Postdoctoral fellow Steve Ramirez speaks with Bob Seay, host of WGBH’s Morning Edition, about his work with memory manipulation, which could be helpful for patients with PTSD or Alzheimer’s. Ramirex explains that his research shows the proof of principle “that we can go in and isolate one memory in the brain.”
Prof. Thomas Levenson writes for The Boston Globe about the MRI Prof. Rebecca Saxe’s created of herself and her infant son. “Art does many things, but certainly one of them is to give us images that confront us with shards of the strange experience of being human,” writes Levenson. “Science, an artful craft, can do the same — as it does here.”
Prof. Rebecca Saxe writes for Smithsonian about an MRI she created of herself and her infant son. Saxe writes that while maternal values are "venerated, they are usually viewed in opposition to other values: inquiry and intellect, progress and power. But I am a neuroscientist, and I worked to create this image; and I am also the mother in it.”
Prof. John Gabrieli speaks with WGBH’s Arun Rath about the effectiveness of standardized testing in the U.S. Gabrieli explains that researchers have, “consistently found academic achievement tests of the kind given by states in the United States correlate considerably with other independent measures of cognitive ability.”
STAT reporter Andrew Joseph writes about optogenetics and Prof. Edward Boyden’s work developing this technique for turning neurons on and off. “There are just huge frontiers out there for which optogenetics will be one of our most powerful tools,” said Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute.
Boston Globe reporter Felicia Gans writes that a number of MIT researchers have been honored “by the Breakthrough Prize organization, which honors scientists worldwide for their pioneering research.”
Prof. Edward Boyden has been honored as one of the recipients of the Breakthrough Prize, reports Sarah McBride for Reuters. Boyden is being recognized for his work “developing and implementing optogenetics,” writes McBride, which could open “a new path to treatments for Parkinson’s, depression, Alzheimer’s and blindness.”
Writing for Scientific American, Simon Makin explores the many applications of optogenetics, a tool developed by Prof. Edward Boyden, for which he was recently honored with a Breakthrough Prize. Makin explains that, “researchers have devised ways of broadening optogenetics to enter into a dynamic dialogue with the signals moving about inside functioning brains.”
Tina Casey reports for Popular Science that several MIT researchers have been honored with Breakthrough Prizes. Casey writes that Prof. Edward Boyden was honored for his work creating optogenetics, Prof. Joseph Formaggio and his team were honored for their research on neutrinos, and Profs. Larry Guth and Liang Fu won New Horizons Prizes.
In an article for The New Yorker, Michael Specter writes about Prof. Feng Zhang and his work with CRISPR. Specter writes that Zhang was first inspired to pursue a career in science when he attended Saturday morning molecular biology classes as a middle school student. Zhang recalls that the class, “really opened my imagination.”
In an article for Science, Rhitu Chatterjee writes about Project Prakash, an effort started by Prof. Pawan Sinha to help children with preventable or treatable blindness see. Chatterjee writes that the project has brought hundreds of young people, “into the light—while putting the field of visual neuroscience in a new light as well.”
MIT researchers have identified the brain circuit that process the “when” and “where” components of memories, reports Robby Berman for Slate. “The newly discovered circuit connects the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex,” writes Berman. “The entorhinal cortex splits each memory into two streams of information: one for location and one for timing.”
Lindsay Kalter reports for The Boston Herald that researchers from MIT, Philips, and Boston Medical Center are developing a non-invasive way to diagnose head injuries. Kalter explains that the study is part of a new collaboration between MIT and Philips and will “use data from an ultrasound machine taking measurements of blood pressure and flow.”
Researchers from MIT, Philips and Boston Medical Center are collaborating on new technology to diagnose brain injuries, reports Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. “The goal is to investigate whether ultrasound readers can help doctors assess the severity of a head injury,” Subbaraman writes.
Alexandra Ossola writes for Popular Science that MIT researchers have found a molecule that could make the CRISPR gene-editing technique more precise. The new molecule “makes the editing process easier to control and could create new possibilities for how scientists can edit DNA in the future.”