Biology

An exoskeleton-consuming gene found in bacteria sheds light on the first arthropods to walk the Earth.

New technique pinpoints milestones in the evolution of bacteria

Results show bacterial genomes provide “shadow history” of animal evolution.

February 7, 2019

MIT researchers found that when they halted cell division in human fibroblast cells, they became abnormally large and then entered a non-dividing state known as senescence (right panel). Untreated, normal-sized fibroblasts are shown at left.

Biologists answer fundamental question about cell size

The need to produce just the right amount of protein is behind the striking uniformity of sizes.

February 7, 2019

MIT biological engineers have developed a way to rapidly measure cell survival rates by growing many cell colonies and imaging their fluorescently labeled DNA.

A better way to measure cell survival

New test rapidly evaluates the effect of drugs and potentially toxic compounds on cells.

February 5, 2019

Biologist Adam Martin studies the mechanics of tissue folding

The dynamic process is critical to embryonic development and other cellular phenomena.

January 31, 2019

MIT researchers found that lung tumors in mice treated with antibiotics (right, purple stain) were much smaller than untreated lung tumors (left).

Bacteria promote lung tumor development, study suggests

Antibiotics or anti-inflammatory drugs may help combat lung cancer.

January 31, 2019

Sallie “Penny” Chisholm awarded the 2019 Crafoord Prize

Institute Professor honored for discovering Prochlorococcus, the most abundant photosynthesizing organism on Earth.

January 22, 2019

MIT researchers’ new platform detects and extracts rare circulating tumor cells from live mouse models using a combination of laser excitation and a microfluidic chip.

From microfluidics to metastasis

New platform enables longitudinal studies of circulating tumor cells in mouse models of cancer.

January 21, 2019

MIT chemists have enhanced the resolution of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which should allow more rapid and detailed study of proteins such as the beta amyloid protein that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Enhanced NMR reveals chemical structures in a fraction of the time

Technique could yield insights into complex proteins involved in Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

January 18, 2019

Some variants of the SYNE1 gene, such as V551A top right, reduced the ability of the protein CPG2, shown here as bright spots, to locate in protruding spines of dendrites that house excitatory synapses in the neurons of rats.

Study shows how specific gene variants may raise bipolar disorder risk

Findings could help inform new therapies, improve diagnosis.

January 17, 2019

Researchers have discovered that full-length introns — that is, those that have been cut out but remain otherwise intact — can persist and carry out useful biological functions.

Revising the textbook on introns

Whitehead Institute researchers uncover a group of introns in yeast that possess surprising stability and function.

January 16, 2019

Valerie Muldoon (left), a third-year mechanical engineering student, and biological engineering student Jenna Melanson explore a coastal ecosystem during a field trip to Odiorne Point State Park in New Hampshire.

Exploring New England's coastal ecosystems in the dead of winter

Independent Activities Period class explores the role coastal ecosystems play in protecting the environment and how climate change has affected them.

December 27, 2018

School of Science honors postdocs and research staff with 2019 Infinite Kilometer Awards

Five winners are recognized for their outstanding contributions to colleagues, the school, and the Institute.

December 26, 2018

Matthew Wilson and former postdocs Zhe "Sage" Chen and Fabian Kloosterman have been working for a decade on systems to decode neural signals.

Real-time readouts of thinking in rats

New open-source system provides fast, accurate neural decoding and real-time readouts of where rats think they are.

December 19, 2018

An MIT team has discovered that the small molecule ppGpp (red) binds to the PurF enzyme (subunits shown in green and purple).

Engineering "capture compounds" to probe cell growth

Researchers develop a method to investigate how bacteria respond to starvation and to identify which proteins bind to the “magic spot” — ppGpp.

December 17, 2018

The toughness of Sporopollenin, a polymer within the shells of pollen grains (seen here magnified 500X using a scanning electron microscope), has made it possible for plant life to survive on land — but has also frustrated attempts to study its fundamental composition, until now.

Cracking a tough case

Whitehead Institute and MIT researchers uncover the detailed molecular structure of the sporopollenin polymer, an inert material key for the emergence of land plants.