Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

MIT researchers have developed an automated chemical synthesis system that can take over many of the more tedious aspects of chemical experimentation, freeing up chemists to spend more time on the more analytical and creative aspects of their research.

Plug-and-play technology automates chemical synthesis

System makes it easier to produce new molecules for myriad applications.

September 20, 2018

Chemical engineering graduate student Connor Coley is researching ways to improve automation and computer assistance in synthesis planning and reaction optimization with medicinal chemistry applications.

Connor Coley named 2018 DARPA Riser

Chemical engineering graduate student is invited to participate in the agency's 60th anniversary symposium in September.

July 16, 2018

MIT researchers have designed nanoparticles that can deliver messenger RNA to specific organs. In this image, lung cells expressing the synthetic mRNA show up as red.

New materials improve delivery of therapeutic messenger RNA

Polymeric nanoparticles can efficiently administer mRNA to cells of the lungs, liver, and other organs.

July 16, 2018

Zachary P. Gates (left) and Brad Pentelute with their ‘Xenoprotein’ etching.

Chemists synthesize millions of proteins not found in nature

New technology could lead to development of novel “xenoprotein” drugs against infectious diseases.

May 21, 2018

Scanning Electron Microscope image shows a few of the carefully designed shaped of the chalcogenide glass deposited on a clear substrate. The shapes, which the researchers call “meta-atoms,” determine how mid-infrared light is bent when passing through the material.

Improving mid-infrared imaging and sensing

Artificial optical materials could allow cheaper, flatter, more efficient detectors for night vision and other uses.

April 26, 2018

New software identified five different families of microstructures, each defined by a shared “skeleton” (blue), that optimally traded off three mechanical properties.

Automating materials design

With new approach, researchers specify desired properties of a material, and a computer system generates a structure accordingly.

February 2, 2018

MIT neuroscientists have discovered that making decisions, especially when choosing between two options that have both positive and negative elements, can be dramatically affected by chronic stress.

Stress can lead to risky decisions

Neuroscientists find chronic stress skews decisions toward higher-risk options.

November 16, 2017

MIT researchers have devised a way to control single neurons using optogenetics. To help achieve this, they developed an opsin, or light-sensitive protein, that can be targeted to neuron cell bodies (bottom row). Neurons in the top row have traditional opsins that are distributed throughout their axons.

Next-generation optogenetic molecules control single neurons

Focused laser beam could help scientists map connections among neurons that underlie behavior.

November 13, 2017

A new system from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory works by analyzing light at the edge of walls, which is impacted by the reflections of objects around the corner from the camera.

An algorithm for your blind spot

Using smartphone cameras, system for seeing around corners could help with self-driving cars and search-and-rescue.

October 9, 2017

Researchers have come up with a new approach to network monitoring that provides great flexibility in data collection while keeping both the circuit complexity of the router and the number of external analytic servers low.

Monitoring network traffic more efficiently

Programming language plus simple circuit design could let routers report on their own operation.

August 23, 2017

Engineers at MIT can predict how beds of tiny, soft hair, such as those that line surfaces inside the human body, will bend in response to fluid flow.

Our hairy insides

Engineers predict how flowing fluid will bend tiny hairs that line blood vessels and intestines.

August 21, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a new design system that catalogues the physical properties of a huge number of tiny cube clusters. These clusters can then serve as building blocks for larger printable objects.

Designing the microstructure of printed objects

Software lets designers exploit the extremely high resolution of 3-D printers.

August 3, 2017

Researchers are hoping to use nanotechnology to develop more targeted treatments for drug-resistant bacteria. In this illustration, an antimicrobial peptide is packaged in a silicon nanoparticle to target bacteria in the lung.

Antibiotic nanoparticles fight drug-resistant bacteria

Targeted treatment could be used for pneumonia and other bacterial infections.

July 12, 2017

Instead of relying on silicon-based devices, a new chip uses carbon nanotubes and resistive random-access memory (RRAM) cells. The two are built vertically over one another, making a new, dense 3-D computer architecture with interleaving layers of logic and memory.

New 3-D chip combines computing and data storage

Advance points toward new generation of computers for coming superstorm of data.

July 5, 2017

A GelSight sensor attached to a robot’s gripper enables the robot to determine precisely where it has grasped a small screwdriver, removing it from and inserting it back into a slot, even when the gripper screens the screwdriver from the robot’s camera.

Giving robots a sense of touch

GelSight technology lets robots gauge objects’ hardness and manipulate small tools.

June 5, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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