, Andrew G. Myers and colleagues describe “a platform where we assemble eight (chemical) building blocks by a simple process to make macrolide antibiotics” without using...

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RoboBees can perch to save energy

RoboBees can perch to save energy

May 19, 2016

Call them the RoboBats. In a recent article in Science, Harvard roboticists demonstrate that their flying microrobots, nicknamed the RoboBees, can now perch during flight to save energy — like bats, birds, or butterflies.

“Many applications for small drones require them to stay in the air for extended periods,” said Moritz Graule, first author of the paper, who conducted this research as a student at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of...

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Harvard licenses genotyping platform

Harvard licenses genotyping platform

May 19, 2016

Harvard University has granted a license to Aldatu Biosciences Inc., an early-stage diagnostics development company, for a novel qPCR genotyping platform that may help clinicians treating HIV more quickly determine the most effective medication for each patient.

Developed at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the technology addresses the profound challenge of drug resistance among HIV-infected patients in resource-poor areas.

While potent antiretroviral (ARV)...

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The eyes tell

The eyes tell

May 17, 2016

Walking through Harvard Yard, you see it every day — one person stops to look skyward, perhaps trying to catch a glimpse of the hawks that call the area home, and soon most passersby are stopping to look in the same direction.

It’s a phenomenon known as “gaze-following,” and although it’s been demonstrated in dozens of species, researchers have theorized that it may develop in a unique way in humans, because it plays a critical role in learning and socialization.

A new study, however, shows that gaze-following in monkeys develops in a way that’s nearly...

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Printing metal in midair

Printing metal in midair

May 16, 2016

“Flat” and “rigid” are terms typically used to describe electronic devices. But the increasing demand for flexible, wearable electronics, sensors, antennas, and biomedical devices has led a research team to innovate an eye-popping way of printing complex metallic architectures as though seemingly suspended in midair.

The work was conducted by researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and will be...

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The high costs of imported pests

The high costs of imported pests

May 11, 2016

A new analysis of the damage done by invasive forest pests shows that homeowners and local governments are being stuck with a $4.5 billion yearly bill for the boring beetles, choking fungi, and rogues’ gallery of other foreign pests that are killing millions of trees across the country.

The analysis, created by 16 researchers from nine sources, including the Harvard Forest, says the problem is an unintended byproduct of international trade and recommends shifting the burden of finding a solution onto the...

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Gut-brain connection moves into MS territory

Gut-brain connection moves into MS territory

May 9, 2016

A team of investigators at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has found evidence that suggests that bacteria living in the gut may remotely influence the activity of cells in the brain that are involved in controlling inflammation and neurodegeneration.

“For the first time, we’ve been able to identify that food has some sort of remote control over central nervous system inflammation,” said Francisco Quintana, an investigator in the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at BWH and corresponding author on the...

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