seas topics fall2011

7/30/2019 SEAS Topics Fall2011

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The Genetic Reformation:Rethinking Autonomy and Data Privacy

Topicsfall 2011


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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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Topics | Fall 2011

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.


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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



9/11


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

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eliza

grinnell


10/11

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

[email protected]

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


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


11/11

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