Biological engineering

From left to right: Polina Anikeeva, the Class of 1942 Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, and Feng Zhang, the James and Patricia Poitras ’63 Professor in Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute, a core member of the Broad Institute, and an associate professor in the departments of Brain and C...

Polina Anikeeva and Feng Zhang awarded 2018 Vilcek Prize

Prize recognizes contributions to biomedical research made by immigrant scientists.

February 1, 2018

George Church gave the first lecture in the Department of Biology’s four-part IAP seminar series, Biology at Transformative Frontiers.

Reading and writing DNA

Department of Biology kicks off IAP seminar series with a lecture by synthetic-biology visionary George Church.

January 31, 2018

Electron microscope images of marine bacteria infected with the non-tailed viruses studied in this research. The bacterial cell walls are seen as long double lines, and the viruses are the small round objects with dark centers.

New type of virus found in the ocean

The unusual characteristics of these abundant, bacteria-killing viruses could lead to evolutionary insights.

January 24, 2018

Postdoc Kathryn Kauffman and former guest researcher Aidong Ruan process ocean water samples at Canoe Cove in Nahant, Massachusetts. The researchers were observing how microbial communities change over time in a particular location.

Microbial communities demonstrate high turnover

New research provides insight into the behavior of microbial communities in the ocean.

January 18, 2018

Members of the MIT engineering faculty annually receive a myriad of honors and awards in recognition of their scholarship, service, and overall excellence.

School of Engineering fourth quarter 2017 awards

Faculty members were recognized for excellence via a diverse array of honors, grants, and prizes over the last quarter.

January 16, 2018

In the continuous-flow liquid-liquid separator developed by MIT spinout Zaiput Flow Technologies, liquid mix (blue and pink) is pumped through a feed tube to a porous polymer membrane (dotted line). One liquid (pink) is drawn to the surface of the membrane, while the other (blue) is repelled. An internal mechanical pressure controller maintains a slight pressure differential between the two sides ...

Drug manufacturing that’s out of this world

Continuous-flow chemistry device used for drug production could find use in long-duration space missions.

January 5, 2018

Microbiology Graduate PhD Program participants celebrate their 10-year anniversary at their fall 2017 retreat.

Celebrating a decade of interdisciplinary microbiology

The Microbiology Graduate PhD Program spans 50 labs across 10 departments and divisions, offering a broad approach to microbial science and engineering.

December 12, 2017

First row, left to right: Arvind Satyanarayan, Bryan Bryson, David Des Marais, Desiree Plata. Second row, left to right: Sili Deng, Wim van Rees, Farnaz Niroui, Julian Shun. Third row, left to right: Koroush Shirvan, Luca Carlone, Mingda Li, Phillip Isola. Fourth row, left to right: Rafael Gomez Bombarelli, Song Han, Tami Lieberman, Tim Kraska.

School of Engineering welcomes new faculty

Sixteen new professors join seven of the school’s departments.

December 8, 2017

MIT researchers have discovered a way to make bacteria more vulnerable to a class of antibiotics known as quinolones, which include ciprofloxacin and are often used to treat infections such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Boosting the antibiotic arsenal

New strategy could enable existing drugs to kill bacteria that cause chronic infections.

December 7, 2017

MIT engineers have devised a 3-D printing technique that uses a new kind of ink made from genetically programmed living cells.

Engineers 3-D print a “living tattoo”

New technique 3-D prints programmed cells into living devices for first time.

December 5, 2017

Through a Bridge Project collaboration with David Weinstock (left) of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), and MIT Professor Scott Manalis (center), cell-weighing technology is being evaluated in a clinical laboratory at DFCI. MIT visiting scientist Mark Stevens is pictured at right.

Over the river and do some good

The Bridge Project collaboration accelerates new, highly original, and powerful approaches to defeating cancer.

November 22, 2017

Cells pass through an sSMR device, which consists of multiple sensors that are fluidically connected in series and separated by delay channels (not all is shown). This design enables a stream of cells to flow through the device such that different sensors can concurrently weigh flowing cells in the stream.

Cell-weighing method could help doctors choose cancer drugs

Technique may predict which therapies a patient is most sensitive or resistant to.

November 20, 2017

“I think certainly there’s some promise in developing probiotics that could be targeted to possibly fixing some of the effects of a high-salt diet, but people shouldn’t think they can eat fast food and then pop a probiotic, and it will be canceled out,” says MIT Professor Eric Alm.

Gut microbes can protect against high blood pressure

Strain of intestinal bacteria can stop a high-salt diet from inducing inflammatory response linked to hypertension.

November 15, 2017

MIT researchers have devised a way to control single neurons using optogenetics. To help achieve this, they developed an opsin, or light-sensitive protein, that can be targeted to neuron cell bodies (bottom row). Neurons in the top row have traditional opsins that are distributed throughout their axons.

Next-generation optogenetic molecules control single neurons

Focused laser beam could help scientists map connections among neurons that underlie behavior.

November 13, 2017

By organizing pigments on a DNA scaffold, an MIT-led team of researchers has designed a light-harvesting material that closely mimics the structure of naturally occurring photosynthetic structures.

Synthetic circuits can harvest light energy

Novel structures made with DNA scaffolds could be used to create solar-powered materials.