The Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation

The Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation Professorship in Basic Biomedical Sciences

This professorship was created to encourage research that transcends Harvard Medical School departmental boundaries. Incumbents are expected to support collaborative initiatives with Italian scientists and the advancement of biomedical research in Italy. The first incumbent of the professorship is Dr. Stephen C. Harrison.

Armenise-Harvard Centers at Harvard Medical School

The Center for Cancer Biology
The Armenise-Harvard Center for Cancer Biology is dedicated to the study of the basic mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of cancer. The primary focus of the Center is the exploration of fundamental questions pertinent to the field of cancer research, based on the experience that such discoveries can lead to important advances in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Research within the Center includes but is not limited to cancer genetics, cell cycle regulation, viral oncology, and cellular differentiation and developmental biology as they relate to cancer research.
Director: Peter Howley, M.D.

The Center for Genomics and Post-Genomics
The Armenise-Harvard Center for Genomics and Post-Genomics is dedicated to creating knowledge from the recent wealth of data about the human genome and other genomes. The Center helps develop computational tools to translate information about the genome into function. High-throughput technology takes the place of a least some of classical wet-lab activities to interpet the vast scale of data. This technology also serves the established genetic investigations at the Center, which touch on the nature of heritable heart disease, cancer, resistance to bacterial pathogens and toxins, developmental aspects of the nervous system and, in particular, the retina.
Director: Clifford Tabin, Ph.D.

The Center for Integrative Biology and Physiology
The Armenise-Harvard Center for Integrative Biology and Physiology is committed to understanding on a molecular and mechanistic level every process involved in the life of a cell. The cell is composed of chemicals and communicates with itself and its neighbors through chemical messages. Learning the language of these messages has allowed enormous advances. Nevertheless, even after great progress, molecular biology may reach its limits in allowing scientists to put the pieces together. Researchers at the Center for Integrative Biology and Physiology move beyond approaches that take snapshots of how cells look or that list the ingredients of cells, to examine the cell in its wider context.
Director: Joan Brugge, Ph.D.

The Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and the Host Response
Interdisciplinary research at the Armenise-Harvard Center for Microbioal Pathogenesis and the Host Responses focuses on how pathogenic organisms interact with animal cells, tissues and organs. Scientists at the Center are applying state-of- the-art technologies in genetics, genetic engineering, chemistry and computational biology to develop novel therapeutic compounds that may some day allow the complete eradication of microbial pathogens. Investigators are also developing new vaccine strategies for the prevention of infection.
Director: John Mekalanos, Ph.D.

The Center for Neuroscience
Studies on the brain are rapidly expanding in two complementary directions. On the one hand, the functions of genes can be manipulated with remarkable elegance in a variety of nervous systems to elucidate the molecular basis of the brain's behavior, plasticity, function and development. But the brain is more than its genes and synapses—it is also an amazing computational machine, and dramatic technical advances have begun to make it possible to study entire networks of neurons as they function in the living brain, or as they might theoretically work as modeled on powerful computers. These advances have transformed the fields of psychology, linguistics, and other social sciences so that the brain and behavior can for the first time be dissected functionally.
Acting Director: Davia P. Corey, Ph.D.

The Center for Structural Biology
Structural biology—the study of the biomolecular architecture of the cell—is a fast-growing field of study. The Armenise-Harvard Center for Structural Biology analyzes the three-dimensional structure of proteins that act as chemical messengers, chemical regulators, and receptors. To accommodate their broad job description, proteins come in many shapes and sizes. By studying the 3-D structure of a protein molecule, scientists are better able to get a handle on the fine points of function of a particular protein or protein complex and how it interacts with other molecules. This understanding is crucial to the consideration of pharmacological ways to intervene in the process. Determining the structures of proteins will contribute to the rational design of drugs and vaccines.
Director: Stephen Harrison, Ph.D.

The Center for Systems Biology

Systems biology seeks to understand the logic and function of biological design. To achieve this goal we first need precise measurements of exactly how much of a molecular species is present in a single living cell, where it is, and what it is binding to, tracked over time as the cell responds to specific stimuli. Next, we have to learn to draw on approaches and tools from theoretical and computational disciplines to understand how changes in these quantitatively defined states are translated into information that cells and organisms can use to make decisions. And finally, we must seek to understand how a particular design evolved and what makes some designs good at supporting the process of evolution. The Armenise-Harvard Systems Biology Center will take the lead in obtaining and assembling quantitative, dynamic information into a theoretical framework, and using the result to define new areas for experiment.

Director: Marc Kirschner, Ph.D.