The Drosophila circadian clock functions within 75 pairs of brain neurons. We are expanding our understanding of their functions, including their sexually dimorphic contributions to behavior, their regulation of sleep and their circuitry. We have also...
Marc W. Kirschner, Ph.D.
John Franklin Enders University Professor
Chair and Professor of Systems Biology
Harvard Medical School
Nuclear and cytoplasmic puncta, including Cajal bodies and various forms or RNA granules, were first observed over a century ago. Evidence will be presented indicating that these and related puncta are organized via the reversible polymerization of low...
Steven Chu
United States Secretary of Energy
Like host cells, some viruses produce noncoding RNAs that contribute to the viral life cycle or help the virus evade the defenses the host organism raises against infection. We have been studying a variety of noncoding RNAs made by gamma herpesviruses, a...
Enzymes are admired for their ability to selectively catalyze myriad transformations. We use laboratory evolution experiments to understand better how evolution modifies existing enzymes and creates new ones. A powerful approach to engineering biological...
Cells are organized on length scales from Angstroms to microns. However, the mechanisms by which Angstrom-scale molecular properties are translated to micron-scale macroscopic properties are not well understood. We have shown that interactions between...
A T cell-mediated immune response is initiated by the T cell receptor (TCR) interacting with peptide-bound MHC (pMHC) on an infected cell. The mechanism by which this interaction triggers intracellular phosphorylation of the TCR, which lacks a kinase...
Pungent irritants from pepper, mint, and mustard plants have served as powerful pharmacological probes for identifying molecules, cells, and circuits that contribute to somatosensation and pain. These natural products elicit pain by targeting members of...
We study the molecular basis of cellular motility, endocytosis and cytokinesis. We use fission yeast for much of this work because they use the same molecular mechanisms at humans, but are much more amenable to experimentation using molecular genetics. We...
The molecular details of biological processes can be most accurately understood by probing biomolecules within their native habitats in cells, or even better, live organisms. To interrogate biomolecules in such complex settings requires the means to...
During the last few decades, scientists have begun to solve one of the greatest puzzles of all time: Why do we age? It turns out that aging, like so much else in biology, is subject to regulation by the genes; in this case, by genes encoding familiar...
