Sackler School in the News

7.14.08: The 2008 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented to Ekaterina Heldwein, Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. Sponsored by the ASM, this award recognizes early career scientists for excellence in research in microbiology and infectious diseases. >> Full story

6.17.08: The APCs of Nerve Cell Function: Best known for its role in colorectal cancer, the protein adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) has recently been found to play an essential role in the nervous system. This new study provides novel insights into the molecular basis of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, mental retardation, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorders...
>> Full story

6.14.08: Cell Surface Receptors Are All “Talk” in T Cell Stimulation
Using imaging techniques, researchers have revealed the dynamic processes that allow receptors to communicate with one another to stimulate the immune system. By understanding this “crosstalk” researchers expect to gain insights into autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
>> Full story

6.11.08: Need microRNA processing? Get Smad
Researchers at Tufts Sackler School and Tufts Medical Center have found that Smad proteins regulate microRNA (miRNA) processing. Understanding the role of Smad proteins enables researchers to investigate abnormal miRNA processing which is a contributing factor in development of cardiovascular disorders and cancer. The study was published online today in Nature.>> Full story

03.13.08: STOPPING UNWANTED CELL DEATH: IMPLICATIONS FOR DRUG DISCOVERY: Kinase Identified as Cellular Target for Inhibiting Necrosis in Disease
Research published in Nature Chemical Biology reveals that three specific inhibitors of a cell death pathway, termed necroptosis, all target and inhibit RIP1 kinase, a protein that can direct cells into necrosis."Our research found that RIP1 kinase can be inhibited by three small molecules: necrostatin-1, -3 and -5," reports first author Alexei Degterev, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences...>> Full story

01.03.08: Revolutionary Parasite Theory
"What if I told you," Joel Weinstock said, "there were countries where the doctors had never seen hay fever?" It is another piece of evidence, another "aha" moment in the global medical mystery that Weinstock - the chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center - has narrowed down to one chief suspect: the worms... >> Full story

11.28.07: DARWIN’S SURPRISE:
Why are evolutionary biologists bringing back extinct deadly viruses?
The Sackler School's John Coffin, Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, was recently interviewed on the new science of paleovirology and the "long evolutionary embrace of man and virus" on WBUR. Dr. Coffin, who admits that "the idea of bringing something dead back to life is fundamentally frightening," also appears in the December 3rd issue of The New Yorker, where he discusses his research on the role of endogenous retroviruses in human evolution.

>> Listen to the WBUR On Point interview, aired Wednesday, November 28, 2007

>> Read the "Darwin's Surprise" article in The New Yorker, November 29, 2007

10.29.07: Collaborating for the Cure
Tufts' Charlotte Kuperwasser and Michael Rosenblatt first met six years ago at the world-renowned Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. She was a 20-something postdoctoral researcher who had just finished up her Ph.D. He was an accomplished scientist on sabbatical from Harvard Medical School. The pair, each with an interest in cancer metastasis, made an instant connection... >> Full story

09.18.07: Sackler School Researcher Named New Innovator by NIH Director for Groundbreaking Work in Infectious Diseases
Ekaterina Heldwein, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular biology at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University in Boston, has been named one of 29 recipients of the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award. Heldwein is using structural and biophysical approaches to discover how, in atomic-level detail, herpesviruses enter host cells... >> Full article

08.01.2007: Glia Got Rhythm, article on new study by Sackler Neuroscience team, appears in Neuron
Previous studies suggest that glia may be required for normal circadian behavior, but glial factors required for rhythmicity have not been identified in any system. F. Rob Jackson and Joowoon Suh show here that a circadian rhythm in Drosophila Ebony (N-β-alanyl-biogenic amine synthetase) abundance can be visualized in adult glia and... >> Summary

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