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Molly Webster of WNYC’s Radiolab visits the Picower Institute to learn more about how researchers are investigating new techniques that might eventually be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Prof. Li-Huei Tsai speaks about her group’s work using flickering light to reduce the beta amyloid plaque found in Alzheimer’s patients, and graduate student Dheeraj Roy discusses his work recovering memories with light.
Researchers from MIT’s Little Devices Lab have developed Lego-like devices that can perform diagnostic tests, writes UPI reporter Allen Cone. The devices could significantly reduce the cost of diagnostic tests and as they don't require refrigeration or special handling, “they could be particularly useful in the developing world.”
Researchers from a number of universities, including MIT, have developed a new refillable, implantable device that can deliver drugs to the heart tissue to help treat a heart attack, reports Xinhua. "After a heart attack we could use this device to deliver therapy to prevent a patient from getting heart failure," explains Prof. Ellen Roche.
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters writes that MIT researchers have designed a kit that allows scientists to develop diagnostic tests quickly and cheaply. The kit, “uses modular blocks that can be connected in different patterns to replicate the function that would typically be built into a manufactured test for pregnancy, glucose, or an infection or other disease.”
A new study by MIT researchers provides evidence that antibiotics can change the body’s chemistry and make it more hospitable to bacteria, reports Melinda Wenner Moyer for Scientific American. “We suspect that the strength of this effect will really depend on the type of infection and types of antibiotics used,” explains postdoc Jason Yang.
Using nanotechnology and CRISPR, Prof. Daniel Anderson has turned off a cholesterol-related gene in mouse liver cells, reports Julie Steenhuysen for Reuters. This new development “could lead to new ways to correct genes that cause high cholesterol and other liver diseases,” Steenhuysen writes.
Boston Globe reporter Alex Kingsbury writes that MIT researchers have developed a paper-based test to diagnose Zika. The test could not only make it easier for doctors to diagnose the disease in developing countries, but also “distinguish between the four types of dengue fever, even if Zika wasn’t present — a useful diagnostic tool for doctors in its own right.”
MIT researchers have developed a portable paper-based test that can diagnose the Zika virus and differentiate between four types of the Dengue virus, writes Rowan Walrath for Boston Magazine. The researchers are, “also working on a diagnostic for the tick-borne Powassan virus, which…causes a severe form of encephalitis.”
A new blood test developed by MIT researchers can distinguish between the Zika and dengue viruses, reports Andrew Joseph for STAT. “Being able to distinguish the four serotypes is very important for epidemiology purposes and to know what viruses are circulating in an environment,” explains Prof. Lee Gehrke.
Prof. Lee Gehrke speaks with WBUR’s Carey Goldberg about a new paper-based diagnostic that can detect the Zika virus. “Our technology for screening large numbers of antibodies against a panel of closely related viral proteins has allowed us to specifically identify antibodies that recognize only one of the viral antigens, and that gives us a great deal of specificity.”
MIT researchers have developed a new test that can identify dengue and the Zika virus quickly and cheaply, reports Sophie Hares for Reuters. “Knowing whether these tests are positive or negative is very important for designing the course of clinical care,” explains Prof. Lee Gehrke. “It simplifies the decision tree and, we believe, leads to improved patient care.”
Two new papers from CSAIL researchers “aim to help doctors make better use of the digital information they’re presented with,” writes Adi Gaskell for The Huffington Post. One examines a tool that uses ICU data to choose the best treatment option based on a range of symptoms, while the other facilitates “predictive models based upon an electronic health record system.”
MIT researchers have developed a new way to grow liver tissue, writes Jamie Ducharme for Boston Magazine. “These minuscule structures expanded to 50 times their starting size,” Ducharme explains, “and performed normal liver functions like metabolism regulation, bile production, and detoxification.”
MIT researchers have engineered an expandable liver from human liver cells that can grow up to 50 times its original size, reports Lindsay Kalter for the Boston Herald. In the future, the researchers would like to make the expandable livers smarter, “by embedding sensors in them to tell us how they are doing,” explains Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia.
MIT researchers have developed a new way to engineer liver tissue that involves implanting tiny “seeds” of liver tissue, which expand to perform normal liver functions, reports Robert Preidt for U.S. News & World Report. The technique could one day “help reduce long wait lists for liver transplants.”