Bringing a new perspective to infectious disease
With the recent launch of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel...
View ArticlePracticing medicine at the nanoscale
With the recent launch of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel...
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Research advances therapy to protect against dengue virus
Photo: James Gathany/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Nearly half of the world’s population is at risk of infection by the dengue virus, yet there is no specific treatment for the disease....
View ArticleA different view of cancer cells
Most cancer deaths are caused by metastatic tumors, which break free from the original cancer site and spread throughout the body. For that to happen, cancer cells must undergo many genetic and...
View ArticlePotential flu pandemic lurks
In the summer of 1968, a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong Kong. This strain, known as H3N2, spread around the globe and eventually killed an estimated 1 million people.A new study from MIT...
View ArticleGrant to fund nanotech therapies for traumatic brain injuries
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded $6 million to a team of researchers, including MIT’s Sangeeta Bhatia, to develop nanotechnology therapies for the treatment of...
View ArticleStudy IDs key protein for cell death
When cells suffer too much DNA damage, they are usually forced to undergo programmed cell death, or apoptosis. However, cancer cells often ignore these signals, flourishing even after chemotherapy...
View ArticleNanotechnology could help fight diabetes
Injectable nanoparticles developed at MIT may someday eliminate the need for patients with Type 1 diabetes to constantly monitor their blood-sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin. The...
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A step closer to artificial livers
Prometheus, the mythological figure who stole fire from the gods, was punished for this theft by being bound to a rock. Each day, an eagle swept down and fed on his liver, which then grew back to be...
View ArticleGrad student receives grant for melanoma research
David Benjamin, a graduate student in the Hynes laboratory at the Koch Institute, has been awarded one of 10 nationally competitive 2013 Research Scholar Awards from the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma...
View ArticleAngela Belcher wins $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize
MIT professor Angela Belcher, one of the world’s leading nanotechnology experts, has been named the recipient of this year’s $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, which honors an outstanding inventor dedicated...
View ArticleKeeping an eye on bird flu
Influenza viruses that emerge from birds or pigs can create pandemic flu if they gain the ability to spread from person to person. New research from MIT shows that two recently emerged bird flu...
View ArticleEnhancing RNA interference
Nanoparticles that deliver short strands of RNA offer a way to treat cancer and other diseases by shutting off malfunctioning genes. Although this approach has shown some promise, scientists are still...
View ArticleReading DNA, backward and forward
MIT biologists have discovered a mechanism that allows cells to read their own DNA in the correct direction and prevents them from copying most of the so-called “junk DNA” that makes up long stretches...
View ArticleNew way to target an old foe: malaria
Although malaria has been eradicated in many countries, including the United States, it still infects more than 200 million people worldwide, killing nearly a million every year. In regions where...
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Why tumors become drug-resistant
Cancer drugs known as ErbB inhibitors have shown great success in treating many patients with lung, breast, colon and other types of cancer. However, ErbB drug resistance means that many other patients...
View ArticleNanoparticle vaccine offers better protection
Many viruses and bacteria infect humans through mucosal surfaces, such as those in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract and reproductive tract. To help fight these pathogens, scientists are working on...
View ArticleNew view of dengue fever
Dengue fever, an infectious tropical disease found in more than 100 countries, has no cure and no vaccine. One reason why it has been difficult to develop new drugs for dengue fever is that there are...
View ArticleFinding blood clots before they wreak havoc
Life-threatening blood clots can form in anyone who sits on a plane for a long time, is confined to bed while recovering from surgery, or takes certain medications.There is no fast and easy way to...
View ArticleOne-two punch knocks out aggressive tumors
An aggressive form of breast cancer known as “triple negative” is very difficult to treat: Chemotherapy can shrink such tumors for a while, but in many patients they grow back and gain resistance to...
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