In the Nov. 23 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there is an article co-written by Harvard associate professor of pathology Ulrich von Andrian entitled "A transgenic mouse model to analyze CD8+ effector T cell differentiation in vivo."

To a specialist in immunology, this is heart-pounding stuff, but it probably means little to anybody else. Here enters the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Office of Public Affairs.

One day before the article was released, the office sent out a press release: "License to Kill: Development of Killer T Cells Observable." It explains how this discovery could help doctors understand how HIV and cancer attack the immune system

Harvard's medical and public health faculties daily churn out some groundbreaking research that even scientific journalists can't make heads or tails of without help. So their press liaisons have a harder job than most--they have to interpret in order to inform.

"We provide the first translation of science into lay language," says Donald L. Gibbons, HMS Director of Public Affairs. "It is important that people have a lay language version that is correct."

Putting Out the Word

The HMS Office of Public Affairs is a 10-employee operation located in the basement of Building A on HMS' Longwood Campus in Boston.

Most press releases issued by the office are explanations, or self-described translations, of significant research coming out from HMS. The HMS Office of Public Affairs issued 33 press releases in the last year.