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7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011
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The Genetic Reformation:Rethinking Autonomy and Data Privacy
Topicsfall 2011
7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011
2/11
o-hosted by Cherry A. Murray, Dean of the
arvard School of Engineering and Applied
ciences (SEAS), and Leslie Berlowitz,
resident of the American Academy of Arts
nd Sciences, two panel discussions examined
he promise and perils of creating digital
epositories for genetic records and considered
he policy implications of an individuals right
o access, control, and interpret his or her
wn genetic data.
he interdisciplinary event, drawing on
xpertise across the Harvard campus
nd from around the world, was held in
onjunction with a Stated Meeting of the
merican Academy and regional meetings
f the National Academy of Engineering
nd the Institute of Medicine.
his edition ofTopics explores in greater
epth some of the issues raised at that
Triple Academies event.
The feature article (facing page) by
Simson L. Garnkel, Associate Professor
at the Naval Postgraduate School, a noted
technology writer and former postdoctoral
researcher in computer science at SEAS,
is intended as an engaging starting point
for discussion. (The views expressed are
not necessarily those of Harvard or SEAS,
but rather are meant to provoke further
debate and exploration.)
To read supplementary articles about the
issues discussed herein, or to watch the
video of the entire Triple Academies
event, please visit:
http://seas.harvard.edu/topics
Topics | Fall 2011
On April 14, 2011, experts in medical ethics, law, public policy,
esearch, and entrepreneurship gathered in Cambridge for
symposium on Privacy, Autonomy, and Personal Genetic
nformation in the Digital Age.
Roughlynine months beore you were born,
your biological mother and ather wrote a
book. They lled that book with their hopes,
dreams and plans or your lie. They wrote
about the adversities you might have to
overcome. And they inscribed your amilyssecretslong orgotten indelities, insanity,
and distant cousins who might be monsters.
Now imagine that the book was locked away
and lostonly to be ound decades later by
the trustee o some scientic organization.
That trustee may hold the keys to your uture,
or you are the very person that your parents
wrote about. But youve also changedyou
are much more today than you were when it
was written. Do you have a right to decidewho reads that book, once its ound?
And i so, should you read it?
elizagrinnell
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3
arious orms o genetic testing have been available
or decades. One o the rst widespread testing
orts started in 1969 among Ashkenazi Jews to see
they were carriers o Tay-Sachs, a recessive genetic
isease. Because it is recessive, Tay-Sachs has a 25%
hance o striking the child o two carriers. But untilhe testing eort, no one knew who the carriers
ere. Because the disease is always atal, the testing
ort had but one achievable goal: prevent the
onception (or at least the birth) o children who
ould surely die. The success o this program was
ne o the rst great achievements o genetic testing.
oday genetic testing is widespread. New York state,
or example, mandates the screening o newborns
or 40 dierent diseases and disorders. Most o these
iseases impact ewer than 1 in 10,000 newborns
nd can be readily treated with a special diet.
ecause o the testing, many children are able to
ead healthy liveschildren who otherwise would
ave died.
or example, 1 in 19,000 children are born with
henylketonuria (PKU), a disease characterized
y an inability to metabolize phenylalanine, a
ommonly occurring amino acid. People with PKU
ho diet or lie (by avoiding milk, eggs, therticial sweetener aspartame, and other oods) are
ble to lead normal lives. Those who dont, suer
elayed development, mental retardation, and a
ariety o other problems. Another victory or large-
cale genetic testing.
Genetic testing also gave rise to a new proessional
lassthe genetic counselor. Like the priests o old,
hese people were trained in the intricacies o an
namiliar languagealthough this language was
the As, Cs, Gs and Ts o the genetic code, rather
than the tempus nascendi, et tempus moriendi[a time
to be born and a time to dieEcclesiastes 3:2] o
the Latin Vulgate Bible. But like priests, genetic
counselors were intermediaries, standing between
the laity and a higher authority. And they were needed,because until the 1990s, most Americans not only
lacked the ability to interpret their test results; they
didnt even have legal access to their own medical
records.
Now, or the rst time in history, anyone on the
planet who has a ew hundred dollars (and is willing to
spit into a tube or 15 minutes) can get vast amounts
o genetic inormation with no intermediary
whatsoever. In a ew years, youll be able to get your
entire genomic sequence or less than $1,000. (You
can order it today or $4,995 rom Knome, Inc., a
lie sciences company in Cambridge, Mass.) Last
year, an advisory panel told the U.S. Department
o Deense that it needed to start planning or the
advent o the $100 genomeand with it the
possibility that American soldiers might be covertly
tested by the enemy.
Just as Bibles translated into the vernacular helped
power the Protestant Reormation, direct-to-consumer(DTC) genetic testing is opening the door to a
genetic reormation. That reormation will unda-
mentally change our notions o ourselves, our place
in the world, and our human potential. And anyone
who takes the plunge will nd that this genetic data
brings them into a new worldone in which tradi-
tional authorities have less infuence and individuals
have less privacy and greater risk. And yet, the actual
scientic payo is still largely unknown.
Several websites, such as deCODEme.com and
Navigenics.com, oer a variety o genetic tests directly
to the consumer or between $500 and $1,500. But
the poster child or the genetics reormation is
unquestionably 23andMe.com, a Google-backed
Silicon Valley start-up that oers broad-spectrumgenetic testing or about $100 (provided you sign up
or a $5/month monitoring service).
Signing up is easy. Just go to a website; accept the
rightening consent statement; type in a credit
card number; and a ew days later 23andMes DNA
collection kit will appear in your mailbox. The kit
is really nothing more than a tube with a ancy lock
and some preservatives. Avoid eating or 30 minutes;
ll the tube with spit; snap on the cap; and send it
back. A ew weeks later youll be able to browse your
risk actors or more than 90 diseases and traits on
the companys website.
But genetic analysis is only the beginning o what
23andMe does with your data. Recall that each o
your parents contributed hal o the words in your
genetic book. This means that i you and your long-
lost sister (or hal-sister) both sign up or 23andMe,
the companys computer can match the two o you
by the act that 50% o your genetic material isin common. And heres where things get sticky.
23andMe can also determine to a high probability
that you and that woman across town have the same
ather but dierent mothers; it will even let you
contact each other through the companys website.
You didnt know you had a hal-sister? Oh my! Thats
why 23andMes consent statement reads, in part,
You may learn inormation about yoursel that youdo not anticipate, and Once you obtain your
genetic inormation, the knowledge is irrevocable.
For investors, another signicant part o 23andMe
is likely to be the companys research arm23andWe.
Human genetics is vastly more complicated than
the simple Mendelian genetics that most o us
learned in high school. Disease susceptibility, drug
responseeven simple things like hair color
and curlactually result rom the interaction o
multiple genes along with environmental challenges
and other actors that modern biology is only just
beginning to understand. So in addition to testing
the genotype o each subscriber, 23andMe invites
them to participate in research studies by answering
detailed questionnaires about their phenotype
that is, their medical history, traits, and morphology,
such as the shape o their noses and the character o
their ear wax. All o these data are mined in an
eort to draw correlations between genetic sequence,medical conditions, and medical outcomes.
The Personal Genetics Revolution,Right In Your Web Browser
ust as Bibles translated into the vernacular helped power
he Protestant Reormation, direct-to-consumer genetic
esting is opening the door to a genetic reormation.
courtesyofsimson
garfinkel
To read a personal account o theauthors experience with genetic testing,
visit http://seas.harvard.edu/topics.
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Topics | Fall 2011
Unlike the 40 tests mandated by the state o New
ork, 23andMe isnt perorming traditional genetic
ests. When children in New York are tested or
KU, they are tested to see i an enzyme called
henylalanine hydroxylase is present and properly
unctioningin other words, that the individuals
enes are correctly producing that enzyme.
3andMe doesnt assess the presence or absence
given enzymes or proteins. Instead, it screens
or what are called single nucleotide polymorphisms
SNPs (pronounced snips) in the language o
he new biology. A SNP is a variant spelling in the
enome written by our biological parents.
you think o each person whos alive today as
aving a book in humanitys genetic library, it turns
ut that those 7 billion books are remarkably similar.
n the vast majority o cases, these books have 46
hapters, representing 23 chromosomes rom each
arent. Each book is thought to have 20,000 to
5,000 pagesone page or each protein-coding
ene. Though there are roughly 3 billion base pairs
n total3 billion As, Cs, Gs, and Tsmost o these
ont code or genes, but seem to be associated with
ome orm o regulation. Yet, in all o this writing
hats so important in determining our destiny, there
are only about 10 million places where one persons
T might be another persons G, or where
another person might have a ew extra Tsas i his
or her mother or ather momentarily stuttered. And
according to the 23andMe website, the company
now measures roughly 1 million o these 10 million
SNPs rom the 23 chromosomes, as well as a ew
thousand SNPs rom the mitochondrial DNA.
Although reading the SNPs is a highly precise
technique or measuring a persons genetic prole,
or many genetic diseases it is ar more accurate to
simply measure the presence or absence o a
unctioning enzyme. Thats because, in the case
o PKU, there are literally hundreds o dierent
genetic mutations that might cause a child to have
an absent or poorly unctioning phenylalanine
hydroxylase enzyme. While some o these mutations
are known and reported in the medical literature,
others arent.
For the cases where the mutation is known, the
23andMe website tells subscribers i their SNPs
match the literature. The website will even cite
the study, allowing consumers-turned-scientists to
examine the literature or themselves.
For cases in which the link between the genotype
(the specics o the genetic plan) and phenotype
(the expressed, physical characteristics) is unknown,
23andMe hopes that those surveys will help scientists
to draw correlations between various SNPs and the
prevalence o various diseases. For example, i 75%
o 23andMes subscribers who have a T in a
particular position tend to get some disease by age
30, and most people who have an A there do not,
then that T might be associated with a 75% chance
o contracting the disease. Then again, it might not.
To put this into actual genetic terms, consider
leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, an enzyme coded
by the LRRK2gene, one o the 1,370 genes on
chromosome 12. A specic mutation in this gene
called rs34637584(A) is associated with a signicantly
higher chance o contracting Parkinsons disease.
Years ago, nding out what such a mutation meant
would have required a masters degree and access to
a medical library. Today you can type the mutation
into Google and be directed to a page on SNPedia,
an open-source wiki devoted to collecting such
inormation and making it public. The wiki says, in
part:
One copy o a[n]rs34637584(A)allele is sufcient to
greatly increase ones risk or Parkinsons disease.
Overall, the risk o Parkinsons disease or a person
who inherits a[n]rs34637584(A)allele is 28% at
age 59, 51% at 69, and 74% at 79, according to the
International LRRK2 Consortium.
Unortunately, the wiki misstates the evidence.
As all students learn during their rst statistics
course, correlation is not causation!The rs34637584(A)
allele may be more likely to be present in people
who have Parkinsons disease, but we dont know i
it is the causethe SNP might work in concert with
another gene, or with an environmental agent, or it
may be an innocent genetic bystander.
Its these uncertainties, in part, that have caused
organizations such as the American Medical
Association, the National Society o Genetic
Counselors, and the American Society o Human
Genetics to call or signicant regulation o DTC
companies. In February 2011, the American Medical
Associations executive vice president, Dr. Michael D.
Maves, wrote to the Food and Drug Administration,
urging that tests with the highest risk o harming
consumers i misinterpreted have the strictest
regulatory requirements, and recommending that
companies like deCODE Genetics and 23andMe
be legally required to report these test results to a
customers physician or genetic counselor, and not
directly to the consumer.
Indeed, the state o New York already prohibits
companies rom oering direct-to-consumer genetic
tests. As a result, when someone in Manhattan wants
to be tested by 23andMe, the company requires that
the specimen be mailed rom outside New Yorkor
example, by taking a 10-minute subway ride to New
Jersey and dropping the package into a Hoboken
mailbox.
Doctors and genetic counselors who w ant legislative
prohibitions on DTC testing are clearly acting in
their own economic interest: each consumer who
bypasses todays inecient healthcare system and
goes directly to these companies is saving hundreds,
i not thousands, o dollars. Wiki-based counseling
is ree.
On the other hand, its easy to take the genetic
priesthoods claims at ace value: this is powerul
inormation and easily misinterpreted. There are
documented cases o people committing suicide
ater learning that they were carriers or Huntingtons
diseaseand those people received counseling in
a clinical environment. We have no idea how much
damage might be done in the coming years by the
casual release o such sensitive medical inormation.
DTCs Organized Opposition
5
patricklandmann/photoresearchers,in
c.
dvances in bioinformaticsthe application of computer science to biology and medicinehave been crucial for the eldf genomics. Fast and accurate assembly of complete genomes would not be possible without sophisticated sequencinggorithms, modeling techniques, and (as shown above) data visualization tools. In this computer readout, each colororresponds to a nucleotide (A, C, T, or G) detected in a genomic sequence.
7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011
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Topics | Fall 2011
7
Another danger is that this inormation might
ot be adequately protected. 23andMe allows its
ustomers to download their entire genetic data set:
ther websites invite you to upload it or a third-
arty analysis. The problem here, o course, is that
nlike a stolen credit card number, a genome cant
e changed i it is inadvertently given to criminals.s that a risk? We just dont know.
heres another potential problem with DTC
enetic testing: is it accurate?
We are concerned about analytic validity, says
Dr. Michele Caggana, Section Head or Genetic
esting or the New York State Clinical Laboratory
Reerence System. I you order the test 10 times,
o you get the same results 10 times?
he Government Accountability Oce (GAO),
he watchdog agency o the U.S. Congress, has twice
eviewed DTC testing rms and ound troubling
nconsistencies, reporting in 2006 that the rms
made medically unproven disease predictions.
A 2010 GAO reportDirect-To-Consumer
Genetic Tests: Misleading Test Results Are Further
omplicated by Deceptive Marketing and Other
Questionable Practiceswas even more damning.
t constituted an outright attack on the industry,ccusing it o inconsistent test results, incorrect
normation delivered by telephone consultants, and
he use o genetic inormation to scare customers
nto purchasing expensive vitamin supplements.
The GAO did not release the names o the com-
panies that it investigated, but it did reer them to
the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal
Trade Commission or appropriate action.
In a high-prole June 2010 incident, 23andMe
mixed up the samples in a 96-well plate and sentincorrect DNA results to 96 o its customers.
Whoops! One amily, which had tested parents as
well as children, was taken abackthey thought that
their son might have been accidentally swapped at
the hospital when he was born (apparently it had
happened a month beore at the same hospital to
another pair o babies). Another company, deCODE
Genetics, had a similar problem in August 2009.
For many contemplating DTC tests, issues o cost
and accuracy are less important than the potential
damage that might come rom taking the testnot
just the way that genetic inormation might change
ones sense o sel, but the real potential or genetic
discrimination.
Theres a long history o using genetics and
pseudo-genetics to justiy discrimination against
individuals and racial groupsand you dont need
to go back to the Second World War or examples.
Since the 1980s, the Council or Responsible
Genetics has documented more than 500 cases in
which apparently healthy individuals have been
barred rom employment or lost their health and
lie insurance based on an apparent or perceived
genetic abnormality, according to CRGs project
on Genetic Testing, Privacy, and Discrimination.
Fears o genetic discrimination were also taken to
the big screen in the 1997 movie Gattaca.
In 2008, Congress passed the Genetic Inormation
Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which prohibits
the use o genetic inormation or determining
health insurance rates or employment. But GINA
does allow genetic tests to be used or setting rates
on long-term care insurance and lie insurance.
This means that women who are tested and oundto carry harmul mutations o the BRCA1 or BRCA2
genesthat is, women who have more than a 50%
chance o developing breast or ovarian cancer
cant be denied a job or health insurance, but they
can be denied lie insurance.
Is genetic discrimination a compelling risk? Dr. Philip
Reilly, who spent years caring or institutionalized
individuals with genetic disorders and now, at Third
Rock Ventures in Boston, invests in companies that
are trying to treat them, insists that its not.
We have a 40-year history o gathering, storing, and
protecting genetic inormation, Reilly says. There
is virtually no evidence that anyone has suered an
economic harm rom newborn screening. Its
appropriate to think about the [potential or abuse],
but its outweighed by the benets.
The trouble with this argument is that newborns
havent been screened or their risk o contracting
Parkinsons or Alzheimers diseases later in lie
two diseases that have proound nancial impact
on those oering lie or long-term care insurance.
To what extent can one actually know the conse-
quence o releasing that data? asks Latanya Sweeney
(A.L.B. 95), a Visiting Proessor o Computer
Science at Harvards School o Engineering and
Applied Sciences (SEAS). Sweeney contends that
we simply dont know the ways that this inormation
could be abused.
Even i there are no direct harms, many eel that it is
a violation o personal privacy to release even anony-
mous genetic inormation without consent. And
thats exactly what happened in Texas between 2002
and 2009, when 8,350 o the 5.3 million samples
collected during the course o its newborn screening
program were released to 27 separate research pro-grams by scientists around the United States.
In March 2009, shortly ater news o the medical
research was made public, Georey Courtney o San
Antonio and our other parents led suit against the
Texas Health Department and Texas A&M Univer-
sity, alleging that the states retention o the blood
spots and their use in research and ederal investiga-
tions constituted unlawul search and seizure and
violated their privacy rights. The suit was settled
out o court, but in response, the Texas legislature
passed a law specically authorizing this use o the
Risky Business
Unlike a stolen credit card number, a genome cant
be changed i it is inadvertently given to criminals.
s that a risk?We just dont know.
nathan Zittrain (M.P.A. 95, J.D. 95), Professor ofomputer Science and Law at SEAS and Harvard Lawchool, submitted a saliva sample to a personal geneticsting service to see what it was all about. Now, whene logs into 23andMe.com, the website informs him ofs risks and traits, including his earwax typewet.
courtesyofjonathan
zittrain
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Around Oxford Street
Hands on
Undergraduates created some dazzling projects this year.
In ES 51, Computer-Aided Machine Design, students builtTootsie Roll catapults and converted cordless electricscrewdrivers into remote-control cars.
The Science & Cooking Fair showed o crazy culinarycreations like glow-in-the-dark gummy bears and Parmesannoodles.
The CS 50 Fair, Hack Harvard, and the I3 Challenge
produced hundreds o new websites and apps, includingHollre, Aid Aide, and Newsle (recently proled i nTech Crunch, The Hufngton Post, The Chronicle o Higher
Education, and on the BBC).
In January, undergrads designed a disaster relie tentthat was supported by giant helium balloons; and in April,students in ES 96, Engineering Design Seminar, becamemasters o a geothermal heating and cooling system oncampusstudying it literally in depth.
Computational science expands
Beginning this all, SEAS will oer a graduate secondaryeld in Computational Science and Engineering. Theprogram, which complements the Institute or AppliedComputational Science at SEAS, is designed to equipstudents with rigorous computational methods orapproaching scientic questions across disciplines.
Topics will include modeling and simulation o complexsystems; parallel programming and collaborative sotwaredevelopment; and methods or organizing, exploring,
visualizing, processing and analyzing very large data sets.
Enhancing the learning environment
Several new sta hires enhance the design curriculumand bolster our existing resources or undergraduateadvising this all.
Avinash Uttamchandani and Joe Zinter, our new preceptorsin design-based instruction, will provide advice and supportin the undergraduate hands-on design courses.
Sujata Bhatia, M.D., Ph.D., joins Margo Levine, Ph.D., asan assistant director o undergraduate studies. Bhatiasand Levines activities include teaching, advising under-
graduates, and building a cohesive student community.
All Hands Meetingonward and upward
Dean Cherry A. Murray addressed the entire SEAScommunity at an All Hands Meeting in April. Quick recap:The student population at SEAS continues to grow, andthe percentage o Computer Science concentrators
who are emale has jumped rom 13% to 40%. Studentinnovation, aculty spin-o companies, and alumnibusiness ventures are expanding the infuence o SEAS
worldwide; and the undergraduate teaching labs aresupporting a renewed emphasis on design and hands-onprojects in the curriculum.
To watch the video of Aprils All Hands Meeting, visit
http://seas.harvard.edu/topics
Science & Cooking public lectures return
Inspired by one o the most talked-about Harvard College courses in recent history, Science &
Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science o Sot Matter, the Science & Cooking public lecture
series has returned, with weekly lectures throughout the Fall 2011 semester. Members o the general
public are once again invited to attend talks by world-class ches and eminent ood experts, including
Grant Achatz, Jos Andrs, Ferran Adri, Harold McGee, and Dan Barber.
The undergraduate Science & Cooking course will continue or the next 5 years.
To view the full schedule of public lectures, visit http://seas.harvard.edu/cooking
Community Highlights
What do we mean by privacy?
atanya Sweeney (A.L.B. 95), Visiting Professor ofomputer Science at SEAS, likens this question to the
icture of the elephant surrounded by blindfolded
esearchers, each of whom is touching a different part
f the animal and wondering what it is.
o some, privacy means liberty: the right not to share;
o be free from discrimination; to have individual auton-
my. To others, it means treating information as property
hat can be owned, protected, and traded fairly and with
formed consent. And to others, the expectation of total
rivacy is just an obstacle to progress and enterprise in a
orld where, like it or not, information is going public.
esearch and thought leadership at Harvard spans all of
hese attitudes, as well as the grey areas between them.
arry Lewis (A.B. 68, A.M. 73, Ph.D. 74) warns that
gnorance might be the greatest threat to privacy today,
ven the amount of data already collected by cell phone
owers, ATMs, websites, health records, the police, the
ourts, credit card companies, pharmacies, grocery stores,
nd so on.
ewis is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science
t SEAS, a Harvard College Professor, and a co-author of
lown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the
igital Explosion (2008).
Every day we encounter unexpected consequences of
ata ows that could not have happened a few yearsgo, Lewis writes, with co-authors Hal Abelson and
en Ledeen.
The digital explosion is creating both opportunities and
sks. Many of both will be gone in a decade, settled one
ay or another. Governments, corporations, and other
uthorities are taking advantage of the chaos, and most
f us dont even see it happening.
espite recent shifts in public attitudes about what is
ppropriate to share publiclyconsider the sheer amount
f personal information posted voluntarily on Facebook
some types of data (nancial, medical) are simply too
sky to share and need special protection.
Thats where people like Salil Vadhan (A.B. 95) come in.
Vadhan is the Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science
and Applied Mathematics and director of the Center for
Research on Computation and Society (CRCS) at SEAS.
An expert in cryptography, Vadhan researches topics
in computational complexity theory that help protectsensitive data from malicious attacks.
But who decides what should be protected and what
should be shared?
Jonathan Zittrain (M.P.A. 95, J.D. 95) studies the future
of the Internet, including the forces and institutions
shaping it.
He co-founded the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
at Harvard and holds joint appointments at SEAS, Harvard
Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School as Professor of
Computer Science and Professor of Law. He advises the
Federal Communications Commission and the National
Security Agency, and serves on the boards of the Internet
Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Zittrain worries that while we have made progress on
traditional privacy problems stemming from corporate
and government intrusion, we are now entering the
uncharted waters of peer-to-peer privacy breaches.
For example, he says, Its becoming easy to signal to
the worlds touristswhich is to say, anyone with a cell
phone camerathat youre willing to pay a bit for photos
or video of a particular person or place that happens tobe nearby.
We can achieve (and perhaps regret) ubiquitous
surveillance without Big Brothers involvement at all.
Experts at SEAS, CRCS, and the Berkman Center generally
agree that policy and ethics risk falling far behind the
pace of technological change, and thats very much an
ongoing discussion at Harvard.
Perhaps more worryingly, though, public awareness
lags too. Helping to spark such awarenessexpert as
well as publicwas one aim of Aprils Triple Academies
symposium.
Rethinking Privacy at Harvard
0
eliza
grinnell
eft to right: Latanya Sweeney, Harry Lewis, Salil Vadhan, and Jonathan Zittrain. (Photos by Caroline Perry and Eliza Grinnell.)
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Research Briefs
Brain injury after the IED
ioengineers identiy the cellular mechanisms o traumatic brain injur y, oering new hope or
he treatment o veterans wounded by explosions.
Who: Kevin Kit Parker, Proessor o Bioengineering at SEAS, and a team o interdisciplinary
esearchers in the Disease Biophysics Group.
How it works: Using new tissue engineering methods designed by undergraduate and graduate
tudents at SEAS, Parker and his team have explained how the jarr ing orce o an explosion disrupts
tructural networks and signaling pathways in the brain.
Whats next: Membrane proteins called integrins appear to translate external orces into a damaging
gnal cascade inside the neurons and vascular cells. Future r esearch may develop a therapeutic
reatment that inhibits specic proteins within that signal path to prevent long-term brain injury.
Fuel cell breakthrough
Materials scientists demonstrate the rst macro-scale,thin-lm, solid-oxide uel cell (SOFC), showing that thetechnology can be scaled or practical clean-energyapplications, such as transportation and electronics.
Who: Shriram Ramanathan,Associate Proessor oMaterials Science at SEAS,postdoctoral ellow Bo-KuaiLai, and Masaru Tsuchiya 09(Ph.D.), who now works atSiEnergy Systems.
How it works: SOFCscreate electrical energy via
an electrochemical reactionthat takes place across anultra-thin membrane.Ramanathans team scaledthe system up by a actor o100, ortiying the ragilemembrane with a nanoscalemetallic grid.
Whats next:While SOFCs have previously worked at themicro-scale, this is the rst time any research group hasovercome the structural challenges o scaling the technolo-gy up to a practical size with a proportionally higher poweroutput. The next steps are to experiment with methane asa uel source, rather than hydrogen, and to lower the costo the materials.
Detecting land minestheres an app for that
New smartphone-aided technology simplies thedangerous task o nding and identiying land mineslet over rom past wars.
Who: Krzyszto Gajos, Assistant Proessor o ComputerScience at SEAS, researcher Lahiru Jayatilaka, and
collaborators at Carnegie Mellon University and MIT.
How it works: The app collects audio signals rom ametal detector and builds up an image o the buriedobjects outlineone red dot or each beepso userscan quickly dierentiate a scrap o junk metal roman actual land mine.
Whats next:Using this tool, the search or old landmines will be more ecient, as less time will be wasted oninvestigating alse alarms. Recognizing buried mines with
just a metal detector requires a great deal o training andexperience. With this app, it will be quicker and easier toclear the hazards and reclaim the land.
Tut, tut
The walls o the Egyptian tomb o Tutankhamen are cov-ered in mysterious brown spots that appear to be metabolicstains let by microbes. Analysis suggests that the painted
walls were not dry when the tomb was sealed, implying thatthe young kings burial was most likely a rush job.
Who: Ralph Mitchell, Gordon McKay Research Proessoro Applied Biology at SEAS, with research assistant AliceDeAraujo and postdoctoral ellow Archana Vasnathakumar.
How it works: Culturing, DNA analysis, and chemistryhave revealed that the culprit was most likely ungalperhaps even Penicilliumand that it has long beendead. Mitchells work suggests that the moist walls andthe organic matter (rom the corpse and the ritual ood
and incense) provided a bountiul environment or theancient microbes, until the tomb dried out.
Whats next:Conservators must decide whether to leavethe spots intact, due to their historical nature, or toclean the walls. Meanwhile, Mitchells lab is investigatingpossible methods o removing the stains without damagingthe paint or the plaster.
Hidden message identies unknown liquids
Portable, power-ree device changes color i n thepresence o certain liquids, even distinguishing among
varying concentrations o the same substance.
Who: Proessors Joanna Aizenbergand Marko Loncar, with graduatestudents Ian Burgess, LidiyaMishchenko, and Mathias Kolle andresearch appointee Benjamin Hatton.
How it works: The nanostructuredchip contains a network o pores withnely tuned optical and chemicalproperties. A liquid can fow throughthe pores only i its surace tension is
precisely correct. When the suracegets wet, it changes color, indicatingthat a particular liquid is present.
Whats next:The technology may nd applications inquality control, security, identiying chemical spillsevendetecting the presence o methanol in bootleg liquor.
courtesyoftheu.s.departmentofdefense
courtesy
ofshriram
ramanathan
courtesyof
ianburgess
Around Oxford Street
7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011
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Around Oxford Street
4 15
New Faculty Hires
Former SEAS DeanVenkatesh Venky Narayanamurtihas been appointed oreign secretary o the National
Academy o Engineering.
Two aculty members have received tenure: Kevin KitParker (Proessor o Bioengineering)and Todd Zickler(Proessor o Electrical Engineering).
(Right)Joanna Aizenberg, the Amy Smith BerylsonProessor o Materials Science, has been named a newdirector o the Kavli Institute or Bionano Science andTechnology at Harvard. The Radclie Institute at Harvardhas also appointed her a Director o Academic Venturesor its Science Program.
David Malan 94, S.M. 04, Ph.D. 07 , instructor or thepopular introductory computer science course CS 50,
has been appointed Senior Lecturer or Computer Science.He will also take on the role o Director o EducationalTechnology, helping SEAS and the College to expand the
use o pedagogical technology in the classroom. In thenear uture, with Malans help, we hope to make all SEAScourses available online.
Conor Walsh, Assistant Professor of Mechanicaland Biomedical Engineering
Walsh enjoys teaching engineering design throughhands-on courses. His research involves developing robotictools or rehabilitation and surgical assistance, as well asother innovative medical devices.
David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor ofApplied Physics and Professor of Public Policy
Keith is an expert on energy technology, climate science,and policy. He will hold a joint appointment with theHarvard Kennedy School.
eslie Valiant, the T. Jeerson Coolidge Proessor oomputer Science and Applied Mathematics, won the010 ACM A. M. Turing Award, the so-called Nobel Prizen Computing. The award carries a $250,000 prize.
Above) Roger W. Brockett, the An Wang Proessor olectrical Engineering and Computer Science, was honoredith the McDonald Mentoring Award, having advised more
han 60 graduate students over the course o his career.
Michael Brenner, Glover Proessor o Applied Mathematicsnd Applied Physics, was awarded the George Ledlie Prizey the President and Fellows o Harvard College. The prizeawarded no more than once every two years to someone
liated with the University who since the last awarding said prize has by research, discovery, or otherwise madehe most valuable contribution to science, or in any way orhe benet o mankind.
ahid Tarokh, Perkins Proessor o Applied Mathematicsnd Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow, received auggenheim Fellowship.
Below)Alice Chen, Ph.D. 11,won the 2011 Lemelson-MIT student prize. A SEAS graduate o the Harvard-MIT
ivision o Health Sciences & Technology, Chen createdmouse with a tissue-engineered human liver that can be
sed in drug trials.
Steven C. Wofsy, Abbott Lawrence Rotch Proessor oAtmospheric and Environmental Science, was elected tothe National Academy o Sciences.
A project to use dirt-powered batteries to charge cellphones in Arica won a $100,000 grant rom The Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation.Aviva Presser Aiden, Ph.D. 09,and colleagues will help to develop a microbial uel cell-based charger that could be readily and cheaply assembledout o basic components to increase access to health care
via mobile applications.
Debra Auguste, Assistant Proessor o BiomedicalEngineering,and Stephen Chong, Assistant Proessoro Computer Science,both won the National ScienceFoundations Faculty Early Career Development
(CAREER) Award.Crimson wide receiver Baltazar Zavala 11 (engineeringsciences & neurobiology) was chosen as a RhodesScholar, receiving the news on the eld ater Novembers
victorious Harvard-Yale ootball game.
Alumni in the News
Faculty NewsSelect Awards
Shiv Gaglani 10 (Biomedical Sciences and Engineering)and our o his ormer classmates published a book,Successwith Science, aimed at encouraging high school students topursue hands-on research in science and engineering.
Computer scientistKim Hazelwood, Ph.D. 04, was namedto Technology Reviews TR35.
Environmental engineer Martha Heitzmann, Ph.D. 97has been appointedSenior Executive Vice President oResearch and Innovation at the Areva Group, a Frenchenergy company that specializes in nuclear power.Read a Q&A with Martha Heitzmann online athttp://seas.harvard.edu/topics
Pasquale Pat Romano 87 was named president and CEO
o Coulomb Technologies, a company that creates theinrastructure necessary or charging electric vehicles.
Chris Capossela 91 (Computer Science and Economics)became the Senior Vice President o Microsots ConsumerChannels and Central Marketing Group.
Applied math alum andFuturamawriter Ken Keeler 83,Ph.D. 90 won a 2011 Writers Guild Award.
Dennis M. Ritchie63, A.M. 65, Ph.D. 68, who studiedapplied mathematics as a graduate student, was awardedthe Japan Prize in January, along with Ken Thompson.Ritchie and Thompson developed the UNIX computeroperating system in 1969 when they were both researchersat Bell Labs.
Ryan Adams, Assistant Professor ofComputer Science
Adams is an expert in machine learning andcomputational statistics.
Eddie Kohler, Assistant Professor ofComputer Science
Kohlers research explores systems, networks,programming languages, and sotware engineering.
eliza
grinnell
stephaniemitchell/harvardnewsoffice
eliza
grinnell
eliza
grinnell
eliza
grinnell
7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011
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Imagine if someone hacked you.
Its not that far-fetched. A clever techno-thief might
nd an easy, undetectable means to capture and
sequence your DNA. Or, if you already have your
genetic information online, a burglar could do the
hacking the old-fashioned way.
As Harry Lewis warned in his book Blown to Bits, almost
every aspect of our lives is stored somewhere as data.
Our digital footprint now extends even to our DNA.Lewis wrote, The digital explosion is changing the
world as much as printing once didand some of the
changes are catching us unaware, blowing to bits our
assumptions about the way the world works.
In this issue ofTopics, writer Simson Garnkel reports
that interpreting the human genome is more like
reading a palm than a map. Garnkel, a former fellow
at the Center for Research on Computation and Society
at SEAS and an expert in computer forensics, notes
that biology still has a long way to go in its under-
standing of genetics, and continuing progress will
depend, in part, on the ready availability of a large
data set. But individuals may only be willing to
contribute to the genetic commons if they feel they
are receiving something in returnat the very least,
protection from harm.
Garnkel went down the genetic rabbit hole himself,
submitting his own sample to a testing siteand, like
many others, ended up with more questions than
denitive answers.
Privacy is one issue; the validity of the test results isanother. A third concern is that the interpreters (whether
human or algorithmic) may end up wielding more control
than the subjects when it comes to understanding
genetic destiny.
In fact, genetic privacy and autonomy are just two
threads in a worldwide conversation about technology,
society, and the role of (presumed) authorities. Similar
issues arise in nance, bioengineering, and cybersecurity.
The technology changes continuously, but can policy,
ethics, and law keep pace?
The Triple Academies meeting I hosted in April
represented academic convergence at its nest,
something that we at SEAS and Harvard have an
opportunity to produce in an unprecedented way.
With a few phone calls and emails, we brought
together the nest minds on campus in computer
science, medicine, genetics, and ethicsalong with
scholars, leaders, and entrepreneurs from across the
country and around the world.
Many questions remain.
Can health privacy legislation like GINA and HIPAA
actually keep us safe in a changing world, or does it
just help us to feelsafe? Are there better options?
As our networked world becomes more saturated with
avenues for data sharing and communication, can we
trust that our security algorithms will always be strong
enough when it counts?
The aim is not to solve these issues once and for
all, but to lay the groundwork to contend with what
may arise.
While we cannotand should notstop technological
progress, we have a responsibility as educators and
leaders to decide how it will take shape, because it
will undoubtedly shape us in return.
Down the GeneticRabbit Hole
Dean Cherry A. Murray
eliza
grinnell
Cherry A. Murray
Dean, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Professor of Physics
EndNote
avli visit kicks off new lecture series
n May, we welcomed a visit by Fred Kavli, ounder andeneactor o the Kavli Foundation, which unds the Kavli
nstitute or Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard.s a symbol o gratitude or his recent donation o a aculty
hair, Dean Cherry A. Murray presented Kavli with a realardwood chair.
he rst talk in the new Kavli Lecture Series discussed
he creation o bio-inspired nanomaterials that mimiche adaptive coloration o cephalopods like squid and
uttlesh.
Harvard to celebrate its 375th anniversary
On October 14 at 7pm in Tercentenary Theatre, Harvardstudents, aculty, sta, and alumni are cordially invited
to gather or a estive evening to include rereshments,colorul parades, and a program with lighting eects and
perormances by the Harvard/Radclie Orchestra, thecombined Holden Choirs, and amed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Applied math alumna and celebrity pastry che Joanne
Chang 91 will provide a special birthday cake, and otherdessert selections will be available.
SEAS will also mark the anniversary with a specialNetworks event eaturing a Science & Cooking lecture
and demonstration, open to all.
Microuidics lab opens for undergrads
Thanks to a generous git rom Warren Wilkinson 41,
SEAS has opened a new undergraduate teaching lab ormicrofuidics.
Providing a core acility or students in bioengineeringand mechanical engineering to study both fuid dynamics
and clinical applications, the lab eatures state-o-the-artmicrofuidic pumps, microscopes, ovens, and sot
lithography and abrication equipment.
Support and Engagement
Around Oxford Street
Discover More Onlinehttp://seas.harvard.edu/topics
Anonymity, HIPAA, and the U.S. Supreme CourtA closer look
at Latanya Sweeneys research on data re-identication
Q&A with Steven Salzberg, Ph.D. 89, Professor of Medicineand Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University and an advocateof open-source genomic research
Q&A with Rachel Greenstadt, Ph.D. 07, Assistant Professor ofComputer Science at Drexel University, whose research involvesintelligent, secure systems
Disappointingly AverageAuthor Simson Garnkel describeshis own experience with personal genetic testing
Triple Academies video of both expert panel discussions
Additional Resources
Social Networking
facebook.com/hseas
twitter.com/hseas
HarvardSEAS.tumblr.com
stumbleupon.com, user hseas
7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011
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