Health sciences and technology

MIT researchers found that mice with normal DNA repair systems had more retinal degeneration upon exposure to environmental toxic agents than mice lacking a certain DNA repair system. At right, the cross section of the retina from a mouse lacking the repair system is normal. At left, mice with too much DNA repair have greatly reduced numbers of cells in the OPL (outer plexiform layer) and ONL (ou...

Too much of a good thing

Excessive DNA repair can lead to retinal degeneration

January 9, 2009

Model predicts how to build a better stent

Work could help reduce blood clot risk in stent recipients

January 5, 2009

The top image shows a mixture of gold nanoparticles. The longer particles are called nanobones, and the smaller are nanocapsules. Bottom left: After the nanoparticles are hit with 800 nanometer wavelength infrared light, the nanocapsules melt and release their payload. Nanobones remain intact. Right: After the nanoparticles are hit with 1100 nanometer wavelength infrared light, the nanobones melt...

Gold particles deliver more than just glitter

Nanoparticles could carry drugs to treat cancer, other diseases

December 30, 2008

Surprising find could lead to better manufacturing options for cancer-fighting antibodies

December 22, 2008

MIT civil and environmental engineering student Mustafa Dafalla '09 gathers water samples at a pond in Niger to check for malaria larvae.

How to fight malaria by changing the environment

Leveling land can help control disease's spread, computer modeling finds

December 19, 2008

Ancient bacteria offer new line of attack on cystic fibrosis

December 16, 2008

Sasisekharan named new HST director at MIT

December 10, 2008

Team sheds light on Alzheimer's mystery

Work could lead to new treatments for debilitating disease

December 10, 2008

Cima named faculty director of Lemelson-MIT Program

Succeeding Flemings as of Jan. 1, 2009

December 5, 2008

Top image depicts the chemical structure of chondroitin sulfate, the contaminant found in batches of heparin. Bottom image shows the chemical structure of normal heparin.

Conclusive evidence that tainted heparin caused allergic reactions

Epidemiological study provides the final link

December 3, 2008

From left to right: Richard Maulsby (United States Patent and Trademark Office), Timothy Lu (grand winner, MIT), Greg Schroll (undergraduate winner, MIT), Paul Podsiadlo (graduate winner, University of Michigan), Neil Conan (NPR host) and Jeff Pan (Abbott representative who was also a judge).

MIT students take top prizes in national inventors' contest

Lu awarded $25,000 grand prize, Schroll takes top undergraduate honors

November 21, 2008

A new class of catalysts

November 16, 2008

By studying songbirds, McGovern's Professor Michale Fee, left, and post-doc Michael Long move closer to understanding how timing is represented within the brain.

Singing in slow motion

MIT work with songbirds could aid study of humans' timing

November 12, 2008

Dr.Chi-Sang Poon, principal research scientist at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) discovers new mechanism that controls respiration.
"This is a beautiful example of a yin-yang relationship," said Poon, with pacemakers exciting and inhibiting one another. "You want to be stable so you can have harmony."
Here Dr. Poon stands by a Yin-Yang water sculpture he apprecia...

Setting the pace

MIT pieces together the mechanism that allows two pacemakers to control breathing

November 3, 2008

Head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Paul E Newton (1965) Professor of Neuroscience Mriganka Sur, left, led a toast to newly named Institute Professor Ann Graybiel, along with Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute, at a party given in Graybiel's honor.

Ann Graybiel named Institute Professor