MIT researchers are developing ways to transform plants into interfaces, reports Katharine Schwab for Fast Company. Schwab explains that the researchers hope to eventually be able to develop “plants that can transfer signals and act almost like a networked computer.”
Writing for Scientific American, Prof. Bob Langer examines how breakthroughs in biotechnology and materials science are enabling more personalized and effective treatments for patients. Langer highlights how by “engineering polymers that offer smart delivery systems, we can target specific parts of the body. This limits exposure and therefore adverse effects, offering more effective and precise treatment.”
In an excerpt from her new book published in The Wall Street Journal, President Emerita Susan Hockfield explores how the convergence between biology and engineering is driving the development of new tools to tackle pressing human problems. Hockfield writes that for these world-changing technologies to be realized requires “not only funding and institutional support but, more fundamentally, a commitment to collaboration among unlikely partners.”
President Emerita Susan Hockfield speaks with Jim Braude of WGBH’s Greater Boston about her book, “The Age of Living Machines.” “We are looking at a population of over 9.7 billion by 2050,” explains Hockfield. “We are not going to get there without war or epidemics or starvation if we don’t develop technologies that will allow us to provide energy, food, water, health and health care sustainably.”
STAT reporter Sharon Begley spotlights the 10 bioscience images selected to be exhibited in the Koch Institute’s public galleries this year. The images “offer a peek into the living world as few have ever seen it,” writes Begley.
TechCrunch reporter Jonathan Sieber writes about biomanufacturing company Culture Biosciences, which was co-founded by MIT alumnus Will Patrick. Sieber writes that Patrick was inspired by his time at the Media Lab and by MIT startups like Gingko Bioworks, explaining that he noticed “that the problem and the bottleneck in the industry was moving from industrial design to scale-up.”
Quartz reporter Ephrat Livni writes about MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield’s new book, “The Age of Living Machines.” In her book, Hockfield argues that the next innovation boom will be driven by biologists “motivated not by the threat of war but the promise of peace.”
MIT spin-off Gingko Bioworks was named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 List for using “genetic engineering to design and print new DNA for a variety of organisms…that can then be used for anything from killing antibiotic-resistant germs to producing artificial sweetener and cheaper perfume,” reports Tom Huddleston Jr. for CNBC.
Local biotech companies raised money to help MIT’s Bear Lab study Fragile X syndrome by competing in lawn games, writes Allison Hagan for The Boston Globe. The $30,000 raised provides “a very real chance at a success in this disease, and it’s going to have a much broader impact,” says Prof. Mark Bear.
Boston Globe reporter Jonathan Saltzman writes about how MIT alumnus Bernat Olle’s startup, Vedanta Biosciences, Inc., is looking to “collect a sample of every type of bacteria that lives in the gut.” The hope is to one day use what’s learned from this ‘library’ to help treat diseases.
Researchers from a number of universities, including MIT, have developed a new refillable, implantable device that can deliver drugs to the heart tissue to help treat a heart attack, reports Xinhua. "After a heart attack we could use this device to deliver therapy to prevent a patient from getting heart failure," explains Prof. Ellen Roche.
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered about investing in biotech. Lo explains that, “if we can use finance to reduce the risk, we will actually be able to bring lots more capital into the industry and be able to get therapies to patients faster.”
In this WBUR segment, Prof. Robert Langer speaks with Karen Weintraub about the challenges of bringing scientific discoveries from an academic lab to the marketplace. “The people who often do the best are the ones that are good at dealing with failure,” says Langer.
Reporting for WBUR, Karen Weintraub examines the biotech boom in Kendall Square. President Emerita Susan Hockfield notes that, “Every year there's a new wave of young people who arrive on our campuses and get inspired by what we do and then inspire us about what they'd like to do. I think that's part of the magic mix here.”
During this episode of NOVA Wonders, Professors Kristala Jones Prather and Kevin Esvelt discuss the future of genetic engineering. Speaking about the evolution of the biotech industry, Prather explains that, "the key observation that really fueled the entire biotech industry was recognizing that D.N.A. is really just a chemical, and the structure is what matters.”