Biogen will move its headquarters to MIT’s Kendall Common development in 2028, reports Catherine Carlock and Jonathan Saltzman for The Boston Globe. “Biogen has been a foundational presence in the Massachusetts life science ecosystem for close to half a century,” says Governor Maura Healey. “We are thrilled to see them begin a new era in our state.”
MIT researchers have developed a method to grow artificial muscle tissue that twitches and flexes in multiple, coordinated directions, and could be useful for building “biohybrid” robots, reports Andrew Corselli for Tech Briefs. Prof. Ritu Raman explains that her lab is focused on creating “artificial muscle tissues that can be used to understand and treat muscle diseases that impact healthy human mobility,” and making “safe muscle-powered robots that can perform complex tasks in dangerous environments that are not suitable for humans.”
Biogen will move its headquarters to a new facility at 75 Broadway in MIT’s Kendall Common development, reports Greg Ryan and Hannah Green for the Boston Business Journal. “The lease is one of the most significant life sciences real estate transactions in Greater Boston,” they write.
Sloan Lecturer Harvey Michaels speaks with Boston Globe reporter Scooty Nickerson about skyrocketing energy costs in Massachusetts. Michaels explains that one contributing factor is the vast but costly energy system that can supply heat during cold dips but is expensive to maintain. “It’s like having a fleet of planes flying around with very few passengers on them,” Michaels explains. “It’s going to be very expensive for the passengers that do fly” to make it worth it.
Prof. Sarah Williams speaks with Newsweek reporter Micah McCartney about how China’s construction boom lead to largely uninhabited developments dubbed “ghost cities”. Williams explains: “They needed a return on their investment, so they opened up new land and new loans for overleveraged real estate developers, so those developers could use these loans to pay back previous loans. The easy way to describe it is that it is a bit of a Ponzi scheme."
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Marketplace reporter Elizabeth Trovall about looming labor shortages within the caregiving industry and elder care. “We have no plan for credibly meeting that massive change in the long-term care needs of our population,” says Gruber.
President Sally Kornbluth shares her love of the Boston Pops with Boston Globe reporter Ian Prasad Philbrick in a roundup of the Greater Boston area’s historical sights, restaurants, art museums, and more. “They’re a great mixture of playful and serious," says Kornbluth of what makes the Pops such a standout cultural experience, "sort of a good microcosm of Boston.”
The Smoot Standard, a new neighborhood café, restaurant and bar has opened in Cambridge’s Central Square, reports Kara Baskin for The Boston Globe. “The name is an homage to Ollie Smoot, MIT ‘62, whose body was famously used to measure the Harvard Bridge in 1958 (which is 364.4 smoots),” explains Baskin.
CNBC reporter Kif Leswing spotlights Lisa Su '90, SM '91, PhD '94 and her work as CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). “On Su’s watch, AMD was the first major company to embrace a technology called ‘chiplets,’” writes Leswing. “Instead of manufacturing one big chip with all the elements needed — the compute cores as well as an input and output block — AMD could make smaller chips and then assemble them together.”
Prof. David Schmittlein, the longest serving dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management who was known for his role expanding Sloan’s international reach, has died at the age of 69, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Schmittlein “led initiatives introducing several new degree programs, redesigning the academic program portfolio while maintaining the MBA as the flagship degree, and diversifying executive offerings,” writes Marquard.
Prof. Dava Newman, director of the MIT Media Lab and former NASA deputy director, speaks with Blake Burman of NewsNation’s The Hill about how long-duration stays in space can affect the human body and how NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will reacclimate to Earth’s gravity. “Gravity is something! When you haven’t been in gravity” for nine months, Newman explains, “it’s going to take a week or two, it takes a month until you really get your motor control back. So just slow adaptation now.”
24M, an MIT startup, has been named to Fast Company’s list of the most innovative companies in the energy space for 2025, reports Alex Pasternack. The company “has been developing a portfolio of battery technologies designed to make batteries that are safer, cheaper, cleaner, and longer-lasting,” explains Pasternack. “Its technologies include a semisolid electrode for conventional and novel battery chemistries, which gives the battery more energy density and requires fewer materials, and a unique separator that monitors the cell and helps prevent the aberrations that cause shorts and fires.”
Prof. Jeffrey Harris speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about how a recession could impact Medicare. "A recession could impact many critical decisions of federal lawmakers, private insurers, healthcare providers, and patients,” says Harris. “The U.S. Congress may decide to let stand the Medicare physician payment cut that became effective on January 1 of this year. Reduced physician payments under conventional Medicare may cause doctors, hospitals and other providers to shift their resources toward the care of younger, commercially insured patients."
Ariel Ekblaw SM ’17, PhD ’20, founder of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, joins WCVB-TV to discuss the successful return of NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, and the impact of nine months in space on the human body. "When you're living in a long-duration microgravity mission, you do lose some of your muscle mass,” Ekblaw explains. “Your heart weakens because it's not having to pump your blood against the force of gravity. And even funny things like your eyesight can change because the shape of your eyeball is a little different in microgravity.”
Forbes reporter Tanya Arturi highlights research by Prof. Basima Tewfik on the impact of imposter syndrome. Tewfik’s “studies indicate that the behaviors exhibited by individuals experiencing imposter thoughts (such as increased effort in communication and interpersonal interactions) can actually enhance job performance,” explains Arturi. “Instead of resisting their feelings of self-doubt, professionals who lean into these emotions may develop stronger interpersonal skills, outperforming their non-imposter peers in collaboration and teamwork.”