A step toward biodegradable plastics
Chemists discover structure of bacterial enzyme that generates useful polymers.
Department
Biology
Predicting cancer cells’ response to chemotherapy
Measuring DNA repair capability can reveal tumors’ sensitivity to drugs.
Susan Lindquist, pioneering biologist and former director of Whitehead Institute, dies at 67
Biology professor and mentor to many investigated protein folding and its role in disease.
From MIT to the national stage
MassJAS Symposium at MIT selects talented high school students to showcase their science research at the 2017 AAAS annual meeting.
Four MIT professors named inaugural Faculty Scholars
New program from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Simons Foundation, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports early-career scientists.
MIT researchers prove fast microbial evolutionary bursts exist
Study reveals closely related microbes can diversify rapidly via horizontal gene transfer.
Linking RNA structure and function
Biologists have discovered how an enigmatic type of RNA helps to control cell fate.
J-WAFS Solutions program awards $750,000 in commercialization grants
Four new projects and one renewal receive $150,000 in funding for 2016-2017.
Research by MIT undergrad helps crack chemical mystery
Study finds enzyme “cannibalizes” itself to perform an essential reaction.
Targeting genes by the thousands
PhD student Tim Wang uses CRISPR to take a big-picture approach to cancer research.
Why working the night shift can pose a cancer risk
New study reveals a link between circadian clock disruption and tumor growth.
New clue to how lithium works in the brain
Biologists find a possible explanation for why the drug helps bipolar patients.
Engineers design programmable RNA vaccines
Tests in mice show the vaccines work against Ebola, influenza, and a common parasite.