Landmark Bio, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing company co-founded by MIT and a number of other institutions, is focused on accelerating access to innovative therapies for patients, reports Rowan Walrath for Boston Business Journal. "Landmark's new facility includes laboratory space for research and early-stage drug development, as well as analytics tools,” writes Walrath.
MIT and a number of other local institutions have launched Landmark Bio, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing firm aimed at helping small startups develop experimental therapies that are reliable, consistent, and large enough to be used in clinical trials, reports Ryan Cross for The Boston Globe.
Prof. Alan Lightman is the host of an upcoming docuseries, Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science, which will premiere on PBS in January. “Lightman’s areas of inquiry are as vast as the universe and as tiny as the smallest particle of matter,” writes Matthew Carey for Deadline. He “brings to his explorations the rigor of a scientist and the artistic sensibility of a poet.”
Forbes contributor Anuradha Varanasi spotlights a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that finds that in China, “masks might function as a ‘moral symbol’ and decrease the likelihood of an individual engaging in any form of deviant behavior.”
Prof. Peter Shor has been named one of the winners of the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, reports Nature. “Shor’s most renowned contribution is the development of quantum algorithms for prime number factorization,” writes Nature.
Scientists at MIT have found that specific neurons in the human brain light up whenever we see images of food, reports Dr. Mallika Marshall for CBS Boston. “The researchers now want to explore how people’s responses to certain foods might differ depending on their personal preferences, likes and dislikes and past experiences,” Marshall.
MIT researchers have developed a new magnet-based system to monitor muscle movements that could help make prosthetic limbs easier to control, reports Brianna Silva for WHDH.
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Tech reporters Alex Tang, Eunice Zhang and Eva Ge about his tenure as president and offers advice to MIT’s students. “I honestly think that MIT is like a playground for grown-ups. It’s a place where you can learn and do almost anything you’re interested in,” says Reif. “Undergraduates are going to be here for four years. Learn as much as you can during those four years. Experiment as much as you can. Learn from each other as much as you can.”
The Economist highlights a paper by researchers from MIT and Stanford that finds new ideas are becoming harder to find in areas ranging from crop yields to microchip density. The Economist also spotlights how Prof. Danielle Li and Prof. Pierre Azoulay examined the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) model of funding and found that it “does best when its program directors have a clear understanding of the sort of breakthroughs that are needed.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that senior citizens in the U.S. are more likely to live independently if there are more immigrants in an area, reports Stuart Anderson for Forbes. “The study found a 10-percentage point increase in the less-educated immigrant population in an area reduces by 29% the probability someone 65 years or older would live in a nursing home or other institutional setting,” writes Anderson.
Prof. Mary Anne Ocampo speaks with Madame Architect reporter Gail Kutac about what inspired her passion for architecture and urban planning, and her advice for new designers. “The impact I would like to have in this world is creating strong collaborations that promote inclusive and resilient design visions,” says Ocampo. “To me, there’s this combination of understanding design as a process, and design as a commitment that helps us to recognize the ways we value our environment and people.”
Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with Forbes reporter John Koetsier about the future of robotics. “I have been on a quest to have universal machines,” says Rus. “My idea is to create universal robot cells that could combine to form different types of machines, each with the same capability.”
Ash Carter, a member of the MIT Corporation and innovation fellow, has died at the at the age of 68, reports Tara Copp for Associated Press. Carter – who opened combat jobs to women and ended the ban on transgender people serving in the military – was known “as a defensive thinker and strategist,” writes Copp.
Researchers at MIT are working on a system that can track the development of Parkinson’s disease by monitoring a person’s gait speed, reports Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch. “The MIT Parkinson’s-tracking effort aims to help clinicians overcome challenges in treating the estimated 10 million people afflicted by the disease globally,” writes Wiggers and Coldewey.
Research Scientist David Correll speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Cheryl Winokur Munk about the challenges companies are facing as they try to improve supply-chain sustainability. “Doing better at sustainability involves being closer and sharing information with some of your supply base,” says Correll. “There’s value to unlock through supplier development and collaboration in terms of innovation and resilience.”