Alexandra Sifferlin of TIME reports that researchers from the Broad Institute have uncovered a new way to detect risk of blood cancer. The researchers found that “certain mutations that are not present at birth but instead develop as a person ages—called somatic mutations—may be indicators for later blood cancers,” Sifferlin explains.
Richard Knox writes for WBUR about Grace Silva, a cancer patient whose tumor was analyzed by a team from MIT and Harvard. The team uncovered genetic mutations in her tumor that allowed them to treat her with a drug matched precisely to her condition, a model for how cancer researchers hope to eventually treat all patients.
Kat McGowan of The Scientific American cites research by Professor Angelica Amon that indicates recent findings may overestimate the amount of genetic variation in healthy human bodies. “Having the wrong chromosome number is not a good thing,” says Amon.
Jeremy Hobson interviews Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia about her work 3-D printing tiny human livers on NPR’s Here and Now. The livers are, “about the size of the pin of a needle, and they allow us to do drug testing to test if drugs would be safe when they got into humans,” Bhatia explains.
The Boston Globe profiles Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia and the new low-cost urine test she developed to detect cancer, as well as her work applying engineering techniques to medicine.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new method to diagnosis cancer, writes Liat Clark in Wired. The new technique, which identifies proteins in urine associated with cancer, works like a pregnancy test and could be used to improve cancer care in developing nations, Clark reports.
WBUR reporter Carey Goldberg highlights a new technique developed by MIT researchers, “just out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that describes success in diagnosing cancer with a simple, paper-based test — an advance that could be particularly important for the developing countries where 70 percent of cancer deaths now occur.”