Akila V. Muthukumar
Latest Articles
FMoments of Love 2023
This Valentine’s Day, we asked our writers and editors to write about something or someone they love — the lighthearted, the heartbreaking, the bittersweet, and everything in between. Here are their stories.
Most Interesting Thesis: Nour Khachemoune
Khachemoune is using chemical analyses to study rabbit and turkey bones from a Mayan site in Honduras to understand how humans changed the diet of animals in the 1890s.
Fifteen Questions: Diana Eck on Interfaith Dialogue, Lowell’s Russian Bells, and Her Favorite Poetry
The Comparative Religion professor sat down to discuss religious pluralism in the United States as well as on Harvard’s campus. “It is not the godless Harvard that people used to speak of, in the old days,” she says.
‘A Different Type of Urgency’: Improving Diversity in Genetic Testing
On Tuesday, Sept. 20, Harvard Medical School hosted its annual Precision Medicine Symposium, which focused on the ethical development and deployment of genetic screening to predict people’s risk of developing various diseases.
A Vaccine for the Next Pandemic
Many researchers are trying to develop an entirely different type of vaccine — a universal one. A pan-coronavirus vaccine would protect against strains of Covid-19, a future strain of SARS-CoV-3, or even a new coronavirus that might not yet have jumped from animals to humans.
Sequencing Babies: New Hope for Newborns
“BabySeq is an experimental research study that seeks to understand the medical, behavioral, and economic impact of sequencing newborns, the goal being to decode newborns’ genes to scan for potentially life-threatening and genetic diseases.”
‘Preventing Preventable Death’ in Cambridge’s Overdose Crisis
But the opioid overdose crisis is of course a public health problem — as well as a medical, urban planning, and legal problem. That multidimensional epidemic has only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and responding to it will require the concentrated efforts of every segment of society. Harvard is no exception.
Quarantined While Queer: BGLTQ Student Support During the Pandemic
As BGLTQ students returned home during the pandemic, they confronted environments hostile to their identities — while also reflecting on how Harvard fell short, both on campus and off.
The Journey to Develop Personalized Cancer Vaccines
A team of researchers developed personalized neoantigen vaccines for cancer patients. This January, they revealed astounding new results that may have far-reaching implications for the future of quick-acting and long-lasting cancer treatment.
Going Hungry at Harvard
While many view Harvard graduate students as members of the privileged elite, studying in Cambridge often requires students to endure precarious material conditions. A backdrop of high rent, low pay, and expensive groceries becomes acutely visible in their daily struggles to find their next meal.