Research from Synlogic, a biotech company founded by Profs James Collins and Timothy Lu, has found that it’s the company’s engineered bacteria could provide some benefit to patients with a rare genetic disease, reports Emily Mullin for Wired. “Similar to how you might program a computer, we can tinker with the DNA of bacteria and have them do things like produce a drug at the right time and the right place, or in this case, break down a toxic metabolite,” says Lu.
Scientists from MIT, Duke and Stanford have developed a new technique to make gene therapies safer and more effective, reports Ryan Cross for The Boston Globe. “It’s about making these therapies much smarter and programmable,” says Jonathan S. Gootenberg, a research scientist at the McGovern Institute.
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, MIT Prof. Katherine Kellogg and Stanford Prof. Melissa Valentine explore the challenges of introducing AI technologies in the workplace, focusing on the fashion industry. "Getting workers to actually use the technologies will turn out to be just as important as making sure the systems work in the first place," they write.
Prof. Charles Stewart III speaks with Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo about why voters are given provisional ballots. “They are a fail-safe method to ensure that everyone who is registered to vote gets to cast a ballot,” says Stewart.
CNBC reporter Catherine Clifford spotlights C16 Biosciences, a startup co-founded by MIT alumni that is developing a palm oil alternative called Palmless. “What we are building is a platform technology that can produce all different kinds of microbial oils,” explains David Heller ’18, co-founder and head of operations at C16 Biosciences. “It’s definitely possible that we’re able to make other kinds of vegetable oil replacements in the future.”
Prof. M. Taylor Fravel speaks with Bloomberg News reporter Iain Marlow about the U.S. - China relationship. “I do not expect U.S. - China relations to improve,” said Fravel. “The only question is how much further they will deteriorate and if the relationship will shift from one of competition to one of hostile confrontation.”
Prof. Kieran Setiya’s new book, “Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way,” is a “lovely, empathetic book,” writes Boston Globe reporter Meredith Goldstein. In a discussion with Goldstein about self-help and philosophy, Setiya noted that in his view “the ideal form of engagement with philosophy is active rather than passive.”
Prof. Kripa Varanasi and his colleagues have founded Alsym Energy, a startup working toward developing a lithium battery alternative, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. The founders say “they’ve built a new kind of rechargeable battery that delivers the performance of lithium ion cells at half the cost,” writes Bray.
MIT has been named one of the top universities in the country for educating students that go on to found venture-capital-backed startups, according to PitchBook’s annual rankings, reports Steph Solis for Axios.
Prof. Matthew Wilson speaks with National Geographic reporter Brian Handwerk about his research exploring the science behind whether animals have dreams. “We have this idea of dreams being a confabulatory narrative with kind of crazy, vivid elements to it,” says Wilson. “But when we look into animal models, we’re simply trying to understand what goes on during sleep that might influence learning, memory, and behavior.”
Profs. Daron Acemoglu and David Autor speak with New York Times correspondent Thomas B. Edsall about the forces driving working-class voters towards the Republican party. “Elites are making choices that are not good news for non-college workers,” said Acemoglu. “In fact, they are bad news for most workers.”
Vaxxes, a Cambridge startup based on research conducted at MIT and Tufts University, is working toward “the creation of a vaccine that’s easy to use, doesn’t require refrigeration, and releases slowly in the skin for a stronger immune response,” reports Ryan Cross for The Boston Globe.
QuEra, co-founded by faculty from MIT and Harvard, is a quantum computing startup that uses “neutral atoms in a vacuum chamber and use lasers to cool and control them,” reports Jane Lanhee Lee for Reuters. The startup has announced its “computer is now accessible to the public through Amazon.com cloud’s quantum compute service Braket,” writes Lee.
QuEra Computing, a cloud-based quantum computer service co-founded by faculty from MIT and Harvard, has “teamed up with Amazon’s AWS cloud service to sell online access to the device,” reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. The device “can be used by universities and corporate researchers worldwide for a variety of advanced tasks, like simulating the behavior of subatomic particles or developing new chemical compounds,” writes Bray.
MIT researchers have developed a new machine learning model that can identify and track blobs of plasma created in controlled nuclear-fusion research, reports Ed Browne for Newsweek. “Fusion research is a complex, multidisciplinary project that requires technologies from many fields,” explains graduate student Woonghee “Harry” Han.