News and insights

Subscribe to our newsletter

Imagine the sample you want to study consists of dried blood on filter paper stored for more than a year at room temperature in Senegal. Keep in mind that what you’re looking for – DNA of the one-celled parasite that causes malaria – typically amounts to 1 percent of the genetic material you have in hand, outnumbered by human DNA that makes up the other 99 percent of that blood spot.

Steven E. Hyman is intent on reinventing himself in a place that welcomes creativity.

Former provost of Harvard University and before that, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Harvard University professor of stem cell and regenerative biology began a one-year sabbatical at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ in July. He is a at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research within the Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Psychiatric Disease Program.

Usually, I'm disappointed when I email someone and immediately get an out-of-office message back, but this reply, from Harvard professor , made my day:

"I'm wrangling lizards in Ecuador. In the mountains, where it's cool. Back in my office August 24. If you don't hear from me by then, you might try me again."

The green anole lizard is an agile and active creature, and so are elements of its genome. This genomic agility and other new clues have emerged from the full sequencing of the lizard’s genome and may offer insights into how the genomes of humans, mammals, and their reptilian counterparts have evolved since mammals and reptiles parted ways 320 million years ago. The researchers who completed this sequencing project reported their findings August 31 online in the journal Nature.