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Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang holding the medal she won in the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition

Rhoda Zhang Wins 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition

MIT News

November 5, 2024

Graduate student Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang has won the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition in both the Graduate and People's Choice categories. With advisors Robert Langer and Ana Jaklenec, Zhang and KI postdoc Xin Yang are developing metal-organic frameworks and other safe, sustainable nutrient stabilizing materials to address global micronutrient deficiencies. They are also launching MOFe™ Coffee, the first iron-fortified coffee.

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Eye on the STING Pathway

MIT News

August 3, 2023

The Irvine Lab showed a surprising new role for the immune-regulating protein STING in a study appearing in Science, done in collaboration with the Blainey Lab and the Broad Institute’s Hacohen group. The researchers found that in addition to turning on genes involved in cell defense, the STING protein also acts as an ion channel—mechanisms involved in cell signaling and bioelectrics. This is the first human immune sensor found to translate danger signals into ion flow. The findings could help researchers improve cancer therapies targeting STING, so that they stimulate the immune system to destroy tumors without damaging healthy tissues.

Grant to Bhatia Lab to Advance Nanosensors to Diagnose Pediatric Pneumonia

MIT Koch Institute

August 2, 2023

Sangeeta Bhatia and her group have received a grant from Open Philanthropy to develop a non-invasive, accessible platform to diagnose pediatric pneumonia in under-resourced areas. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among those under age five. Although pneumonia can arise from either bacterial or viral infection, reliable methods of diagnosing young children are invasive and expensive, frequently putting timely diagnosis out of reach of patients in low- and middle-income countries. In 2022, the Bhatia Lab demonstrated that their nanosensor diagnostic could reliably and quickly measure different immune responses to viral and bacterial pneumonia in preclinical models. Bhatia and a team of researchers from MIT, Boston University, and Boston Children's Hospital will use the grant to adapt this pneumonia diagnostic for use in the doctor’s office and other points-of-care.

Wearable Ultrasound for Cancer Detection

MIT News

July 28, 2023

KI alumna and Media Lab professor Canan Dagdeviren has designed a flexible, user-friendly 3D-printed patch that could be incorporated into a bra to enable earlier detection and more frequent monitoring of patients at high risk for breast cancer. She was also named one of three inaugural prize winners by MIT Future Founders Initiative, which promotes female entrepreneurship in biotech.

Paula Hammond Appointed Vice Provost for Faculty

MIT Provost

July 28, 2023

Institute Professor Paula Hammond will begin her new role as as vice provost for faculty in December 2023. In her new role as vice provost for faculty, Hammond will focus on many aspects of professional development, community, and climate for faculty. She will advocate for faculty development, mentoring, diversity, and inclusion, working to complement local recruitment and retention efforts led by the schools and college.

Making Sense of Cell Fate

MIT News

July 27, 2023

In a study of ovarian and osteosarcoma cancer cells appearing July 19 in Cell Systems, Yaffe Lab researchers find that timing and dosage of DNA-damaging drugs are key whether cancer cells die or enter senescence. The study has implications for how a class of cancer drugs called MEK inhibitors are used in combination with chemotherapy.  

Kimberly Bennett Named HHMI Gilliam Fellow

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

July 27, 2023

Congratulations to KI grad student Kimberly Bennett, one of 50 new HHMI Gilliam Fellows recognized for their outstanding research and their commitment to making science more inclusive. As a Gilliam Fellow, Kimberly will be working with her advisors Paula Hammond and Joelle Straehla to improve the first generation, low-income graduate student experience at MIT.

GI Biosensors Track Inflammatory Markers

MIT News

July 26, 2023

The Traverso Lab made a wireless “pill” that tracks markers for gastrointestinal inflammation. A Nature study points to a variety of applications for the biosensor, including diagnosis and monitoring for notably inflammatory bowel disease, malnutrition, antibiotic resistance, neurodegenerative diseases, and poor response to chemotherapies and vaccines.

A new vision for ultrasound imaging

MIT News

July 25, 2023

Nicole Henning was awarded a  2023 MIT Excellence Award for her role in developing ultrasound-guided injection, a technique that can be harnessed to initiate disease for modeling purposes or administer drugs into deep tissues. Previously, delivering these to such hard-to-reach tissues inside the body required invasive surgeries that may affect the results of drug screenings or studies of disease processes. The key advancement of USGI is that it is a minimally invasive technique, combining ultrasound imaging to view the inside of the body to make precisely targeted injections into tissues, for instance into the lungs, liver, or pancreas.

Ready to Launch

Endpoints News

July 20, 2023

Congratulations to Sangeeta Bhatia on being named one of 20 women reshaping biopharma in 2023.  An Endpoints News special report highlights her standing as a serial entrepreneur, as well as her efforts to help other women in academia launch their own startups through creating the MIT Faculty Founders Initiative together with Susan Hockfield and Nancy Hopkins. “I’m really passionate now about teaching other women, academic entrepreneurs in our ecosystem, because we’ve learned that there are not enough of them,” says Bhatia.

It Takes Three to Tango

MIT News

July 17, 2023

A Molecular Cell study from the Young Lab shows that, along with DNA and protein, many transcription factors can also bind RNA. The researchers found that RNA binding keeps transcription factors near their DNA binding sites for longer, helping to fine-tune gene expression. This rethinking of how transcription factors work may lead to a better understanding of gene regulation, and may provide new targets for RNA-based therapeutics.