Messenger RNA (mRNA) made its big leap into the public limelight during the pandemic, thanks to its cornerstone role in several COVID-19 vaccines. But mRNAs, which are genetic sequences that instruct the body to produce proteins, are also being developed as a new class of drugs. For mRNAs to have broad therapeutic uses, however, the molecules will need to last longer in the body than those that make up the COVID vaccines. 

Researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and MIT have engineered a new mRNA structure by adding multiple “tails” to the molecules that...

Harvard University chemist Daniel Kahne has spent much of his career studying the fundamentals of how bacteria thrive and evade attack.

His lab has a special interest in gram-negative bacteria, which have an outer membrane that many antibiotics cannot cross.

Among these bacteria is carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, or CRAB. Designated by the World Health Organization as a “critical priority” for antibiotic development, CRAB kills hundreds of critically ill patients in the U.S....

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology is welcoming oral and poster presentation abstracts for 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium scheduled for 30 April 2024 between 8:00 am-4:00 pm.

At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Feb. 6, 2024, the following tribute to the life and service of the late David Albert Evans was spread upon the permanent records of the Faculty.

David Albert Evans was one of the most influential organic chemists in the history of the field, and his impact was felt through his research, mentorship, and teaching.  He discovered practical and general ways to synthesize polyketides, a broad class of medicinally important natural products.  To crack this problem, he devised exquisitely simple yet broadly...