Prof. Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of the School of Engineering, has been named MIT’s first chief innovation and strategy officer, reports Supriya Singh for New India Abroad. “In his new role, Chandrakasan will work closely with MIT president Sally Kornbluth, key stakeholders across MIT, as well as external partners, to launch initiatives and new collaborations in support of strategic priorities,” explains Singh.
Prof. Paulo Lozano speaks with Kaity Kline of NPR’s Morning Edition about the space stations of the future and how NASA collaborating with private companies on the development of the next iteration of the International Space Station could spur new technological advancements. “Once you have entrepreneurship and you have a commercial interest, that accelerates technology development,” says Lozano.
Omar Abudayyeh '12, PhD '18 and Jonathan Gootenberg '13 speak with Robert Weisman at The Boston Globe about their deep-rooted working relationship, which began as undergraduates at MIT and has gone on to include joint appointments at the McGovern and Broad Institutes and multiple startups. “Science is difficult, and it’s great to have someone to do it with,” said Gootenberg. “You got to work with people you enjoy hanging out with.”
Prof. Xuanhe Zhao speaks with Amerigo Allegretto of AuntMinnie.com about his work developing a new ultrasound sticker that can measure the stiffness of internal organs and could one day be used for early detection and diagnosis of disease. “Due to the huge potential of measuring the rigidity of deep internal organs, we believe we can use this to monitor organ health,” Zhao explains.
MIT has been named to the number two spot in Times Higher Education’s world reputation rankings, reports Times Higher Education. MIT is “dedicated to the teaching of science and technology. The sheer number of Nobel laureates affiliated with the institution – an impressive 101 – reveals the caliber of MIT graduates,” Times Higher Education notes. “Scientific discoveries and technological advances to come out of the college include the first chemical synthesis of penicillin, the development of radar, the discovery of quarks and the invention of magnetic core memory, which aided the development of digital computers.”
MIT researchers have developed new technology that allows vaccines to be directly inserted into the lymph nodes to target two of the most common mutations in the KRAS gene, which cause roughly one third of all cancers, reports Jaimie Seaton for Scientific American. “The team modified the small vaccine components to include a fatty acid, which enables the vaccine to effectively hitch a ride on albumin, a common protein found throughout the body,” explains Seaton. “Albumin serves as a molecular shuttle bus, with pockets on its surface where fatty acids can bind to it.”
Sublime Systems, an MIT startup, is developing new technology to fully decarbonize the cement manufacturing process, reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. “Instead of using heat to break down rocks for cement, the startup uses chemistry to dissolve them, and then blends the components back together into what it calls ‘Sublime Cement,’” explains Peters. “The process can replace limestone with other minerals, including rocks found at high volumes in industrial waste, so it’s also possible to eliminate the emissions from limestone.”
Corey Jaskolski SM '02 founded Synthetaic, a software company that uses AI to “automate the analysis of large datasets, namely satellite imagery and video, not containing labels,” reports Kyle Wiggers for TechCrunch. “Synthetaic’s technology offers a transformative approach to AI model training and creation, addressing the critical needs of technical decision makers,” says Jaskolski.
Graduate student Lauren “Ren” Ramlan programmed Doom, an iD software video game, to run on a display made from E.coli cells, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. For the project to work, “Ramlan first grew cells within a 32×48 1-bit well plate, then connected the makeshift screen to a controller capable of processing and translating binary code into the ‘addition or omission of a repressor controlling the fluorescence of the cells,’” writes Paul. “Basically, Ramlan swapped a traditional screen’s tiny light diodes for glowing bacterial cells."
Prof. Nicholas Makris speaks with USA Today reporter Phaedra Trethan about the oceanic challenges that may impact the search for Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan’s plane. The plane "is lost in the darkens of the ocean,” says Makris. “The sound (from sonar equipment) takes the darkness out, but it’s so far down that, from the surface, it can look like a speck.”
A more than $40 million investment to add advanced nano-fabrication equipment and capabilities to MIT.nano will significantly expand the center’s nanofabrication capabilities, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. The new equipment, which will also be available to scientists outside MIT, will allow “startups and students access to wafer-making equipment used by larger companies. These tools will allow its researchers to make prototypes of an array of microelectronic devices.”
Jared Sadoian ’10 speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kara Baskin about his work as director of operations for Cambridge Street Hospitality. “My day consists of email and spreadsheets, and budgeting and planning and analysis,” says Sadoian. “At the same time, it’s very firmly rooted in guest-facing hospitality that most readers might be more familiar with: talking to guests and taking reservations and making sure that folks are happy in the restaurants, and solving problems. Maybe it’s making a drink. This job is all-encompassing, and I love it for that reason, because I ran away from the office life.”
BostInno reporter Isabel Tehan spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a model to predict how different shoes will impact different individual runners. “The model takes into account runner height, weight and other body dimensions, and the properties of the shoes — including stiffness or springiness — and can predict how that individual would run in a particular pair of shoes,” writes Tehan. “Ideally, we could make a shoe that's right for you and the way you run,” explains postdoc Sarah Fay.
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed an AI model that is capable of identifying 3 ½ times more people who are at high-risk for developing pancreatic cancer than current standards, reports Felice J. Freyer for The Boston Globe. “This work has the potential to enlarge the group of pancreatic cancer patients who can benefit from screening from 10 percent to 35 percent,” explains Freyer. “The group hopes its model will eventually help detect risk of other hard-to-find cancers, like ovarian.”
Prof. Ron Weiss co-founded Strand Therapeutics, a biotech company developing mRNA therapies, reports Emily Mullin for Wired. “The notion is that genetic circuits can really have significant impact on safety and efficacy,” says Weiss. “This begins to really open up the door for creating therapies whose sophistication can match the underlying complexity of biology.”