Tag: Biological engineering

MIT spinout maps the body’s metabolites to uncover the hidden drivers of disease

Biology is never simple. As researchers make strides in reading and editing genes to treat disease, for instance, a growing body of evidence suggests that the proteins and metabolites surrounding those genes can’t be ignored. The MIT spinout ReviveMed has created a platform for measuring metabolites — products of metabolism like lipids, cholesterol, sugar, and […]

Read More

Engineers turn the body’s goo into new glue

Within the animal kingdom, mussels are masters of underwater adhesion. The marine molluscs cluster atop rocks and along the bottoms of ships, and hold fast against the ocean’s waves thanks to a gluey plaque they secrete through their foot. These tenacious adhesive structures have prompted scientists in recent years to design similar bioinspired, waterproof adhesives. […]

Read More

Pivot Bio is using microbial nitrogen to make agriculture more sustainable

The Haber-Bosch process, which converts atmospheric nitrogen to make ammonia fertilizer, revolutionized agriculture and helped feed the world’s growing population, but it also created huge environmental problems. It is one of the most energy-intensive chemical processes in the world, responsible for 1-2 percent of global energy consumption. It also releases nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse […]

Read More

Professor William Thilly, whose research illuminated the effects of mutagens on human cells, dies at 79

William Thilly ’67, ScD ’71, a professor in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering, died Dec. 24 at his home in Winchester, Massachusetts. He was 79. Thilly, a pioneer in the study of human genetic mutations, had been a member of the MIT faculty since 1972. Throughout his career, he developed novel ways to measure how […]

Read More

MIT affiliates awarded 2024 National Medals of Science, Technology

Four MIT faculty members are among 23 world-class researchers who have been awarded the nation’s highest honors for scientists and innovators, the White House announced today. Angela Belcher and Emery Brown were each presented with the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony this afternoon, and Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, and Feng […]

Read More

Bacteria in the human gut rarely update their CRISPR defense systems

Within the human digestive tract are trillions of bacteria from thousands of different species. These bacteria form communities that help digest food, fend off harmful microbes, and play many other roles in maintaining human health. These bacteria can be vulnerable to infection from viruses called bacteriophages. One of bacterial cells’ most well-known defenses against these […]

Read More

MIT-Kalaniyot launches programs for visiting Israeli scholars

Over the past 14 months, as the impact of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war has rippled across the globe, a faculty-led initiative has emerged to support MIT students and staff by creating a community that transcends ethnicity, religion, and political views. Named for a flower that blooms along the Israel-Gaza border, MIT-Kalaniyot began hosting weekly community lunches […]

Read More

MIT affiliates receive 2025 IEEE honors

The IEEE recently announced the winners of their 2025 prestigious medals, technical awards, and fellowships. Four MIT faculty members, one staff member, and five alumni were recognized. Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT, received the IEEE Frances […]

Read More

When MIT’s interdisciplinary NEET program is a perfect fit

At an early age, Katie Spivakovsky learned to study the world from different angles. Dinner-table conversations at her family’s home in Menlo Park, California, often leaned toward topics like the Maillard reaction — the chemistry behind food browning — or the fascinating mysteries of prime numbers. Spivakovsky’s parents, one of whom studied physical chemistry and […]

Read More

Artifacts from a half-century of cancer research

Throughout 2024, MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research has celebrated 50 years of MIT’s cancer research program and the individuals who have shaped its journey. In honor of this milestone anniversary year, on Nov. 19 the Koch Institute celebrated the opening of a new exhibition: Object Lessons: Celebrating 50 Years of Cancer Research at […]

Read More

Noninvasive imaging method can penetrate deeper into living tissue

Metabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses. But light scatters when it shines into biological tissue, limiting how deep it can penetrate and hampering the resolution of captured images. Now, MIT researchers have developed […]

Read More

When muscles work out, they help neurons to grow, a new study shows

There’s no doubt that exercise does a body good. Regular activity not only strengthens muscles but can bolster our bones, blood vessels, and immune system. Now, MIT engineers have found that exercise can also have benefits at the level of individual neurons. They observed that when muscles contract during exercise, they release a soup of […]

Read More

A causal theory for studying the cause-and-effect relationships of genes

By studying changes in gene expression, researchers learn how cells function at a molecular level, which could help them understand the development of certain diseases. But a human has about 20,000 genes that can affect each other in complex ways, so even knowing which groups of genes to target is an enormously complicated problem. Also, […]

Read More

Startup gives surgeons a real-time view of breast cancer during surgery

Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer and cause of cancer death for women in the United States, affecting one in eight women overall. Most women with breast cancer undergo lumpectomy surgery to remove the tumor and a rim of healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. After the procedure, the removed tissue is […]

Read More

A new approach to modeling complex biological systems

Over the past two decades, new technologies have helped scientists generate a vast amount of biological data. Large-scale experiments in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and cytometry can produce enormous quantities of data from a given cellular or multicellular system. However, making sense of this information is not always easy. This is especially true when trying to […]

Read More