Biology

MIT researchers have discovered a protein found in human sweat that holds antimicrobial properties and can “inhibit the growth of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease,” reports Matt Fortin for NENC. The team believes this “type of protein could be put into a topical cream to make something called ‘Lyme Block’ – like sunblock, but for preventing Lyme.”  "Ideally what we would love to do is give people more control over their own risk," says Principal Research Scientist Michal Tal. "And really try to develop this into a possible preventative that you could put on repellant or sunblock to protect against other elements of the outdoors that you could also protect yourself against Lyme."

Ms. Magazine reporter Kalindi Vora spotlights Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller and the legacy of her work in the field of science. “Through her work, [Keller] showed that objectivity, the key value of the sciences, is in fact always partially subjective,” writes Vora. “Her legacy demonstrates that diversifying the sciences will improve research and discovery.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have isolated a “protein in human sweat that protects against Lyme disease,” reports Matthew Rozsa for Salon. The researchers believe that if “properly harnessed the protein could form the basis of skin creams that either prevent the disease or treat especially persistent infections,” writes Rosza.

Bingxu Liu PhD '23 speaks with Science reporter Christie Wilcox about his work  studying STING, an immune protein that plays a key role in defending the human body against viruses, bacteria, and tumors. “STING is actually one of the most promising cancer immunotherapy targets,” explains Wilcox. “If you activate the STING pathway, it triggers a very strong immune response. But when it’s too strong, it can actually kill your T cells. Initial evidence suggest that T cells die because of some ion impact. Which begs the question: Can we just use STING to activate some parts of the immune response, like interferon, but also block the ion flow [that’s harming T cells]?” 

Prof. Jonathan Weissman and his colleagues have developed a new tool for monitoring changes in human blood cells, which could one day help researchers predict disease risk, reports Megan Molteni for STAT. “The technology paves the way for a day in the not too distant future where it is conceivable that from a simple blood draw, a doctor could get a sense of what’s going on in that patient’s bone marrow,” writes Molteni, “picking up perturbations there that could help predict a diverse range of diseases.”

Prof. Manolis Kellis speaks with Brian Bergstein of The Boston Globe’s “Say More” podcast about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on biological advances and medicine. “I would say there is no way to answer biological questions without computational science nowadays,” says Kellis. “The genome and all of the technologies that it enabled transformed biology into an information-based discipline.”

Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, whose “studies on gender and science, the role of language in shaping how we see and study the world,” and analysis of key concepts in modern biology contributed to the history and philosophy of modern biology, has died at age 87, reports Marga Vicedo for Nature. Keller “proposed abandoning the idea that genes are master molecules that provide the blueprints for and direct the development of an organism,” writes Vicedo. Keller also showed how language, including people’s choice of metaphors, influences the directions of scientific research.”

Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, “scientist, feminist scholar, and author of influential publications on genetics, developmental biology and scientific language,” has died at 87, reports Angela N. H. Creager for Science. “After training in physics and working in mathematical biology, Evelyn turned her attention to understanding how societal constructs, especially gender, guide science,” writes Creager. “She brought feminist insights into the history and philosophy of biology and sparked broader interdisciplinary conversations about the role of metaphor and rhetoric in science.”

Prof. Rudolf Jaenisch speaks with Fortune reporter Carolyn Barber about the immune system’s response to Covid-19. “The immune system is really stimulated–it’s in hyperdrive,” says Jaenisch. 

MIT researchers have “used an algorithm to sort through millions of genomes to find new, rare types of CRISPR systems that could eventually be adapted into genome-editing tools,” writes Sara Reardon for Nature. “We are just amazed at the diversity of CRISPR systems,” says Prof. Feng Zhang. “Doing this analysis kind of allows us to kill two birds with one stone: both study biology and also potentially find useful things.”

Professor Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, a MacArthur genius grant recipient, “theoretical physicist, philosopher and writer who viewed science through a feminist lens,” has died at 87, reports Georgina Ferry for The Guardian. Keller’s work explored “how the practice of science had come to be perceived as intrinsically masculine, and to think about what a gender-neutral science might look like,” writes Ferry. 

Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, a MacArthur genius grant winner who brought attention to gender bias in science has died at 87, writes Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “She was an icon,” says Prof. Sherry Turkle. Turkle notes that Keller’s “analysis was profound because you realized that the very words that you used to talk about doing an experiment — or learning, or what it meant to understand — was deeply gendered.”

Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, who was known for her work as a “theoretical physicist, a mathematical biologist and, beginning in the late 1970s, a feminist theorist who explored the way gender pervades and distorts scientific inquiry,” has died, reports Clay Risen for The New York Times. “Keller trained as a physicist and focused much of her early work on applying mathematical concepts to biology,” writes Risen. “But as the feminist movement took hold, she began to think critically about how ideas of masculinity and femininity had affected her profession.”

Michael Goldberg PhD '08 founded Surge Therapeutics, a company developing a hydrogel immunotherapy treatment aimed at reducing the risk of surgically-removed cancers returning, reports India Rice for Forbes. “Broadly speaking, immunotherapy is a range of cancer treatments that aim to strengthen the immune system’s ability to fight cancer,” explains Rice. “But what makes Surge’s solution different is that it’s applied during surgery as opposed to other immunotherapies that are delivered weeks before or weeks after surgery.”

MIT has been selected as the world’s best university in the 2024 QS World University Rankings, reports Cecilia Rodriguez for Forbes. MIT has secured “the top position for the 12^th consecutive year,” writes Rodriguez.