Lloyd Mallinson reports for Boston.com that researchers from MIT and Harvard have discovered the link between obesity and genetics. “The uncovered cellular circuits may allow us to dial a metabolic master switch for both risk and non-risk individuals, as a means to counter environmental, lifestyle, or genetic contributors to obesity,” explains Prof. Manolis Kellis.
Prof. Manolis Kellis speaks with BBC reporter Andrew Peach about the discovery of a genetic “master switch” inside fat cells. This switch “decides whether every time we have a meal the excess calories will be stored as fat or whether they will actually be burned away as heat,” explains Kellis.
Prof. Manolis Kellis and his colleagues have discovered a metabolic switch linked to obesity, reports Chukwuma Muanya for The Guardian. “Obesity has traditionally been seen as the result of an imbalance between the amount of food we eat and how much we exercise, but this view ignores the contribution of genetics to each individual’s metabolism,” explains Kellis.
“Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have analysed the genetics behind obesity,” writes Natasha Hinde for The Huffington Post. “They discovered a new pathway that controls human metabolism by prompting fat cells to store fat or burn it away.”
Andy Coghlan reports for New Scientist that MIT researchers have found a gene that determines whether fat cells store or burn energy. “You could say we’ve found fat cells’ radiator, and how to turn it up or down,” says Prof. Manolis Kellis.
Alice Park reports for TIME that researchers from MIT and Harvard have identified a pathway that controls how much fat cells burn or store. “What these results say is that we can reprogram all the major fat stores in humans by intervening in this particular pathway,” explains Prof. Manolis Kellis.
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have discovered how the key gene linked to obesity makes people fat, reports the Associated Press. The study revealed that “a faulty version of the gene causes energy from food to be stored as fat rather than burned.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Jenn Harris writes that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows teams of robots to deliver items. Harris explains that the researchers hope their technique could be used to allow robots to aid in situations like “getting supplies and medicine across a battlefield in a war-torn country.”
Researchers at MIT and Harvard have developed a new device that can quickly detect Ebola, reports Robert Preidt for U.S. News & World Report. “The new paper-based test takes minutes and the device does not require electricity,” writes Preidt. “The test works in a similar manner to over-the-counter pregnancy tests.”
MIT researchers have developed a new tool that could be used to predict dementia earlier than is currently possible and with greater accuracy, reports Liat Clark for Wired. The researchers hope the new technique could be used to cut down on the number of “hours spent diagnosing, or potentially misdiagnosing, a disorder.”
WGBH reporter Mike Deehan writes that MIT will play a key role in a new public-private partnership aimed at expanding the use of photonics in manufacturing. Prof. Krystyn Van Vliet explains that MIT will coordinate the "education and workforce development program for the entire nation in this area.”
MIT researchers have developed a program that allows a team of robots to work together to serve drinks, reports Lorenzo Ligato for the Huffington Post. The researchers, “programmed the robots with complex planning algorithms, which allowed the machines to engage in higher-level reasoning about their location, status and behavior -- similarly to they way humans perform tasks.”
MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that allows a team of three robots to serve drinks, writes Gordon Gottsegen for Wired: “While the real-world application of this research may seem like the beer fetching itself (to us at least), the method that allows robots to execute tasks despite uncertainty may have practical usages.”
Alexandra Ossola writes for Popular Science about a computer program created by MIT researchers that can aid in early detection of dementia by analyzing a patient’s drawings. The program “may enable doctors to diagnose patients much more quickly, and to intervene earlier to stave off the onset of cognitive degeneration.”
According to Matt Kaplan of The Economist, Professor Ju Li has devised a method of producing lithium-ion batteries using nanoparticles. “If the process of making the nanoparticles can be industrialized," writes Kaplan, "then the lifetimes of lithium-ion batteries might be considerably extended.”