Bioengineering and biotechnology

Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have “discovered a way to increase antimicrobial sensitivity in bacteria by exposing them to hydrogen sulphide (H2S),” reports Health Europa.

Researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a new biosensitive ink “that indicates one’s health condition by changing its color,” writes Seung Jae Park for The Los Angeles Times. “With the subtle embellishment of the ink with tattoo artistry, the team aims to overcome the shortcomings of the current biomedical monitoring devices.”

MIT researchers have developed a skin patch that could be used to fight melanoma, reports Berkeley Lovelace Jr. for CNBC. “Our patch technology could be used to deliver vaccines to combat different infectious diseases,” explains Prof. Paula Hammond. “But we are excited by the possibility that the patch is another tool in the oncologists’ arsenal against cancer, specifically melanoma.”

STAT reporter Kate Sheridan spotlights MIT startup Lyra Therapeutics, which is developing a long-acting treatment for chronic rhinosinusitis.

Forbes reporter Amy Feldman spotlights MIT startup Ginkgo Bioworks, which aims to “design, modify and manufacture organisms to make existing industrial processes cheaper and entirely new processes possible.” Feldman notes that the promise of synthetic biology is “not just a proliferation of new products, but also a reduction of the environmental harm that comes from our heavy reliance on petrochemicals.”

MIT researchers have developed a new technique to synthesize the feel-good molecules in the Kava plant root, reports Carey Goldberg for WBUR. “What we do in our lab is to actually start from plants that have thousands of years of use in traditional medicine," says Prof. Jing-Ke Weng. "We already know there's something in that plant that works to treat some illness."

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.