Professor Kenneth Oye has coauthored a commentary on a paper that demonstrates researchers may be close to being able to engineer morphine from yeast, writes Nicola Twilley for The New Yorker. The authors worry this “could put illicit opiate production into the hands of many more people, at a much smaller scale.”
Donald McNeil writes for The New York Times about a commentary coauthored by Professor Kenneth Oye on advances that could make it possible to produce morphine using genetically modified yeast. Oye argues for “locking up the bioengineered yeast strains and restricting access to the DNA that would let drug cartels reproduce them.”
The Associated Press writes about Professor Kenneth Oye’s commentary on a paper by researchers at U.C. Berkeley that shows how morphine and other painkillers can be manufactured without opium poppies. Oye calls for regulation in order to prevent abuses.
“MIT researchers have created an algorithm [that] can distinguish between different lymphomas in real time,” writes Melissa Malamut for Boston Magazine. Graduate student Yuan Luo and Professor Peter Szolovits developed a system that can automatically suggest cancer diagnoses based on data points from past pathology reports, Malamut explains.
Lindsay Kalter writes for The Boston Herald about PicnicHealth, a California-based startup founded by MIT alumnus Troy Astorino that allows patients to store all their medical records in one spot. One day “patients will really have ownership of their own medical info and have it all in one place,” said Astorino.
Boston.com reporter Dialynn Dwyer writes about how graduate student Steven Keating “fought his cancer with curiosity.” Dwyer explains that Keating “gathered his health data in order to understand the science behind what his body was going through” and even filmed his brain surgery.
Mark Shanahan writes for The Boston Globe that the organizers of HUBweek, an innovation-themed festival designed to showcase Boston’s leadership in education, medicine, technology and the arts, gathered at a launch party last week. As part of HUBweek, MIT will host “Solve,” an event designed to bring together leaders in a variety of areas to tackle global challenges.
BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman writes about how graduate student Steven Keating's thirst for knowledge may have saved his life. After experiencing phantom odors, Keating urged his doctors to perform a brain scan, which revealed a tumor. Since then, Keating has “open-sourced” his illness, and become a “champion of a movement to provide patients with more information about their health.”
Steve Lohr of The New York Times writes about how allowing patients like brain cancer survivor and MIT graduate student Steven Keating greater access to their medical records can not only improve patient health, but also benefit medical research. The sharing of medical records could be a “huge crowdsourcing opportunity for research,” Keating explains.
Kevin McSpadden of Time reports on Panoply, a social networking platform developed by researchers from MIT and Northwestern that is aimed at helping users deal with anxiety and depression. Panoply teaches “users a therapeutic tool called cognitive reappraisal, which tries to get people to look at a problematic situation from different perspectives.”
In a New York Times article, Steve Lohr spotlights how graduate student Steven Keating’s active participation in his medical care led to early detection of a brain tumor. In describing patient access to medical records, Keating explains his belief that “data can heal.”
Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston writes about a new online networking tool developed by MIT researchers that has been found to be effective in helping people cope with anxiety and depression. Researchers found that those who used the tool were “writing about their issues much more."
Researchers from MIT and Northwestern have developed an online networking tool aimed at aiding people with anxiety and depression, reports Katie Collins for Wired. The tool, “allows people to build online support communities and practice therapeutic techniques among one another.”
MIT researchers have developed a test for Ebola and other fevers using gold nanoparticle sensors that quickly identify the pathegon, writes Andrea Timpano for Boston Magazine. “It is important to recognize that the United States needs to have strategies for surveillance that will identify dangerous viruses,” says Professor Lee Gehrke.
“A promising new diagnostic test from MIT looks like it could be a game changer for rapidly diagnosing several important infectious diseases within minutes,” writes Judy Stone for Forbes. The paper test developed by MIT researchers can diagnose Ebola, yellow fever and dengue fever.