Honoring Max Essex – Dinner Slideshow
Honoring Max Essex – Symposium Slideshow
Curiosity Saved the Cats
The untold story of how Max Essex, some cat ladies, and a small team of researchers saved the lives of millions of felines—and helped identify the cause of AIDS. By Genevieve Rajewski In the 1970s, a little-understood virus was the number one killer of cats in the United States. So little was known about it that, in 1970, when an elderly woman first started bringing cats sick with cancer to…
Consider the Lab Notebook
“Good science requires good record keeping.”¹ The laboratory notebook has changed little over hundreds of years. Part journal, part scrapbook, it is a record of both what a researcher thinks and what she does. It documents her day-to-day hypotheses, experiments, observations, analyses, and conclusions. Think of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches of a flying machine or Darwin’s detailed field notes from his voyage on the Beagle. In today’s modern laboratories, researchers use the…
A Better Test for Zika
Wei-Kung Wang’s Work on Flaviviruses By Martha Henry Timing is everything. Dr. Wei-Kung Wang returned to Harvard in early March, just as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Zika outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Aldatu Licenses Technology from Harvard
One Step Closer to Affordable HIV Drug–Resistance Test By Martha Henry Harvard recently entered into a licensing agreement with Aldatu Biosciences for exclusive use of the PANDAA technology. Using PANDAA, Aldatu, a biotech start-up based at LabCentral in Cambridge, is developing a rapid HIV drug-resistance test for patients failing first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Florence Revisited: America’s History of HIV Travel Restrictions
By Martha Henry Over 18,000 people met in Durban, South Africa this July for the 21st International AIDS Conference. We look back to a time 25 years ago, when protesters at the 1991 meeting threatened a boycott because of severe U.S. restrictions for HIV-positive travelers. The mood in Florence was combative. It was June 1991. Scientists, activists and reporters had gathered in Italy to share the latest findings at the International AIDS Conference.…
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Jonathan You: Health Justice and the Importance of Being Heard
By Martha Henry Teenagers aren’t generally known for their self-awareness and commitment to service. Jonathan You is an exception. The nineteen-year-old rising junior at Harvard is majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Global Health and Health Policy. “My academic interest in global health was sparked by Case Studies in Global Health: Biosocial Perspectives, a class that provided me with novel viewpoints on healthcare inequity and social medicine,”…
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Botswana Leads in HIV Treatment
By Martha Henry Billions of dollars are spent every year on HIV/AIDS treatment programs. But how well are they working? In the African country of Botswana, where 25% of adults (aged 16-49) are HIV positive, the answer is extremely well. In a recent paper in The Lancet HIV, researchers showed that Botswana is close to reaching the ambitious UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals.
The Blood in the Freezer
By Martha Henry One tiny vial of blood contains a remarkable amount of genetic information about both the person from whom it was drawn and infectious agents like HIV circulating at the time of the needle prick. Because HIV mutates so quickly, having access to lots of samples to study is a valuable resource. “It’s a diamond for science,” said Sikhulile Moyo, Laboratory Manager at the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute…