Biological engineering

STAT reporter Kate Sheridan writes about MIT startup SQZ Biotech, which is developing a “technology that will squeeze cells to open up tiny pores in their membranes to deliver gene therapies or medicines straight into the cell.”

Prof. Linda Griffith speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Mark Ellwood about her work developing a new device that allows researchers to test how a drug affects the human body. Ellwood notes that the technology that Griffith and her team have created “could prove vital for rapidly releasing new vaccines.”

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi spoke at MIT’s Open Endoscopy Forum, where she discussed her past experience with sexual assault and her personal fight with endometriosis. Lakshmi “has been a longtime advocate of raising awareness for endometriosis since being diagnosed as a teen,” write Megan Johnson and Joelle Goldstein for People. 

“Top Chef” star Padma Lakshmi has been named a visiting scholar at MIT’s Center for Gynepathology Research and will be speaking at the center’s Open Endoscopy Forum, according to the Boston Herald. The forum will feature “top MIT minds and medical experts, all of whom will shine light on the push to make improvements within the specialty.”

In an article for The New York Times, Prof. Alan Jasanoff reviews Eric Kandel’s book, “The Disordered Mind.” Jasanoff writes that the book provides an engaging “overview of contemporary thinking about the intersection of mental health and neuroscience.”

Molly Webster of WNYC’s Radiolab visits the Picower Institute to learn more about how researchers are investigating new techniques that might eventually be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Prof. Li-Huei Tsai speaks about her group’s work using flickering light to reduce the beta amyloid plaque found in Alzheimer’s patients, and graduate student Dheeraj Roy discusses his work recovering memories with light.

CNN reporter Bronte Lord spotlights Prof. Kevin Esvelt’s proposal to introduce genetically engineered mice to the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in an effort to stop the spread of Lyme disease. "We want to heritably immunize the local white-footed mice," Esvelt explains. "The idea is fewer infected ticks means fewer infected kids."

Yahoo! reporter Elise Solé highlights how Alejandra Falla successfully completed her PhD studies at MIT while pregnant with her daughter, Clara. Clara sported a miniature MIT regalia to Commencement. “It started as a joke but we decided that Clara had earned her Ph.D. in the womb,” says Falla. “She deserved to graduate with me.”

Researchers from a number of universities, including MIT, have developed a new refillable, implantable device that can deliver drugs to the heart tissue to help treat a heart attack, reports Xinhua. "After a heart attack we could use this device to deliver therapy to prevent a patient from getting heart failure," explains Prof. Ellen Roche.

Prof. Kevin Esvelt speaks with Dylan Matthews of Vox about the potential for a CRISPR gene drive to eradicate malaria. Esvelt considers both the risks and rewards of this approach, noting that “the future of our civilization will primarily be determined by the technologies we develop and the wisdom with which we choose to deploy them or refrain.”

Using specially engineered E. coli bacteria and electronics that fit into an ingestible pill, MIT researchers have created a device that can detect internal diseases and send wireless alerts, reports Karen Kaplan for The Los Angeles Times. The device could eliminate the need for colonoscopies, which alter “the physiology inside the intestines, potentially masking signs of disease,” explains Kaplan.

USA Today reporter Sean Rossman writes about how MIT researchers have created an ingestible sensor that can monitor the digestive tract and send information to a smartphone or tablet about a person’s health. Rossman explains that the device, “can detect blood in the stomach, something that would otherwise require an endoscopy and sedation.”

MIT researchers have developed an ingestible capsule that uses genetically engineered bacteria to detect potential health problems, reports Carla Johnson for the Associated Press. The researchers hope the capsule could eventually be used to, “find signs of ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease or even colon cancer.”

Wired reporter Megan Molteni writes that a team of MIT researchers has developed an ingestible sensor that could spot gastrointestinal issues. The sensor contains, “millions of genetically engineered glowing bacteria inside a AAA-battery-sized capsule,” Molteni explains.

Writing for the Boston Herald, Lindsay Kalter reports that MIT scientists have built an ingestible capsule that could allow doctors to diagnose gastrointestinal diseases without invasive procedures. Graduate student Mark Mimee explains that the device, “sets the stage for having a pill that can give you a big biochemical profile of the gut related to various diseases.”