MCB Professor Nicholas Bellono has been named a 2026 Schmidt Sciences Polymath, receiving up to $2.5 million over five years to pursue an ambitious new research direction exploring […]

For MCB postdoctoral researcher Colin Kim, studying plants means discovering what talented chemists they can be—and learning how their molecular machinery might be harnessed to make medicines. Kim, […...

Insect herbivores have driven plants to evolve complex chemical defenses, including mimics of the arthropod molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). Many distantly related plants produce 20E, suggest...

Wendy Valencia-Montoya, a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows affiliated with the lab of MCB Professor Nick Bellono, has been awarded two of the most coveted […]

The plant kingdom is rich with medicinal natural products that are complex and difficult to access. Discovering how plants build these molecules can be challenging, especially for biosynthetic pathway...

Despite the significance of nicotine, a neuroactive alkaloid produced by tobacco, its biosynthesis has remained elusive. Here, the authors report the in vitro and in planta reconstruction of a fo...

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 18 March 2026

A new study co-led by MCB’s Kazuki Nagashima and published in Science Immunology (PDF) identifies plant-derived molecules that help quiet the immune system, preventing inflammatory reactions to the […...

Wendy Valencia Montoya has been named a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Harold M. Weintraub Award in recognition of her doctoral thesis, an ambitious and interdisciplinary body of […]

Scientists have shown how plants produce powerful natural chemicals that could help in the production of new medicines in more environmentally friendly ways.

Nicotine is a neuroactive alkaloid produced by tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) as a defense against herbivory, and an addictive stimulant that has been used by humans for millennia. Despite its significan...

MCB faculty member Ryan Nett has been named a 2025 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, one of 22 early-career scientists selected nationwide for their promising and innovative […]