Covid-19 “super-spreading” events play outsized role in overall disease transmission
Mathematical analysis suggests that preventing large gatherings could significantly reduce Covid-19 infection rates.
Department
Biological Engineering
Activist and scholar Angela Davis addresses racism in MIT webcast
Davis, in conversation with Senior Associate Dean Blanche Staton, fields questions from the MIT community about the current moment of racial reckoning.
“The Age of Living Machines” honored by the American Institute of Physics
Author Susan Hockfield, MIT president emerita and professor of neuroscience, receives 2020 Science Communication Award.
AI Cures: data-driven clinical solutions for Covid-19
MIT conference illustrates technologies developed in response to the pandemic and new opportunities for AI solutions for clinical management.
Silencing gene expression to cure complex diseases
Immuneering uses bioinformatics to develop new medicines while also helping large pharmaceutical companies improve their treatments.
Universities should lead the way on climate action, MIT panelists say
An online symposium explores roles for research universities and outlines the Institute’s efforts to be a testbed for research and policy innovations.
Learning by doing, remotely
Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, MIT students have carved out meaningful hands-on experiences.
Machine learning uncovers potential new TB drugs
Computational method for screening drug compounds can help predict which ones will work best against tuberculosis or other diseases.
To make mini-organs grow faster, give them a squeeze
Study finds that compressing cells, and crowding their contents, can coax them to grow and divide.
3 Questions: Ram Sasisekharan on hastening vaccines and treatments
Biological engineer discusses condensing the time taken to develop therapeutics down from many years to a matter of months.
Three from MIT receive National Health Institute Awards
Michael Birnbaum, Anders Hansen, and Tami Lieberman receive NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program.
Cancer researchers collaborate, target DNA damage repair pathways for cancer therapy
MIT researchers find blocking the expression of the genes XPA and MK2 enhances the tumor-shrinking effects of platinum-based chemotherapies in p53-mutated cancers.
SMART researchers develop fast and efficient method to produce red blood cells
New technology cuts cell culture time by half and uses more targeted cell sorting and purification methods.
Rapid test for Covid-19 shows improved sensitivity
A CRISPR-based test developed at MIT and the Broad Institute can detect nearly as many cases as the standard Covid-19 diagnostic.
A new way to make bacteria more sensitive to antibiotics
SMART researchers find exposing bacteria to hydrogen sulfide can increase antimicrobial sensitivity in bacteria that do not produce H2S.