The joy of life (sciences)
Mary Gallagher’s deeply rooted MIT experience and love of all life supports growth at the MIT Department of Biology.
Five with MIT ties elected to National Academy of Medicine for 2025
Professors Facundo Batista and Dina Katabi, along with three additional MIT alumni, are honored for their outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
Neural activity helps circuit connections mature into optimal signal transmitters
Scientists identified how circuit connections in fruit flies tune to the right size and degree of signal transmission capability. Understanding this could lead to a way to tweak abnormal signal transmission in certain disorders.
MIT Schwarzman College of Computing welcomes 11 new faculty for 2025
The faculty members occupy core computing and shared positions, bringing varied backgrounds and expertise to the MIT community.
Gene-Wei Li named associate head of the Department of Biology
The associate professor aims to help the department continue to be a worldwide leader in education, biological sciences, and fundamental research.
Immune-informed brain aging research offers new treatment possibilities, speakers say
Speakers at MIT’s Aging Brain Initiative symposium described how immune system factors during aging contribute to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other conditions. The field is leveraging that knowledge to develop new therapies.
Engineered “natural killer” cells could help fight cancer
A new study identifies genetic modifications that make these immune cells, known as CAR-NK cells, more effective at destroying cancer cells.
A cysteine-rich diet may promote regeneration of the intestinal lining, study suggests
The findings may offer a new way to help heal tissue damage from radiation or chemotherapy treatment.
The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests
MIT researchers traced chemical fossils in ancient rocks to the ancestors of modern-day demosponges.
How federal research support has helped create life-changing medicines
A new study finds over half the drugs approved this century cite government-funded research in their patents.
Inflammation jolts “sleeping” cancer cells awake, enabling them to multiply again
Chemotherapy-induced injury of organ tissue causes inflammation that awakens dormant cancer cells, which may cause new tumors to form.
A more precise way to edit the genome
MIT researchers have dramatically lowered the error rate of prime editing, a technique that holds potential for treating many genetic disorders.
Study finds cell memory can be more like a dimmer dial than an on/off switch
The findings may redefine how cell identity is established and enable the creation of more sophisticated engineered tissues.
Remembering David Baltimore, influential biologist and founding director of the Whitehead Institute
The longtime MIT professor and Nobel laureate was a globally respected researcher, academic leader, and science policy visionary who guided the careers of generations of scientists.
Locally produced proteins help mitochondria function
Researchers developed an approach to study where proteins get made, and characterized proteins produced near mitochondria, gaining potential insights into mitochondrial function and disease.