Popular Mechanics reporter David Grossman writes about a new fabrication technique developed by MIT researchers that allows for regular-sized objects to be shrunk down to the nanoscale. Grossman explains that the new method, “takes a technique currently used to make images of brain tissue larger and reverses it.”
Inside Science reporter Yuen Yiu writes that MIT researchers have developed a new technique for producing nanoscale structures using a 3-D printing method that shrinks objects. Yiu explains that the new technique operates by “first creating a bigger structure inside of a gel, then shrinking the gel, which brings the structure down to one-thousandth the volume of the original.”
MIT researchers have developed a new method to shrink 3-D printed objects, reports Douglas Heaven for New Scientist. The technique can be used to create a wide variety of shapes using different materials. “In the 1970s hobbyists built their own computers at home,” explains Prof. Edward Boyden. “Maybe people can now make their own chips.”
MIT researchers have developed a new technique to measure cancer cells that provides insight into how certain cells respond to treatment, reports the Xinhua news agency. The findings could be used to help develop new drug targets, making current treatments more effective.
Catalog, an MIT startup that creates systems to store data on synthetic DNA molecules, hopes to make a commercial DNA storage product in the next year, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Using this new form of data storage, “can shrink down entire data centers into shoeboxes of DNA,” says former MIT postdoc and Catalog CEO Hyunjun Park.
Megan Molteni of Wired writes that data storage company, Catalog, an MIT spinout that is working on using DNA to store data. Molteni explains that at Catalog, “they’re building a machine that will write a terabyte of data a day, using 500 trillion molecules of DNA.”
60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker sits down with Prof. Feng Zhang, “a scientist at the center of the CRISPR craze,” to help explain how the gene-editing tool works and its potential. “There are about 6,000 or more diseases that are caused by faulty genes,” says Zhang. “The hope is that we will be able to address most if not all of them.”
Led by Prof. Tim Lu, Senti Biosciences has received $53 million in venture capital funding to launch their startup that will focus on cancer therapies, writes Jonathan Shieber for TechCrunch. Ideally, these therapies “are able to be controlled (programmed) at the cellular level and respond to conditions in a variety of ways,” Shieber explains.
MIT researchers have “discovered a slight difference in how humans produce the building blocks of DNA compared to how bacteria does it,” writes Fiona McMillan for Forbes. The comparison of human and bacterial enzymes “bodes well for the possible development of new antibiotics,” explains McMillan.
Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have programmed CRISPR to “in essence, make edits when significant cellular events occur,” writes Kristin Brown for Gizmodo. “All this adds up to the potential of CRISPR as not just a gene-editing powerhouse, but a multifunctional tool that also works as a biosensor, a medical detective, and an invaluable instrument for basic research.”
Originally created by the Zhang Lab in 2017, CRISPR tool SHERLOCK has been improved upon to be three times more sensitive for detecting viruses and infections using an inexpensive test strip. Sharon Begley writes for STAT News, “A paper strip, like in a pregnancy test, is dipped into a sample, and if a line appears, the target molecule was detected — no instruments required.”
A gene-editing tool called SHERLOCK, developed in Prof. Feng Zhang’s lab, allows for faster detection of infections and viruses, such as Zika and Dengue fever. “It does this by combining different types of CRISPR enzymes, which are unleashed together to target distinct bits of DNA and RNA, another of the major biological molecules found in all forms of life,” writes Alessandra Potenza for The Verge.
MIT scientists have developed a technique that could potentially be used one day to treat diseases of the brain, muscles, liver and kidneys by using CRISPR to edit RNA, writes Melissa Healy for The Los Angeles Times. Making edits to the chemical message of RNA, “doesn’t effect a permanent change in a cell’s architectural plan; rather, it essentially alters the implementation of that plan,” explains Healy.
Prof. Feng Zhang and his colleagues have created a CRISPR-based system that can edit RNA in human cells, reports Amy Dockser Marcus for The Wall Street Journal. “The new RNA-editing system, which the scientists have dubbed Repair, allows the editing of individual RNA letters, correcting a common mutation known to play a role in a number of diseases.”
Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes that Prof. Feng Zhang and his colleagues have engineered CRISPR so that it can edit single RNA letters in human cells. Cookson explains that the researchers believe that, “RNA editing offers a safer and more flexible way to make corrections than the permanent changes involved in DNA editing.”