Koch Institute

MIT spinout Sigilon Therapeutics has partnered with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company to develop implantable medical devices that act like “living drug factories,” encapsulating engineered cells that live in the body for months, or years, and produce insulin. Down the road, cells may also be engineered to secrete other hormones, proteins, and antibodies.

“Living drug factories” may one day replace injections

Startup develops implantable, encased cells that live in the body and secrete insulin and other therapeutics.

May 16, 2018

Biologists compared C. elegans embryos missing the alfa-1 gene, right, to those with the gene, left. At bottom right, abnormal blobs of yolk labeled with a fluorescent protein can be seen in the embryo lacking alfa-1.

Biologists discover function of gene linked to familial ALS

Study in worms reveals gene loss can lead to accumulation of waste products in cells.

May 4, 2018

Intestinal stem cells from mice that fasted for 24 hours, at right, produced much more substantial intestinal organoids than stem cells from mice that did not fast, at left.

Fasting boosts stem cells’ regenerative capacity

A drug treatment that mimics fasting can also provide the same benefit, study finds.

May 3, 2018

Left to right: Jay Mahat, Nicholas Struntz, Benjamin Mead, and Sarvesh Varma are the first recipients of the MIT-GSK Gertrude B. Elion Research Fellowship Program for Drug Discovery and Disease.

Inaugural class of MIT-GSK Gertrude B. Elion Research Fellows selected

New fellowship program honoring trailblazing Nobel laureate awards four MIT postdocs focused on drug discovery and development.

April 17, 2018

MIT biologists have discovered the first cellular response targeted at helping mitochondria when their protein import goes wrong.

Countering mitochondrial stress

Scientists discover a pathway that monitors a protein import into mitochondria and elicits a cellular response when the process goes awry.

April 13, 2018

MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers have devised a new way to create flexible polymer gels using caffeine as a catalyst.

Polymer synthesis gets a jolt of caffeine

Using the stimulant as a catalyst, researchers create new gels for drug delivery.

April 12, 2018

Speakers included (l-r) Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research; Phillip Sharp, MIT Institute Professor; Andrew Plump, chief medical and scientific officer of Takeda; summit organizers and faculty members Regina Barzilay and Dina Katabi from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield; and Robert Califf, ...

Pioneering digital collaborations

MIT hosts a summit on transformative artificial intelligence technologies in biomedical sciences and health care.

April 10, 2018

School of Engineering first quarter 2018 awards

Faculty members recognized for excellence via a diverse array of honors, grants, and prizes over the last quarter.

April 3, 2018

June Y. Park '16 will be working to develop a biomimetic, 3-D-printable scaffold for development of lung stem cell-derived artificial trachea and organoids.

June Park ’16 is a 2018 Gates Cambridge Scholar

Chemical engineering alumna will pursue an advanced degree in engineering at Cambridge University in the U.K.

March 20, 2018

Michael J. Cima has been named co-director of the Innovation Initiative and associate dean of innovation at MIT’s School of Engineering.

Cima takes on new role to promote innovation

Materials science and engineering professor is the new co-director of the Innovation Initiative and associate dean of innovation for the School of Engineering.

March 1, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a light-sensitive protein that can be embedded into neuron membranes, where it emits a fluorescent signal that indicates how much voltage a particular cell is experiencing. This could allow scientists to study how neurons behave, millisecond by millisecond, as the brain performs a particular function.

Seeing the brain's electrical activity

Fluorescent sensor allows imaging of neurons' electrical communications, without electrodes.

February 26, 2018

In this image, four Plasmodium vivax parasites have invaded human hepatocytes. Three of the parasites are developing while one parasite, on the lower right, is a dormant hypnozoite, which remains small until its reactivation.

Human malaria parasites grown for the first time in dormant form

Novel technology could allow researchers to develop and test new antimalaria drugs.

February 22, 2018

Eight MIT researchers win 2018 Sloan Research Fellowships

Faculty from six MIT departments among 126 selected from across the U.S. and Canada.

February 15, 2018

Five cancer researchers make up the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine’s founding faculty. Left to right: Angela Koehler, Michael Hemann, Michael Yaffe (director), Forest White, and Matthew Vander Heiden.

Fine-tuning cancer medicine

New cancer research initiative eyes individualized treatment for patients.

February 1, 2018

Dagdeviren (center) developed the device while working as a postdoc in the labs of Graybiel (left), Cima (right), and Langer (far left).

Ultrathin needle can deliver drugs directly to the brain

Miniaturized system could be used to treat neurological disorders that affect specific brain regions.

January 24, 2018

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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