Researchers at MIT and Harvard have developed a new device that can quickly detect Ebola, reports Robert Preidt for U.S. News & World Report. “The new paper-based test takes minutes and the device does not require electricity,” writes Preidt. “The test works in a similar manner to over-the-counter pregnancy tests.”
Jamie Ducharme of Boston Magazine writes about a polymer gel being developed by researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital that could allow for swallowable medical devices. “Improving slow-release safety could open the door for devices that control hunger in obese patients, diagnose gastrointestinal issues, extend the effects of drugs, and more,” Ducharme explains.
MIT researchers have “developed a new ring-like device made of a polymer that can deliver drugs to the stomach over the course of a week,” writes Alexandra Ossola for Popular Science. The team anticipates that the technology could be used for a variety of medical applications.
In an article for Bloomberg Business about how poverty can impact brain development in children, John Tozzi highlights research by Prof. John Gabrieli examining how family income can affect academic achievement. "It’s only in the last few years that there’s been any systematic research asking about the biological side of the story," explains Gabrieli.
Scientific American reporter Cynthia Graber speaks with Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia about her new research that shows how bacteria could be used to detect cancer. “I think there's really a whole world of possibilities once you start thinking about using bacteria as a platform upon which to engineer functions,” says Bhatia.
Miles O’Brien of the PBS NewsHour reports on how scientists are developing cheaper and more efficient tests for Ebola, highlighting Prof. Lee Gehrke’s simple diagnostic kits. Gehrke explains that the test his team developed is “very simple, requires no refrigeration, no power, no special training.”
MIT researchers have developed a test that can accurately detect cancer in urine, reports Megan Scudellari for The Boston Globe. “Bacteria can grow in tumors as small as 1 millimeter, so the urine test has the potential to detect liver tumors — which tend to be small and dispersed — very early on, which would improve survival rates for patients,” Scudellari explains.
Professor Sangeeta Bhatia and her colleagues have successfully engineered bacteria that can be used to detect cancer and diabetes, writes Robert Service for Science. The researchers found that “while conventional imaging techniques struggle to detect liver tumors smaller than 1 square centimeter, this approach was able to flag tumors as small as 1 square millimeter.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Melissa Healy writes that researchers from MIT and the University of California, San Diego have successfully modified bacteria to detect cancer. “Their work is a key component of broader efforts to make the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer increasingly precise and targeted," writes Healy.
Researchers from MIT and the University of California, San Diego have genetically modified bacteria so that it can detect cancer, BBC News reports. The researchers hope that one day, “the general approach could one day be used to develop relatively cheap and easy to use home-testing kits for a range of diseases.”
MIT researchers have developed a non-invasive way to detect liver cancer using probiotics, reports Vijee Venkatraman for BetaBoston. The researchers found that they could “use bacteria as tumor scouts…and engineer them to emit a signal once they reached the mass and multiply.”
Alison Gopnik of The Wall Street Journal writes that new research by Professor John Gabrieli indicates that poverty can have a negative impact on brain development in children. The researchers found that “low-income children had developed thinner cortices than the high-income children.”
“MIT researchers have created an algorithm [that] can distinguish between different lymphomas in real time,” writes Melissa Malamut for Boston Magazine. Graduate student Yuan Luo and Professor Peter Szolovits developed a system that can automatically suggest cancer diagnoses based on data points from past pathology reports, Malamut explains.
Ami Albernaz reports for The Boston Globe on a new study co-authored by Prof. John Gabrieli that finds that income disparity affects brain development in children. “The findings add a biological perspective on what it means to come from a lower socioeconomic background,” says Gabrieli.
Research by Prof. John Gabrieli demonstrates that poverty can have a negative impact on the adolescent brain, writes Brooks Hays for UPI. “When researchers at MIT scanned the brains of some 54 students, they found high-income students (in comparison with lower-income peers) have thicker cortex tissue in areas of the brain linked with visual perception and knowledge acquisition,” Hays writes.