Going nature one better
MIT researchers aim to learn biology’s secrets for making tough, resilient materials out of simple components, and then improve on them.
Biology rides to computers’ aid
Photonic crystals could usher in an age of low-power optical computing, but they’re hard to manufacture. Maybe adding a little DNA would help.
Teasing out malaria’s genetic secrets
Biological engineer’s new approach to studying gene control could lead to new drug targets.
Roger Kamm elected to the Institute of Medicine
One of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine
5 from MIT win NIH awards
The grants are designed to promote risky, innovative research with the potential to transform a field of study.
Putting carbon dioxide to good use
MIT biological engineers have found a way to convert carbon-dioxide emissions to useful building materials, using genetically altered yeast.
MIT hosts 28 Amgen Scholars this summer
Undergraduates invited to conduct hands-on research with MIT faculty
A pharmacy on the back of a cell
Drugs encapsulated in new MIT nanoparticles can hitch a ride to tumors on the surface of immune-system cells.
RNA offers a safer way to reprogram cells
New technique holds promise to revert cells to an immature state that can develop into any cell type.
Imaging fish on the fly
New MIT technology allows high-speed study of zebrafish larvae, often used to model human diseases.
A new use for gold
Engineers turn a drawback — the stickiness of gold nanoparticles — into an advantage.
Building organs block by block
Tissue engineers create a new way to assemble artificial tissues, using ‘biological Legos’ — cells transformed into bricks.
Explained: Directed evolution
Speeding up protein evolution in the lab can yield useful molecules that nature never intended.
Genes as fossils
MIT researchers discover the DNA responsible for creating fossil-like molecules found in ancient rocks.