Health sciences and technology

Professor Rohit Karnik works in the lab with the new method for cell separation that he, Institute Professor Robert Langer and other colleagues have developed. It involves steering rolling cells and could lead to devices for rapidly detecting diseases.

On a 'roll': MIT researchers devise new cell-sorting system

Process could yield low-cost tool for diagnosing cancer, other diseases

March 12, 2008

MIT students Maria Luckyanova and Philip Garcia (at right) operate their prosthetic-fitting device at the Jaipur Foot Organization headquarters in India in January, as JFO specialists work on fitting a prosthetic leg on a patient.

A leg to stand on

March 5, 2008

This prototype of the PANTHER device is about one cubic foot and weighs 37 pounds.

PANTHER sensor from MIT Lincoln Laboratory quickly detects pathogens

March 3, 2008

This frame from a time-lapse movie shows multiple traces (red) of a single rat whisker, captured at 3,200 frames per second, as it moves from left to right across a rough surface and then a smoother one. (For clarity, only every 3rd trace is shown, or about one per millisecond). Clusters and gaps of the traces correspond to this whisker's rapid sticking and slipping movements during ~175 millisec...

MIT researchers catch rats' twitchy whiskers in action

February 27, 2008

MIT graduate student and synthetic biologist Timothy Lu has won the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventing processes to combat bacterial infections by enhancing the effectiveness of antibiotics.

Bacteria beware: MIT student invents knock-out punch for antibiotic resistance

Timothy Lu awarded $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventiveness

February 27, 2008

Philip Lessard, Kazuhiko Kurosawa and Anthony Sinskey display a new type of antibiotic they produced by pitting two strains of bacteria against one another. Lessard, a research scientist, and postdoc Kurosawa work in the MIT lab of Sinskey, a professor of microbiology and health sciences and technology.

Bacterial 'battle for survival' leads to new antibiotic

Holds promise for treating stomach ulcers

February 26, 2008

This transmission electron micrograph (TEM) shows the 1918 influenza virus, which CDC researchers re-created in 2005.

MIT explains spread of 1918 flu pandemic

February 18, 2008

MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer and faculty member Jeffrey Karp, both affiliated with the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, display an adhesive they developed that was inspired by the gecko and may have medical and surgical applications.

MIT creates gecko-inspired bandage

February 18, 2008

MIT researcher addresses biomedical engineering challenges

February 15, 2008

Fantastic voyage: Drug delivery by a nanoparticle

February 13, 2008

Inclusiveness, optimism among strengths of HST's Gray

February 13, 2008

From left, postdoctoral associate Albert Y. Hung and Menicon Professor of Neuroscience Morgan H. Sheng report gene research that may explain the phenomenon of autistic savants.

Gene research may help explain autistic savants

February 12, 2008

From left, Broad Institute postdoctoral associate Kris Wood, Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering Paula Hammond and chemical engineering graduate student Dan Schmidt show the thin film they have developed. The film releases drugs and other chemical agents upon application of a small electrical field.

A 'micro pharmacy' inside

Implantable film can deliver drugs

February 11, 2008

On the front lines of the genomic revolution

February 6, 2008

An MIT student and collaborators have designed the uBox, a 'smart' pillbox that dispenses pills, alerts the patient that it's time to take the medication, records the time the pill was taken and prevents double-dosing.

Smart pillbox could be a lifesaver