Graduate News

Lydia Krasilnikova by Harvard Horizons

Lydia Krasilnikova talks at the 2023 Harvard Horizons Symposium

April 11, 2023

PhD candidate Lydia Krasilnikova (Pardis Sabeti, Advisor) was on one of nine featured Harvard Horizon Scholars to speak at the Havard Horizons Symposium on April 11th in Sanders Theatre. Lydia's talk, "Tracing COVID-19 Outbreaks to learn about the Effect of Vaccination and Boosting on Risk of Infection and Transmission," addresses her dissertation work in the Sabeti lab.

Scholars have been...

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C. elegan hermaphrodite. Credit: Bob Goldstein, UNC Chapel Hill

Pathogen bacteria modulates host pheromone response in order to promote mating

January 5, 2023

Exposure to pathogens and parasites often changes social behavior of the host animals, including humans. These changes immediately affect the resistance of the hosts and contribute to the long-term adaptation to the pathogens. However, the conduit from pathogen exposure to host social behavior is largely unknown. In a new study in Nature researchers in Professor Yun Zhang's lab discover a biological pathway through which Caenorhabditis...

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Hofstenia miamia, three-banded panther worms by Mansi Srivastava and Kathleen Mazza-Curll

Researchers discover embryonic origins of adult pluripotent stem cells

December 8, 2022

Stem cells are a biological wonder. They can repair, restore, replace, and regenerate cells. In most animals and humans these cells are limited to regenerating only the cell type they are assigned to. So, hair stem cells will only make hair. Intestine stem cells will only make intestines. But, many distantly-related invertebrates have stem cell populations that are pluripotent in adult animals, which means they can regenerate virtually any missing cell type, a process called whole-body regeneration.

Even though these adult pluripotent stem cells (aPSCs) are found in many...

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Intact soil cores were incubated in centrifuge tubes (blue caps) with artificial roots connected to a manual pump system delivering different exudate solutions to each core. Nikhil Chari

Researchers discover root exudates have surprising and counterintuitive impact on soil carbon storage

November 28, 2022

Ecosystem ecology studies often focus on what’s happening to plants above ground, for instance exploring photosynthesis or water loss in leaves. But what is happening below the ground in plant roots is equally important when evaluating ecosystem processes.

In a new study in Nature Geoscience researchers in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University examined root exudates and their impact on soil carbon storage revealing surprising and counterintuitive results...

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Maya Woolfolk

Maya Woolfolk awarded HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study

July 28, 2022

Congratulations to PhD candidate Maya Woolfolk and advisor, Hopi Hoekstra, awarded one of 51 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study.

The program provides awards to pairs of dissertation advisers and their graduate students based on what HHMI values and considers essential components of the environment, particularly the institution and adviser’s commitment to creating a healthy academic ecosystem and the student’s potential for scientific leadership. HHMI awarded Maya for her project titled, "Understanding the ultimate...

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