James Gallagher of BBC News speaks with several experts about the microbiome and how diversity in gut bacteria is essential to health. “One thing that we're learning is, based on the microbiome, different people may need to consume different diets in order to get the same effect,” says Prof. Eric Alm.
Synlogic, founded by Prof. Jim Collins and Associate Prof. Tim Lu, is programming probiotic bacteria to treat certain genetic or acquired metabolic disease, reports Robin Seaton Jefferson for Forbes. One product is used for people whose bodies can’t maintain a healthy level of ammonia and “has been specifically engineered to convert the excess ammonia to a harmless metabolite,” explains Seaton Jefferson.
Research led by Prof. Amy Finkelstein found that just 4% of “bankruptcy filings by non-elderly adults” were associated with medical expenses. “Medical bankruptcy…wasn’t nearly as common as anticipated,” writes Alex Kingsbury for The Boston Globe. “Public policy aimed at fighting it might not have the anticipated results, either.”
A study co-authored by researchers at MIT finds that hospitalizations only cause about 4 percent of bankruptcies among nonelderly adults in the U.S., reports Tom Murphy of the Associated Press. Researchers gathered data from “more than a half million adults under 65 in California who had a hospitalization between 2003 and 2007 that wasn't tied to childbirth.”
Researchers have developed a microfluidic platform called “physiome on a chip”, which allows them to determine how certain drugs will affect up to 10 different organs. “Because the animal and human immune systems are different, [drug] testing is difficult in non-human trials,” writes Allen Cone for UPI, “but [this] system could help with that.”
Prof. Linda Griffith has created a “complex platform where researchers can put up to 10 organ tissues in separate compartments, regulating the flow of substances and medications between them in real time,” to determine how each organ will react, writes Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch. The scale of this model “represents a huge jump in the capabilities of this kind of system.”
Prof. Linda Griffith has developed ten miniature models of human organs “to create the closest we’ve come yet to a human-on-a-chip,” writes Jessica Hamzelou for New Scientist. “This is still only a minimal representation of a human,” said Griffith, but this kind of system could eventually eliminate the need for animal testing.
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.