Broad Institute

Writing for Forbes, Arvid Ernst Gollwitzer, a research scholar at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, spotlights FINGERS-7B, an AI foundation model for Alzheimer’s prevention his research team developed at MIT. “By analyzing signals spanning everything from genetic risk factors to long-term environmental exposures, the model detects patterns that no single-domain approach could find,” writes Gollwitzer. “These patterns, which we call multi-omic precision signatures, represent a new kind of biomarker for gauging early disease risk.” 

Sonia Vallabh, Director of Prion Therapeutic Science at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, speaks to Nature’s Josie Glausiusz about her journey co-leading an initiative to develop preventive drugs for prion disease, a rare, lethal neurodegenerative disease that is caused by misfolded proteins that kill neurons. “In pre-symptomatic people at risk, if we can lower the amount of normal protein, I’m hoping we can delay or even prevent the formation of the first misfolded prion,” says Vallabh.  

As an alternative to sticky electrode pads, Visiting Research Scientist Ankan Dutta helped develop a safe and reliable polymer electrode that can be painted right onto the skin to track muscle activity, heart rate, and brain waves with 95.1% consistency, explains Gizmodo reporter Matthew Phelan. “[E]lectrodes can be designed with cartoon patterns, which may reduce anxiety and improve acceptance among pediatric users by making EP [electrophysiology] monitoring less intimidating,” the researchers suggest.  
 

Research Affiliates Mathilde Poyet and Mathieu Groussin are featured by The New York Times Magazine reporter Jeneen Interlandi for their comprehensive fieldwork collecting diverse, microbial samples from communities across the globe to understand how differences in diet, lifestyle and industrialization affect microbiome health. “Microbes don’t like antibiotics, for obvious reasons,” Groussin says. “They don’t like C-sections, which rob them of the opportunity to colonize new human territory. And they hate ultra processed diets. All three of those are more prevalent in an industrialized world.” 

For Scientific American’s special section “The Young American Scientists,” Prof. Feng Zhang speaks with Tara Haelle about the importance of investing in science and education, noting that “American science has long been the strongest engine of discovery and innovation in the world.” Zhang shares: “I’m fortunate to work with extraordinary students and postdocs, but the infrastructure that lets them do their best work is under real stress: funding instability..., immigration uncertainty for international scientists and an erosion of public trust in expertise. We can lose the lead rapidly if we do not protect our innovation ecosystem.” 

Reporting for CNN, Caleb Hellerman spotlights how MIT computer scientists developed an AI program called Sybil that can “‘look’ at a single CT scan and generate a ‘risk score’ corresponding to the likelihood of the person developing cancer over any period up to six years.”

Prof. Angela Belcher and Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia chat with Edgar B. Herwick III of GBH’s The Curiosity Desk about their efforts aimed at improving diagnostics for ovarian cancer. “We now know that ovarian cancer doesn’t originate in the ovaries. About 80% of the time, ovarian cancer starts in the fallopian tubes, but it can sit there as this precancerous lesion,” explains Belcher. “There’s new technologies that can be invented and developed to detect it much earlier, because if it’s detected earlier…there’s such an opportunity to make an impact.”  

Early research from MIT scientists suggests that over time a high-fat diet can impact the liver in a way that may raise the risk of cancer. “When the liver repeatedly processes large amounts of fat, its main working cells stop focusing on breaking down nutrients and filtering toxins,” writes Deirdre Bardolf for Fox News. “They revert to a more primitive state to help them endure the strain of a fatty diet, a shift researchers associate with tumorigenesis, the process by which cancer can develop.” 

Prof. James Collins and his colleagues are using AI to develop new compounds to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria, reports Lisa M. Krieger for the San Francisco Chronicle. Thus far, “Collins and his colleagues have synthesized several compounds that combat hard-to-treat infections of gonorrhea and MRSA,” writes Krieger. “These techniques are also being harnessed to fight diseases, like cancer, lupus and arthritis.” 

Prof. James Collins speaks with Financial Times reporter Patrick Temple-West about his work using AI to design new antibiotic compounds to combat drug-resistant bacteria. “At present, the [AI] models are doing quite well at designing compounds that can attack in a Petri dish,” says Collins. 

Researchers at MIT are using AI systems to design new molecules for potential antibiotics, research that is “aimed at the growing challenge of antibiotic-resistant infections,” reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. “The number of resistant bacterial pathogens has been growing, decade upon decade,” says Prof. James Collins. “And the number of new antibiotics being developed has been dropping, decade upon decade.” 

Jon Arizti Sanz PhD '24 and postdoctoral associate Ren Hao Soon have been named to the 2025 cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “This year’s class of 32 fellows are all recent PhDs who’ve been identified as some of the most outstanding early-career scientists in the world,” explains Nietzel.

MIT has multiple projects represented in this year’s STAT Madness, a bracket-style competition “highlighting important scientific advances emerging from labs at the nation’s universities, medical schools, and other U.S. research institutions and companies,” reports STAT staff.

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that the long-term consumption of “processed red meat, such as hot dogs, sausage, and bacon, is linked to an elevated risk of dementia,” reports Kay Lazar for The Boston Globe. The researchers “found that eating about two servings per week of processed red meat, which includes some cold cuts, correlated with a 13 percent higher risk of dementia compared to those who ate less than roughly three servings a month,” reports Lazar. 

MIT Profs. Angela Belcher, Emery Brown, Paula Hammond and Feng Zhang have been honored with National Medals of Science and Technology, reports Michael T. Neitzel for Forbes. Additionally, R. Lawrence Edwards '76 received a National Medal of Science and Noubar Afeyan PhD '87, a member of the MIT Corporation, accepted a National Medal on behalf of Moderna. The recipients have been awarded “the nation’s highest honors for exemplary achievements and leadership in science and technology,” explains Neitzel.