One of the great benefits of studying life sciences through HILS is the student’s ability to use research facilities across Harvard University.

See our comprehensive list of facilities below. Many of these facilities are used by faculty members—and students—from across Harvard’s various Schools. They are listed separately for convenience.
 

Cambridge Campus Facilities

The Cambridge campus provides graduate students in the life sciences with superlative facilities to conduct cutting-edge research, including:

• FAS Center for Systems Biology
• Life Sciences DNA Sequencing Facility
• Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) Facilities (Imaging & Analysis, Nanofabrication, Materials Synthesis, NNIN/C Computational Facilities)
• Genome Modifcation Facility
• Harvard University Herbaria
• MCB Imaging Center
• Microchemistry and Proteomics Analysis Facility
• The Museum of Comparative Zoology
• Q-Bot 

Medical School Facilities

The Medical Area in Boston comprises one of the most concentrated areas of scientific research facilities in the United States. About half of the Medical School faculty is based in pre-clinical departments on the Medical School Quadrangle.

Core facilities include:

• Biopolymers Facility
• Cell Biology Confocal Microscopy Facility
• Nikon Imaging Center
• Cell Biology Conventional Electron Microscopy Facility
• Cell Biology Molecular Electron Microscopy Facility
• Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center DNA Resource Core
• Quad Machine Shop: Designers and Builders of Custom Medical Research Tools
  
  

Many faculty have their laboratories at some of the world’s premier medical research facilities, located at the Harvard Medical School and throughout the greater Boston area.  These include:

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• Broad Institute
• Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute (PCMM/IDI)
• Children’s Hospital
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Forsyth Institute
• Joslin Diabetes Center
• Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• McLean Hospital
• Mount Auburn Hospital
• New England Regional Primate Research Center
• Schepens Eye Research Institute/Retina Foundation
• Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
• Jamaica Plain Campus, Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare System
  
  

School of Public Health Facilities

Research institutes and centers include:

• Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research
• Center for Health Communication
• Center for Health Promotion
• François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
• Harvard AIDS Institute
• Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
• Harvard Center for Risk Analysis
• Harvard Center for Society and Health
• Harvard Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health
• Harvard Injury Control Research Center
• Harvard NIEHS Center for Environmental Health
• Center for Health Decision Science
  
  

School of Dental Medicine Facilities

• HSDM Core Laboratories (includes microscopy, cell culture, injection, histology, cold room, and radioisotope facilities)
• The Laboratory for Innovative Translational Technologies
• Facilities Available at the HSDM-affiliated Forsyth Institute Include:
  
  • Flow Cytometry Core Facility
  • Bioinfomatics Core Facility
  • Imaging Services
  • Microbial Microarray Core Facility
  • Biostructure Core Facility
  • Biostatistics Core Facility
  • Forsyth Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry
  • Molecular Biology Core Facility

Harvard Core Facilities

Core Facilities (“Cores”) are shared central laboratories, each capable of performing a specific set of experimental functions that enable investigators to perform experiments more efficiently and at a more affordable cost. Cores thus facilitate research activity by providing resources and services that are beyond the means of most individual labs. Harvard is fortunate to have a world-class array of these important resources, some of which are shown above.

HILS has assembled a comprehensive reference inventory of University-wide Core Facilities that are of interest to life sciences PhD students. This listing is formatted as an excel spreadsheet, and is searchable using excel search and sorting tools.

Each Core lab observes its own set of policies and procedures; be sure to contact each Core's administrative staff to confirm its fit with your research interest and your access to it. 

• University-Wide Core Facilities Inventory
  
  

Another useful list of Harvard's Core Facilities has been compiled by the Harvard Catalyst group. Click here to access their database.