Genetic engineering pioneer Kevin Esvelt’s work highlights biotechnology’s immense potential for good—but also for catastrophe.

With the help of directed evolution, scientists inch closer to developing viral vectors that can cross the human blood-brain barrier to deliver gene therapy.

The widespread bacteria known to manipulate host reproductive output can do so by ramping up stem cell division and consequent egg production in Drosophila.

Different mechanisms repress mobile DNA elements in human embryonic stem cells depending on the elements’ evolutionary ages.

Scientists around the world investigate how bat immune systems cope with viral attacks and how this information could be used to keep humans safe.

A flood of new discoveries has refined our definition of cancer stem cells. Now it’s up to human clinical trials to test if they can make a difference in patients.

p53 is possibly the most important protein for maintaining cellular function. Losing it is synonymous with cancer.

Stem cells in culture; engineered cancer biomarkers; small molecule improves stem cell homing; reproducible bacterial evolution; how human adaptive immunity develops

At Harvard, biology is an endangered species. Next fall's wide-eyed freshmen will have to head down the street to Massachusetts Institute of Technology if they want to concentrate (Harvard-speak for major) in the subject, because it will no longer be offered in Harvard Square. This change was puzzling to my editor, who concentrated in biology at Harvard, and to me, a 2005 graduate with a degree in biochemistry. So I consulted Robert Lue, my former advisor and cochair

By Bob Grant Should Evolutionary Theory Evolve? Some biologists are calling for a rethink of the rules of evolution. Evolution, by its very nature, is a dynamic process. But just as fluid are humankind’s efforts to understand, describe, and conceptualize that process. Out went Lamarck, in came Darwin. Mendel’s insights set the rules for genetic inheritance, then certain exceptions to Mendel’s rules materialized. So forth