Disease

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.  

Alumni Erin Dawicki MBA ‘24 and Michelle Ewy MBA ‘24 speak to Boston 25 about developing LymeAlert, the first at-home test kit to detect Lyme disease in ticks. “The faster you treat it [Lyme disease], the way easier it is to treat and have complete resolution of symptoms for a lot of people,” says Dawicki. “But the second challenge is the current diagnostics we have miss 64 to 78 percent of early-stage cases.” 

Researchers from the Media Lab developed MemPal, a wearable camera that creates a real-time automated text diary of actions and conversations to help older adults locate objects and provide reminders, writes WBUR’s Mike Kalin. “A small study conducted last year by researchers at the MIT Media Lab confirmed improved performance of object finding among users and an overall positive perception of the system. Tools like MemPal could be essential as cases of dementia continue to proliferate,” writes Kalin.  

Smithsonian Magazine’s Kristen A. Schmitt spotlights LymeAlert, an at-home screening kit to detect Lyme disease in ticks created by alumna Erin Dawicki MBA ‘24. Once we figured out how to do this, it almost felt like a moral obligation,” says Dawicki. “We have the ability to get this out into the world, and it can become a pretty affordable way to try and prevent as many of these cases of long-term Lyme as we can.” 

Prof. Sebastian Lourido speaks to Boston Globe reporter Lindsay Crudele about the safety of local produce amidst the current cyclospora outbreak. “There are many features of local agriculture that are less susceptible to the spread of these kinds of diseases,” says Lourido. 

Prof. Regina Barzilay speaks with WBUR’s Priyanka Dayal McCluskey about her work developing an AI risk detection tool that can analyze mammogram images and help predict risk of breast cancer before it happens or spreads. Barzilay, who describes the tool as a hi-tech weather forecast for breast health, notes that: “We really need to have tools that can help, rather than just staring at an image and trying to guess.” 

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.” 

Researchers at MIT studying amblyopia – commonly known as lazy eye – have found that anesthetizing the retina could restore visual responses, reports Emma Frederickson for Popular Mechanics. “Their recent findings could reshape the way we think about vision loss,” writes Frederickson. 

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.” 

Prof. Bryan Bryson speaks with Chris Smith on The Naked Scientists podcast about his efforts to find targets for a new tuberculosis vaccine, as the current version, which is very effective in children, does not sufficiently protect adolescents and adults. “Right now, we only have one TB vaccine that's over 100 years old,” said Bryson.  “And for me as an engineer, if somebody tells you there's a 100 year old technology that doesn't work the way that you want it to, you want to say, let's build a better one.” 

Prof. Bryan Bryson and his colleagues have identified a series of targets for a new tuberculosis vaccine. The “researchers identified proteins expressed on the surface of cells infected with TB and used mRNA to coax uninfected human cells to produce the bacterial compounds, a key first step toward new vaccines,” writes Darren Incorvaia for Fierce Biotech. 

Prof. Linda Griffith and her colleagues have “developed a model of the human gut to study how the organ’s microbes interact with immune cells and regulate inflammation,” reports Gemma Conroy for Nature. Griffith and her team “have also created models for endometriosis and pancreatic cancer,” writes Conroy. 

Using AI, researchers at MIT have developed new antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA, two infections that are typically hard to treat. The team “trained the AI to help it learn how bacteria was affected by different molecular structures built of atoms in order to design new antibiotics,” writes Ruth Stainer for the Daily Mail. “[A]nything too similar to the current antibiotics available, or with the potential to be toxic to human beings, was eradicated.” 

Researchers at MIT used AI to “design antibiotics that can tackle hard-to-treat infections gonorrhoea and MRSA,” reports ITV News. "Our work shows the power of AI from a drug design standpoint, and enables us to exploit much larger chemical spaces that were previously inaccessible,” says Prof. James Collins.