News & Events

This past January, we traveled to South Africa as part of the IAP class HST.434: Evolution of an Epidemic. The class, taught by IMES Professor Bruce Walker and Dr. Howard Heller and offered to MIT undergraduates, examines the medical, scientific, public health and policy responses to a new disease, by…

Measurements could help scientists develop better designs for a bioartificial pancreas. Transplanting pancreatic islet cells into patients with diabetes is a promising alternative to the daily insulin injections that many of these patients now require. These cells could act as a bioartificial pancreas, monitoring blood glucose levels and secreting insulin…

The Institute is proud to announce that IMES faculty member and Helmholtz Career Development Professor Ellen Roche has been named a recipient of a renowned National Science Foundation CAREER award, recognizing early-career faculty for their potential as prominent leaders in both academia and in scientific research, who have “proven themselves…

Applications are now being accepted for current students, alumni, and researchers interested in attending the inaugural 2019 Fluids and Health Conference in Corsica, France! From July 23-August 2, 2019, join experts from a range of fields working to address the challenges of widespread infectious disease and food shortage. Phase 1…

A new database could pave a path for researchers to develop algorithms that ensure accurate diagnoses of conditions like pneumonia. Computer vision, or the method of giving machines the ability to process images in an advanced way, has been given increased attention by researchers in the last several years. It…

New platform enables longitudinal studies of circulating tumor cells in mouse models of cancer. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) — an intermediate form of cancer cell between a primary and metastatic tumor cell — carry a treasure trove of information that is critical to treating cancer. Numerous engineering advancements over the…

Hackathons promote doctor-data scientist collaboration and expanded access to electronic medical-records to improve patient care. An artificial intelligence program that’s better than human doctors at recommending treatment for sepsis may soon enter clinical trials in London. The machine learning model is part of a new way of practicing medicine that…

Invertons — bits of regulatory DNA that can flip between “on” and “off” positions — let bacteria adapt to their surroundings and are widespread. Bacteria have a number of well-known tricks available to them to adapt to changing environments, such as mutation and sharing snippets of DNA with each other….

Patients with lung disease could find relief by breathing in messenger RNA molecules. Messenger RNA, which can induce cells to produce therapeutic proteins, holds great promise for treating a variety of diseases. The biggest obstacle to this approach so far has been finding safe and efficient ways to deliver mRNA…

New optogenetic technique could help restore limb movement, treat muscle tremor. For the first time, MIT researchers have shown that nerves made to express proteins that can be activated by light can produce limb movements that can be adjusted in real-time, using cues generated by the motion of the limb…