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MIT researchers have discovered that carefully timed bursts of ‘pink noise’ strengthened the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, which clear waste from the brain, during sleep, writes reporter Sarah Rahal for The Boston Globe. “It’s very important for us to test: Does this work in people who may be either much older or who may be showing signs of the beginnings of a neurological disorder,” says Prof. Laura Lewis.
A new study by MIT researchers found that “sleeping while listening to bursts of pink noise…seems to boost the flow of fluid through the brain, and so might enhance the clearance of waste products that are linked to conditions like Alzheimer’s disease,” writes New Scientist’s Carissa Wong. “The researchers hope to test whether the technique can slow cognitive decline in people during normal ageing, mild cognitive impairment – a condition that often precedes dementia – and the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease,” notes Wong.
The Financial Times’ Anjana Ahuja highlights Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia and Senior Postdoctoral Associate Vardhman Kumar’s work developing injectable “mini livers,” tissue grafts that could “take on some of the life-saving functions of liver cells: helping with blood clotting, detoxifying the bloodstream and breaking down medicines. The injectable grafts, they suggest, could also be used as a bridging treatment while patients wait for a transplant, with booster injections able to dial up the dose,” writes Ahuja.
MIT researchers have developed a new, breathable hydrogel material that is “packed with microscopic air tunnels inspired by the way human lungs move oxygen” and allows heat and sweat to escape, reports Luis Prada for VICE. “The material proved to be about 10 times more breathable than conventional hydrogels and retained about 95 percent of its airflow even after being stretched 10,000 times,” explains Prada.
Prof. Emery Brown speaks with Scientific American reporter Tara Haelle for Scientific American’s special “Young American Scientists” section, discussing the evolution of the field of neuroscience and why he is optimistic about the future of scientific research in the U.S. “I am optimistic because I see new and exciting findings being discovered every day,” says Brown. “With [MIT] President [Sally] Kornbluth’s support, [the university] has developed its Health and Life Sciences (HEALS) program to encourage MIT faculty to look more deeply into solving health care problems. The enthusiasm for HEALS has been contagious across the campus.”
Nature reporter Jyoti Madhusoodanan features Prof. Regina Barzilay and Prof. James Collin’s work developing AI tools aimed at accelerating the process of drug discovery and tackling the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. Barzilay notes that the goal of AI-based drug design is not to have the perfect method, but to find working solutions to the antibiotic-resistance crisis. “To me, the art is really in taking the tools we currently have, which are already doing quite a bit, and translating them into something which is useful in clinic,” she explains.
Senior Research Scientist Leo Celi joins GBH News' Curiosity Desk for a panel discussion on how the information given to AI models can influence medical decision making and the future of the technology in medicine. “The people who are developing [AI] models—they have no clue about the data provenance [in health care], says Celi. “We are surveying AI health courses online that have their syllabi available and none of them are really contributing enough time for asking the students: do you know how the data came about?”
A study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere has taken a deeper look at the “brief, frustrating moments after a bad night’s sleep when you simply can’t focus,” reports Bill Murphy for Inc. “The study suggested that the brain is juggling competing priorities,” explains Murphy. “During sleep, it performs what amounts to internal housekeeping, including fluid movement linked to clearing metabolic waste. During waking hours, it prioritizes attention and responsiveness. When sleep is cut short, those maintenance processes don’t disappear. Instead, they begin to intrude into waking life in short bursts, and attention drops at the same time.”
Researchers at MIT have developed “mini livers” that “can be injected into the body to help take over the functions of a failing liver,” reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “If realized clinically, the development could provide a lifeline for many of the more than 10,000 Americans with chronic liver disease currently waiting for a transplant,” writes Randall.
Senior Research Scientist Leo Anthony Celi speaks with New York Times reporter Gina Kolata about the use of AI in health care. “The real concern isn’t AI itself,” says Celi. “It’s the AI is being deployed to optimize a profoundly broken system rather than to reimagine it.”
Prof. Marzyeh Ghassemi and Monica Agrawal PhD '23 speak with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about the risks on relying solely on AI for medical information. “What I’m really, really worried about is economically disadvantaged communities,” says Ghassemi. “You might not have access to a health care professional who you can quickly call and say, ‘Hey… Should I listen to this?’”
Prof. James Collins and his colleagues are using AI to develop new compounds to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria, reports Lisa M. Krieger for the San Francisco Chronicle. Thus far, “Collins and his colleagues have synthesized several compounds that combat hard-to-treat infections of gonorrhea and MRSA,” writes Krieger. “These techniques are also being harnessed to fight diseases, like cancer, lupus and arthritis.”
Prof. James Collins speaks with Financial Times reporter Patrick Temple-West about his work using AI to design new antibiotic compounds to combat drug-resistant bacteria. “At present, the [AI] models are doing quite well at designing compounds that can attack in a Petri dish,” says Collins.
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. Laura Lewis speaks with New Scientist reporter Grace Wade about the importance of sleep research. Lewis notes that understanding the dynamics of how the brain transitions into sleep could help lead to new treatments for insomnia. “With sleep onset, it has been really difficult for us to find that moment,” says Lewis, where brain mechanisms drive the transition to sleep. “If we knew when that was, then we could start to say, what is the brain region or circuit that is making somebody fall asleep?”