Researchers from MIT and Mass General Hospital have been named one of the winners of Popular Science’s 2016 Invention Awards for their work developing an ingestible electronic device that measures vital signs, reports Dialynn Dwyer for Boston.com.
Wired reporter Emily Reynolds writes about Anna Young, who works with the Little Devices Lab at MIT, and her talk at “WIRED Health” on bringing innovation to hospitals. "There's another side of medical devices," says Young. “I consider myself a medical device archaeologist. I want to take these tools apart, understand how they work."
In this video, Bloomberg News reporter Sam Grobart examines the new hydrogel developed by MIT researchers that can bend and twist without breaking, and could be used to deliver medicines and monitor our health. Grobart explains that the hydrogel “could be a building block of the medicine of the future.”
A team of MIT researchers has been selected as the winner of the Koch Institute research-grant pitch competition for their work on developing a diagnostic platform for early-stage leukemia, reports Amanda Hoover for Boston.com. Hoover explains that the diagnostic method would “single out individual cells during blood tests, highlighting those affected by leukemia.”
Huffington Post reporter Carolyn Gregoire writes that MIT spinoff Synlogic is working on reprogramming gut bacteria to act as a living therapeutic. “It’s become really clear that the bacteria living in us and on us affect our bodies in a variety of different ways — in ways that we never imagined,” explains Prof. Timothy Lu.
STAT reporter Eric Boodman spotlights Prof. Jing-Ke Weng’s work searching for medical treatments in plants. Boodman writes that Weng is “determined to harness peanut skins, and twisted roots, and an herb known as horny goat weed...to treat human disease."
Wired reporter Sarah Zhang writes about a new proposal from Prof. Andrew Lo to use Wall Street to help lower health care costs. Zhang explains that Lo’s proposal would “theoretically make cures available to more patients, incentivizing the drug industry to make those instead of mitigators.”
In an article for The New York Times, Austin Frakt speaks with Prof. Benjamin Roin about how to encourage drug companies to undertake studies examining whether medications may have multiple uses. Roin suggests that to make such studies feasible, there could be a “universal electronic prescribing system that tracks prescriptions and conditions for which they’re intended.”
In this Reuters video, Ben Gruber examines how MIT researchers are working on developing new treatments for diabetes. "What we developed is basically a new material that acts like an invisibility cloak,” explains Prof. Daniel Anderson. “It coats the cells but allows them to function and live but protects them from the immune system.”
MIT researchers are developing a smart bandage that could monitor and help heal wounds, according to Reuters. Prof. Xuanhe Zhao explains that if sensors in the bandage detected “an abnormal increase in temperature, for example, it will send out a command. Then the controlled drug delivery system can deliver a specific drug to that specific location.”
In an interview with the BBC, Prof. Heidi Williams argues that there should be more incentives for developing cancer prevention techniques and treatments for early-stage cancers. "If you look at drugs that get approved by the FDA, they all tend to be for very late stage cancer patients,” says Williams.
STAT reporter Andrew Joseph writes that MIT scientists have developed a potential new treatment for diabetes. Joseph explains that the new technique could allow healthy insulin-producing cells to be successfully transplanted into patients.
Prof. Ioannis Yannas was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame for his work with Dr. John Burke on regenerating human skin as a treatment for burn victims, writes Robby Berman for Slate. In a video accompanying the story, Yannas explains that his work was focused on “speeding up the rate of closing up these wounds.”
MIT researchers have found that few incentives exist to encourage research on disease prevention, reports Austin Frakt for The New York Times. “R & D on cancer prevention and treatment of early-stage cancer is very socially valuable,” Profs. Heidi Williams and Ben Roin explain, “yet our work shows that society provides private firms…surprisingly few incentives.”
Dana Guth reports for Boston Magazine on a new bandage developed by Prof. Xuanhe Zhao that can deliver medication directly to a wound. “The bandage is filled with tiny pathways, so that drugs can flow through its gel-like material, providing relief for burns and other minor skin conditions,” writes Guth.