In the News

A sampling of stories featuring Phil Sharp and members of the Sharp lab.

2009

Science
Research Data in the Digital Age

American Academy of Arts & Sciences Bulletin
Nanotechnology: Novel Applications

SU2C
Outpouring of support gives hope against cancer

MIT- Conversations with. . . (video)
Institute Professor and Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp talks about his life in science and biology

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News
Reflections on Biotech with Nobel Laureate Dr. Phillip Sharp

Nature - Drug Discovery
Gene regulation: RNA to the rescue?

2008

Reversing the conventional DNA wisdom
Researchers find DNA is transcribed by divergent polymerases

Nature News
Proteins that read DNA backwards: Some enzymes transcribe DNA in the 'wrong' direction to create puzzling RNAs.

Stand Up to Cancer
Phillip Sharp, Chairperson of SU2C's Scientific Advisory Committee, explains translational research and the important things he expects from the world of cancer research today. YouTube Link

Proliferating cells foil microRNA control
MIT biologists have discovered that proliferating cells shift the output of their genes to evade regulation by microRNAs, tiny molecules that normally suppress tumor growth.

VIDEO: The next generation in cancer research. . . because the next generation is waiting
In their own words: the President, Faculty, Students, and Staff share their vision for the new Koch Institute.

EWorldWire
Nobel Prize Winners Harold Varmus and Phillip Sharp speak at National Institutes of Health Oxford/Cambridge Scholars Program

Three Networks To Air $100 Million Cancer Fundraiser
All three television networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, will simultaneously air a star-studded one-hour cancer fundraising special on Sept. 5, a first of its kind event for a national audience.

XConomy
High Hopes and Expectations About Tomorrow ’s Science and Technology Challenge (commencement address to graduates of Eberly College of Science)

The Third Revolution: Blending science and engineering to treat cancer
A nanotech “smart bomb” that targets only cancer cells — reducing or eliminating chemo’s side effects — is just one of the innovations expected to emerge from a new approach to cancer research at MIT.

NY Academy of Sciences Magazine (PDF)
Legendary Labs - Secrets of academic researchers who produce excellent science and great scientists.

MIT researchers demonstrate protective role of microRNA
Snippets of genetic material that have been linked to cancer also play a critical role in normal embryonic development in mice, according to a new paper from MIT cancer biologists.

2007

Newsweek
The 10 Hottest Nerds

Xconomy
The Integration of Engineering and Cancer Biology

David H. Koch gives $100 million to MIT for cancer research
MIT has announced a $100 million gift from Koch Industries executive and MIT alumnus David H. Koch that will usher in new paradigms in highly integrative cancer research.

Koch gift to chart ‘new course’ for cancer research

Team demos safety of RNA therapy
Research could lead to treatments for cancer, many other diseases

Team proves role of microRNAs in spread of cancer
MIT scientists have proved that microRNAs, tiny molecules that fine-tune protein production and play a powerful role in biological processes, can prompt otherwise sedentary cancer cells to move and invade other tissues.

MIT's MicroRNA 'sponges' could aid cancer studies
MIT researchers have developed a new way to study the function of microRNA, tiny strands of genetic material that help regulate at least 25 percent of a cell's genes.

MIT Research and Teaching Firsts
... 1977: Phillip Sharp discovers the split gene structure of higher organisms,
changing the view of how genes arose during evolution. ...

International Herald Tribune
Nobel prize winners compete, and drug development may benefit

ACS News
Researchers and entrepreneurs working at the interface of chemistry and biology and on making scientific knowledge more accessible were in the spotlight at Heritage Day 2007, the Chemical Heritage Foundation's daylong awards ceremony.

2006

Cycling team peddling Nobel jerseys
MIT cycling team members have found a way to combine the scientific excellence in the halls of MIT with their athletic pursuits. To raise money for the team, they asked four Nobel laureates to autograph two official cycling team jerseys.

MIT alum shares Nobel Prize in physiology
Andrew Z. Fire, who received the Ph.D. from MIT in 1983, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2006 together with Craig C. Mello for their discovery of RNA interference -- gene silencing by double-stranded RNA.

Cancer symposium packs Kresge
An audience of 1,300 packed into Kresge Auditorium on June 23 to listen to Nobel laureates and other prominent scientists discuss cancer research.

Technology Review
The Therapeutic Potential of RNAi

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Double Helix Medals

2005

MIT professors receive Medal of Science
President Bush has awarded two MIT faculty members the National Medal of Science, this nation's highest science honor. Phillip A. Sharp and Stephen J. Lippard were among eight honorees who received the medals at a White House ceremony Feb. 13.

Looking Sharp at Fenway Park
MIT biologist Phillip Sharp shows off his new jersey at Fenway Park on Sept. 30, where the Red Sox honored him as a Medical All Star.

Phillip Sharp appointed to Whitehead Board of Directors
Phillip Sharp, Nobel laureate and founding director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been named to the Board of Directors of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

2004

NCI grants encourage new approaches to cancer research
The National Cancer Institute recently awarded grants to nine institutions, including MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, to establish integrative cancer biology research programs.

2003

Dalai Lama enlists science in quest for 'a happy mind'
The Dalai Lama appeared on the Kresge Auditorium stage to start the conference "Investigating the Mind: Exchanges Between Buddhism and the Biobehavioral Sciences on How the Mind Works."

RNAi could provide instant cures
Professor Phillip A. Sharp, director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, says a method of controlling gene expression called RNA interference (RNAi) may provide instant cures.

Time Magazine story, "Pioneers in Molecular Biology"

CBS News
RNA Silences Mutant Genes: Scientists Embrace Emerging Kill-The-Messenger Technology

Fortune/CNN Money
Biotech's Billion Dollar Breakthrough A technology called RNAi has opened the door to major new drugs. Already it's revolutionizing gene research

Nature Magazine
50 years to the day of the discovery of base pairing, Peter Sherwood asked participants at a conference at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (The Biology of DNA, 28 February 2003) to draw their concept of DNA.

2002

MIT researchers close in on RNA splicing code

HIV-1 virus production inhibited in the lab  

RNAi "breakthrough of the year"
MIT helps make RNA interference "breakthrough of the year"
MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have been involved from the start in this recently discovered method of turning off genes using short pieces of RNA.

Chemical Heritage Foundation
Biotechnology Hall of Fame

Forbes
Scientists Ask: What Is A Gene, Anyway?

2000

BBC News
Computing couple's $350m brain research gift

1999

Sharp Is Named An Institute Professor

1993 - Nobel Prize News

New York Times - 10/12/1993

Sharp Awarded Nobel Prize

Sharp Garners Share of Nobel Prize

1988

NY Times
Research Awards Won by Three