A new study co-authored by researchers at the Broad Institute examines how exposure to microbes during childhood can impact the development of immune systems, reports Elissa Strauss for Slate. The researchers found that “while our individual habits are a factor in autoimmune disorders, they’re hardly the only cause.”
Huffington Post reporter Carolyn Gregoire writes that MIT spinoff Synlogic is working on reprogramming gut bacteria to act as a living therapeutic. “It’s become really clear that the bacteria living in us and on us affect our bodies in a variety of different ways — in ways that we never imagined,” explains Prof. Timothy Lu.
MIT researchers have developed a programming language that allows users to design DNA circuits for living cells, writes Andy Coghlan for New Scientist. “We take the same approach as for designing an electronic chip,” says Prof. Christopher Voigt. “Every step in the process is the same – it’s just that instead of mapping the circuit to silicon, it’s mapped to DNA.”
MIT researchers have developed a programming language for living cells, reports Erika Check Hayden for Nature. “What we’re finding over time is that biology isn’t this kind of mysterious unpredictable substrate; it just felt that way because we didn’t really have the tools to see what was going on,” Prof. Christopher Voigt says.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have developed a new material, called bioLogic, that alters its shape with changes in humidity and opens ventilation ducts when the wearer starts sweating, writes Olga Kharif for Bloomberg Business.
MIT researchers have demonstrated that power plant emissions can be turned into liquid fuels using engineered microbes, reports Damian Carrington for The Guardian. Carrington explains that the process “uses bacteria to convert the waste gases into acetic acid - vinegar - then an engineered yeast to produce an oil.”
Jane Wakefield reports for BBC News on a system developed by postdoctoral fellow Tal Danino in which bacteria are programmed to detect cancers in the liver. "It is a fascinating universe in our body and we can now program bacteria like we program computers,” Danino says.
WBUR’s Deborah Becker and Lynn Jolicoeur report on the new MIT-MGH partnership aimed at developing better tools to treat disease. Prof. Arup Chakraborty hopes the collaboration will allow researchers to take risks. “Safe ideas are often not the transformative ones,” he says.
Nature highlights the top science news of the week, including the new interdisciplinary center at MIT aimed at examining the microbiome. “The center will initially focus on inflammatory bowel disease, but organizers hope to eventually broaden the scope to diseases such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis and autism,” Nature reports.
Loren Grush of Popular Science writes about a new type of antibiotic developed by MIT researchers that could help kill drug-resistant bacteria. “[T]he team developed their own gene-editing system, capable of turning off certain bacterial genes that spur antibiotic resistance,” Grush explains.
A team led by Professor Timothy Lu has developed a new class of antibiotic that can selectively kill bacteria based on their genes, reports Michael Eyre for BBC News. "This is an enabling toolkit for the basic scientists to now start probing these systems a little bit better,” says Lu.
Researchers at MIT have developed a waterproof glue based on the proteins that allow shellfish to cling to rocks, reports Brooks Hays for UPI. "We're trying to figure out if by adding other mussel foot proteins, we can increase the adhesive strength even more and improve the material's robustness," said Professor Timothy Lu.
CBS News reports that MIT engineers have identified several combinations of genes that make bacteria more vulnerable to antibiotics. This research could help in the fight against “superbugs,” drug-resistant bacteria that kill at least 23,000 people per year in the U.S.
Lina Zeldovich of The Atlantic writes about how Prof. Eric Alm and one of his graduate students tracked their bacterial fluctuations for a year to better understand how daily activities influenced their microbiome. “We just don’t know much about the functional role of any of these bugs,” says Alm.
Dietary changes can alter human gut bacteria, Mary Elizabeth Dallas reports in a U.S. News & World Report article on a new MIT study on the role of bacteria in the digestive tract. “These fluctuations could lead to monitoring systems that might help detect and ease flare-ups for people with certain chronic illnesses, such as inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease),” Dallas writes.