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Feng Zhang, a core institute member of the ӳý, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and W. M. Keck Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, has been named a recipient of the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award — Canada’s most prestigious scientific prize — for his role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system.

led by Francisco Quintana of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the ӳý used zebrafish as a model to examine T-cell receptors (TCRs) and their response to foreign and native antigens. The team found that a general pool of “public” TCRs capable of dealing with diverse antigen threats dominate the T-cell response in zebrafish. It’s possible that these TCR “first-responders” buy time, giving the immune system a short window during which it can develop more specialized, “private” TCRs. 

ӳý-led team reveals new genetic findings that link major pathway for triglyceride metabolism to risk of coronary artery disease

For decades, scientists have searched for the biological roots of coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common form of heart disease and the leading cause of death in the United States. LDL, a type of fat in the blood, emerged early on as a key player — high levels raise the risk of CAD and heart attack. Based on these insights, LDL-lowering drugs were first introduced in the late 1980’s and are now a staple of modern medicine.

Recent evidence has suggested that interaction with RNA can regulate the activity and localization of chromatin-associated proteins, but it’s not known whether this is a widespread mechanism underlying chromatin states and gene regulation. As part of the initiative, researchers from Harvard University and the ӳý used a scalable protocol for cataloguing RNA–protein interactions—including those on and around chromatin—to uncover many examples of RNA binding that suggest that RNA does indeed play an important roles in creating and/or maintaining chromatin states. The data provide a powerful, novel resource that can help dissect the interplay of RNA and epigenetic regulation across diverse chromatin regulatory complexes.