CBS Boston spotlights how Portal Instruments, an MIT startup, is bringing a needle-free injector to the market, which could change the way people take medicine. The device, “fires a pressurized spray to penetrate the skin, instead of piercing the skin with traditional needles.”
Boston Globe reporter Alyssa Meyers writes that a new study by MIT researchers shows that probiotics could be used to help fight high blood pressure. The researchers found that probiotics, “can boost beneficial bacteria in the human gut that prevent pro-inflammatory immune cells from increasing in number." Pro-inflammatory immune cells have been linked with hypertension.
BostInno’s Karis Hustad spotlights how Solve tackles some of the world’s most pressing challenges. “You need a different type of innovation or technology or adaptation and affordability of technology for some of the big challenges of today,” explains Alexandra Amouyel, Solve's executive director. “To do that, you need a much more bottom up, grassroots innovation process.”
This CNN video highlights tattoo ink developed by Media Lab researchers that changes colors when it detects changes in biochemistry. The researchers hope the technology could eventually be used to, “help people better monitor their health.”
In an article published by U.S. News & World Report, Robert Preidt writes that MIT researchers have identified a mechanism that helps the flu viruses evolve rapidly. “Blocking flu viruses from using the host cells' chaperones could help prevent the viruses from developing resistance to existing drugs and vaccines,” says Preidt.
MIT researchers have developed a portable paper-based test that can diagnose the Zika virus and differentiate between four types of the Dengue virus, writes Rowan Walrath for Boston Magazine. The researchers are, “also working on a diagnostic for the tick-borne Powassan virus, which…causes a severe form of encephalitis.”
MIT researchers have potentially discovered a way to prevent the flu virus from evolving to resist vaccines and treatment, reports Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. The researchers are also, “testing HIV and other rapidly mutating viruses to see if inhibiting chaperones could prevent those viruses from mutating and becoming treatment-resistant.”
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes about BioBot Analytics, an MIT startup focused on bringing cities public health information by drawing on the data found in sewage systems. Ducharme writes that by “analyzing samples from the sewer…Biobot is adapting individualized methods of studying the human microbiome” on an urban scale.
During this NECN segment, Boston Business Journal reporter Kelly O’Brien discusses the new wireless sleep detection device developed by CSAIL researchers. The algorithm developed by the research team can translate radio waves emitted by the device “into usable information about where a person is in their sleep cycle,” explains O’Brien.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater spotlights a new device developed by MIT researchers that can wirelessly monitor sleep. “Thanks to new AI technology, the system is now able to translate subtle movement into meaningful information about the subject’s sleep patterns, including sleep stages (light/deep/R.E.M.), movement and breathing rate."
MIT researchers have developed a new device that can track sleep patterns using radio waves, reports Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. The researchers plan to “use the device to study how Parkinson’s disease affects sleep,” Meyers explains, adding that it could also be helpful with, “studying Alzheimer’s disease, insomnia, sleep apnea, and epilepsy.”
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that MIT researchers have developed a non-invasive technique for assessing cells, which could eventually be used to help diagnose diseases. The researchers are “working with doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, who hope to use the technique to study diseases such as cancer and asthma.”
Jamie Ducharme of Boston Magazine highlights MIT research that increases the resolution and quality of brain scans. The team’s algorithm could fill in missing data from a scan with new pixels, thereby creating a “research-quality image,” explains Ducharme.
Graduate student Shriya Srinivasan speaks with Ira Flatow of PRI’s Science Friday about the surgical technique she and her colleagues developed to make prosthetic limbs feel more natural. Srinivasan explains that the technique allows patients to have, “finer prosthetic control — and be able to modulate position, velocity, and stiffness of prosthetic devices, which is a significant improvement to the clinical standard.”
During a panel discussion during the Koch Institute’s 16th Annual Cancer Research Symposium, participants discussed how the convergence of biology and engineering could accelerate treatments for cancer and other diseases, writes Robert Weisman for the Boston Globe. “To my mind, this is the 21st century’s innovation story,” said President Emerita Susan Hockfield.