Industrial yeasts are a powerhouse of protein production, used to manufacture vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, and other useful compounds. In a new study, MIT chemical engineers have harnessed artificial intelligence to optimize the development of new protein manufacturing processes, which could reduce the overall costs of developing and manufacturing these drugs. Using a large language model (LLM), […]
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The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has announced T. Alan Hatton, MIT’s Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering Practice, Post-Tenure, as the recipient of the 2026 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, recognizing his transformative leadership of the Institute’s David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice. The award citation highlights […]
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Generative artificial intelligence models have been used to create enormous libraries of theoretical materials that could help solve all kinds of problems. Now, scientists just have to figure out how to make them. In many cases, materials synthesis is not as simple as following a recipe in the kitchen. Factors like the temperature and length […]
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The modern world runs on chemicals and fuels that require a huge amount of energy to produce: Industrial chemical separation accounts for 10 to 15 percent of the world’s total energy consumption. That’s because most separations today rely on heat to boil off unwanted materials and isolate compounds. The MIT spinout Osmoses is making industrial […]
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MIT undergraduate Akorfa Dagadu has been named a Schwarzman Scholar and will join the program’s Class of 2026-27 scholars from 40 countries and 83 universities. This year’s 150 Schwarzman Scholars were selected for their leadership potential from a pool of over 5,800 applicants, the highest number in the Schwarzman Scholarship’s 11-year history. Schwarzman Scholars pursue […]
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Researchers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a new way to stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells, using a strategy that could make cancer immunotherapy work for many more patients. The key to their approach is reversing a “brake” that cancer cells engage to prevent immune cells from launching an attack. This […]
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Antibody treatments for cancer and other diseases are typically delivered intravenously, because of the large volumes that are needed per dose. This means the patient has to go to a hospital for every treatment, where they may spend hours receiving the infusion. MIT engineers have now taken a major step toward reformulating antibodies so that […]
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Capturing carbon dioxide from industrial plants is an important strategy in the efforts to reduce the impact of global climate change. It’s used in many industries, including the production of petrochemicals, cement, and fertilizers. MIT chemical engineers have now discovered a simple way to make carbon capture more efficient and affordable, by adding a common […]
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Students enrolled in MIT’s New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET) program recently collaborated across academic disciplines to design and construct a solar-powered charging station. Positioned in a quiet campus courtyard, the station provides the MIT community with climate-friendly power for phones, laptops, and tablets. Its installation marked the “first time a cross-departmental team of undergraduates designed, […]
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Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, an Institute Professor and MIT’s executive vice provost, has been named dean of MIT’s School of Engineering, effective Jan. 16. She will succeed Anantha Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who was appointed MIT’s provost in July. Hammond, who was head of the Department of Chemical […]
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Each year, faculty and researchers across the MIT School of Engineering are recognized with prestigious awards for their contributions to research, technology, society, and education. To celebrate these achievements, the school periodically highlights select honors received by members of its departments, institutes, labs, and centers. The following individuals were recognized in summer 2025: Iwnetim Abate, […]
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There is growing attention on the links between artificial intelligence and increased energy demands. But while the power-hungry data centers being built to support AI could potentially stress electricity grids, increase customer prices and service interruptions, and generally slow the transition to clean energy, the use of artificial intelligence can also help the energy transition. […]
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If there was one thing Cameron Halliday SM ’19, MBA ’22, PhD ’22 was exceptional at during the early days of his PhD at MIT, it was producing the same graph over and over again. Unfortunately for Halliday, the graph measured various materials’ ability to absorb CO2 at high temperatures over time — and it […]
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Vivian Chinoda ’25, Alice Hall, Sofia Lara, and Sophia Wang ’24 have been selected as 2026 Rhodes Scholars and will begin fully funded postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford in the U.K. next fall. Hall, Lara, and Wang, are U.S. Rhodes Scholars; Chinoda was awarded the Rhodes Zimbabwe Scholarship. The scholars were supported by Associate […]
Read MoreChina dominates the global supply of lithium. The country processes about 65 percent of the battery material and has begun on-again, off-again export restrictions of lithium-based products critical to the economy. Fortunately, the U.S. has significant lithium reserves, most notably in the form of massive underground brines across south Arkansas and east Texas. But recovering […]
Read More“MIT.nano is essential to making progress in high-priority areas where I believe that MIT has a responsibility to lead,” opened MIT president Sally Kornbluth at the 2025 Nano Summit. “If we harness our collective efforts, we can make a serious positive impact.” It was these collective efforts that drove discussions at the daylong event hosted […]
Read MoreMIT researchers have developed a lightweight polymer film that is nearly impenetrable to gas molecules, raising the possibility that it could be used as a protective coating to prevent solar cells and other infrastructure from corrosion, and to slow the aging of packaged food and medicines. The polymer, which can be applied as a film […]
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A new delivery particle developed at MIT could make mRNA vaccines more effective and potentially lower the cost per vaccine dose. In studies in mice, the researchers showed that an mRNA influenza vaccine delivered with their new lipid nanoparticle could generate the same immune response as mRNA delivered by nanoparticles made with FDA-approved materials, but […]
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A new 3D human brain tissue platform developed by MIT researchers is the first to integrate all major brain cell types, including neurons, glial cells, and the vasculature, into a single culture. Grown from individual donors’ induced pluripotent stem cells, these models — dubbed Multicellular Integrated Brains (miBrains) — replicate key features and functions of […]
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What if clinicians could place tiny electronic chips in the brain that electrically stimulate a precise target, through a simple injection in the arm? This may someday help treat deadly or debilitating brain diseases, while eliminating surgery-related risks and costs. MIT researchers have taken a major step toward making this scenario a reality. They developed microscopic, […]
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MIT engineers have developed a flexible drug-delivery patch that can be placed on the heart after a heart attack to help promote healing and regeneration of cardiac tissue. The new patch is designed to carry several different drugs that can be released at different times, on a pre-programmed schedule. In a study of rats, the […]
Read More MIT engineers have developed a flexible drug-delivery patch that can be placed on the heart after a heart attack to help promote healing and regeneration of cardiac tissue. The new patch is designed to carry several different drugs that can be released at different times, on a pre-programmed schedule. In a study of rats, the […]
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Cancer immunotherapy, which uses drugs that stimulate the body’s immune cells to attack tumors, is a promising approach to treating many types of cancer. However, it doesn’t work well for some tumors, including ovarian cancer. To elicit a better response, MIT researchers have designed new nanoparticles that can deliver an immune-stimulating molecule called IL-12 directly […]
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Some of the most expensive drugs currently in use are gene therapies to treat specific diseases, and their high cost limits their availability for those who need them. Part of the reason for the cost is that the manufacturing process yields as much as 90 percent non-active material, and separating out these useless parts is […]
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MIT professors Michael McDonald and Kristala Prather embody a form of mentorship defined not only by technical expertise, but by care. They remind us that the most lasting academic guidance is not only about advancing research, but about nurturing their students along the way. For McDonald’s students, his presence is one of deep empathy and […]
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For decades, synthetic biologists have been developing gene circuits that can be transferred into cells for applications such as reprogramming a stem cell into a neuron or generating a protein that could help treat a disease such as fragile X syndrome. These gene circuits are typically delivered into cells by carriers such as nonpathogenic viruses. […]
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Ammonia is one of the most widely produced chemicals in the world, used mostly as fertilizer, but also for the production of some plastics, textiles, and other applications. Its production, through processes that require high heat and pressure, accounts for up to 20 percent of all the greenhouse gases from the entire chemical industry, so […]
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At the heart of all lithium-ion batteries is a simple reaction: Lithium ions dissolved in an electrolyte solution “intercalate” or insert themselves into a solid electrode during battery discharge. When they de-intercalate and return to the electrolyte, the battery charges. This process happens thousands of times throughout the life of a battery. The amount of […]
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A genome-editing technique known as prime editing holds potential for treating many diseases by transforming faulty genes into functional ones. However, the process carries a small chance of inserting errors that could be harmful. MIT researchers have now found a way to dramatically lower the error rate of prime editing, using modified versions of the […]
Read MoreBefore batteries lose power, fail suddenly, or burst into flames, they tend to produce faint sounds over time that provide a signature of the degradation processes going on within their structure. But until now, nobody had figured out how to interpret exactly what those sounds meant, and how to distinguish between ordinary background noise and […]
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At MIT, a few scribbles on a whiteboard can turn into a potentially transformational cancer treatment. This scenario came to fruition this week when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a system for treating an aggressive form of bladder cancer. More than a decade ago, the system started as an idea in the lab […]
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