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B60, a new video series appearing on the , is a window into ӳý science and culture. Each 60-second video offers a glimpse into the innovative work taking place at the institute, and the spirit of collaboration and creativity that makes it possible. Watch the series to learn how the ӳý is tackling some of the most ambitious challenges in biomedicine today.

Imagine being asked to copy a library of books. Doing it yourself would take forever. You’d probably call some friends and come up with a plan to divide and conquer.

That’s what a human cell does when faced with the task of replicating six billion letters of DNA each time it divides. Instead of reading each chromosome in one slow pass, DNA replication machinery dives in at many origin points. Some segments get copied earlier or later than others.

By combing through the DNA of more than 100,000 people, researchers at ӳý, Massachusetts General Hospital, and elsewhere have identified rare, protective genetic mutations that lower the levels of LDL cholesterol — the so-called “bad” cholesterol — in the blood. The researchers’ findings, which appear online November 12 in the reveal that these naturally occurring mutations also reduce a person’s risk of coronary heart disease by about 50 percent. Remarkably, the mutations disrupt a gene called Niemann-Pick C1-Like 1 (NPC1L1) — the molecular target of the FDA-approved drug ezetimibe, often used as a treatment for high LDL.