News

New research: AI model streamlines prime editing

September 15, 2026

When scientists use prime editing to develop new gene-editing medicines or for research, the prime editing guide RNA, or pegRNA, they use can greatly impact editing performance. The pegRNA is an important component of the prime editing system — it...

FUEL Program Gives First-Year Students Essential Research Skills

September 14, 2026

For students interested in science, getting started in a research laboratory can be daunting. Finding a lab, approaching a faculty member, designing experiments, and even knowing what questions to ask can be unfamiliar territory—particularly for first...

New research: CCB scientists develop new method to map RNA variants

August 25, 2026

Harvard researchers have unveiled a new way to map the molecular activity in complex tissues that can reveal which specific RNA variants genes produce in every cell and every region of the tissue. The technology, described in a new paper in Cell, could...

New research: How your cells make a molecule you can buy as a supplement

August 25, 2026

When something goes wrong deep inside a cell’s power plant, the consequences can ripple across an entire organism. Mitochondria rely on a small molecule called coenzyme Q (CoQ) to generate energy and protect cells from damage. But the way cells...

Technology Profile: Chemist’s fix for a stubborn biomanufacturing problem

August 14, 2026

In the race to build a biomanufacturing economy, one of the most stubborn obstacles is surprisingly mundane: getting enough gas into a tank of liquid. From pharmaceuticals to alternative proteins, many technologies depend on microbes that need to breathe...

Brian Liau wins 2027 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award

August 05, 2026

Brian Liau, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has been awarded the 2027 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award For Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. The winners will each receive an award certificate, a monetary award of US $5,000, and an...

Emily Balskus wins 2026 Ono Award

July 15, 2026

Emily Balskus, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has recieved the 2026 Ono Pharma Foundation Breakthrough Science Initiative Award. Her project is entitled "Developing chemical probes to...

Leading chemist Jeffrey Long to join CCB faculty

June 30, 2026

Jeffrey R. Long, Ph.D. ’95, a leading chemist who studies porous materials for energy and sustainability, will join the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as the inaugural Thomas C. Foley Professor of Energy and the Environment in the Department of Chemistry...

Profile: Finding ways to ‘drug the undruggable’ diseases

June 30, 2026

Chemical biologist Greg Verdine was driving from his North Shore home to his office in Cambridge when he had to pull over to the side of the road. Verdine was listening to the podcast “Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.” The guest was former U.S. Sen...

CCB faculty members awarded Frontiers of Innovation for Societal Impact Fund.

June 15, 2026

Curbing the spread of malaria, catching breast cancer before it becomes deadly, and creating an immersive archive on the Giza pyramids are the goals of just a few of the 20 faculty research projects recently awarded grants through the Frontiers of...

CCB launches new K–12 outreach partnership with Watertown High School

June 11, 2026

On Thursday, June 4, the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology’s Advanced Undergraduate Teaching team welcomed 12 AP-level students from Watertown High School for the inaugural visit of the new CCB Advanced Teaching Labs K–12 Outreach Program. The...

Sunny Shi honored with RSC Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence

June 10, 2026

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) celebrated undergraduate researcher Sunny Shi on June 8, 2026, during the department's Summer Undergraduate Research Community Opening Social, where she was presented with the Royal Society of...