Biological engineering

From left to right, top to bottom: Suzanne Flynn, Wesley L. Harris, Eric Klopfer, Douglas A. Lauffenburger, John J. Leonard, Arthur B. Baggeroer

Six MIT faculty elected 2019 AAAS Fellows

Baggeroer, Flynn, Harris, Klopfer, Lauffenburger, and Leonard are recognized for their efforts to advance science.

November 26, 2019

Alveolar rhabomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer

Taking a moonshot at a rare childhood cancer

Team of researchers including MIT Professor Angela Koehler obtains $5.8 million grant to study fusion-positive alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.

November 20, 2019

Faculty, staff, and graduate students gathered for a luncheon and awards ceremony celebrating MIT’s 2020 Siebel Scholars.

Sixteen grad students named to the Siebel Scholars class of 2020

MIT students from the fields of bioengineering, business, computer science, and energy science receive the prestigious awards.

November 12, 2019

Graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduate UROP students presented their research to members of the MIT community, alumni, and industry representatives at the sixth annual Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition.

Students present mechanical engineering projects that have global impact

At the sixth annual Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition, graduate students and postdocs sharpen their communication and presentation skills.

October 29, 2019

Eric Alm and Peter Dedon receive NIH Transformative Research Award

Award will support interdisciplinary research on the role of the human microbiome in health and disease.

October 24, 2019

American Physical Society honorees (left to right): Richard Milner and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, professors of physics, and James Collins, professor of biological engineering.

American Physical Society honors three MIT professors for physics research

James Collins, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, and Richard Milner have won top prizes for their work.

October 24, 2019

MIT researchers have found a way to generate many pairs of signaling proteins that don’t cross-talk with each other or with naturally occurring signaling proteins found in bacterial cells.

Biologists build proteins that avoid crosstalk with existing molecules

Engineered signaling pathways could offer a new way to build synthetic biology circuits.

October 23, 2019

Cell stiffness may indicate whether tumors will invade

Study shows tumors with softer, larger cells at their periphery are more likely to spread; may suggest new route for cancer therapy.

October 21, 2019

“The major research directions and technology platforms that [my] lab is known for today came out of this process where the students or I had a crazy idea, and then the lab executed on it, with all the twists and turns along the way,” says Paul Blainey, associate professor of biological engineering.

Biological engineer Paul Blainey creates new tools to advance biomedical research

His technology platforms have benefited genomics, diagnostics, and drug screening.

October 19, 2019

In situ sequencing identifies the gene knockout in each cell of a pooled CRISPR library. Fluorescence microscopy records both cellular phenotypes and sequencing data (cell nuclei are depicted in gray and the nucleotide bases are green = guanine, red = thymine, magenta = adenine and cyan = cytosine).

Imaging combined with genetic screening of cells enhances genomic discoveries

New image-based genetic screening method helps researchers identify key regulators of inflammation.

October 17, 2019

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of the polymer network that makes up mucins.

Study reveals how mucus tames microbes

Specialized sugar molecules called glycans can disarm opportunistic pathogens and prevent infection.

October 14, 2019

In the top row, neurons are labeled with a fluorescent probe that reveals electrical activity. In the bottom row, neurons are labeled with a variant of the probe that accumulates specifically in the neuron cell bodies, preventing interference from axons of neighboring neurons.

New method visualizes groups of neurons as they compute

Fluorescent probe could allow scientists to watch circuits within the brain and link their activity to specific behaviors.

October 9, 2019

Vijay Raj Singh, SMART research scientist, and Zahid Yaqoob, MIT LBRC principal investigator, study tumor cells using the new confocal reflectance interferometric microscope.

Diagnosing cellular nanomechanics

SMART has developed a new way to study cells, paving the way for a better understanding of how cancers spread and become deadly.

October 7, 2019

An integrated artificial gut platform developed at Lincoln Laboratory allows researchers to accurately emulate the colon, opening the way to precise testing of the human microbiome.

Artificial gut aims to expose the elusive microbiome

Testing platform will allow the research community to explore the human microbiome in new ways.

October 3, 2019

MIT engineers have programmed viruses called bacteriophages to kill different strains of E. coli, by making mutations in a viral protein that binds to host cells.

Engineered viruses could fight drug resistance

By tweaking bacteriophage genomes, MIT team creates a new weapon to combat infection.