MIT Innovation Fellow Brian Deese speaks with CNBC about how the new class of weight loss drugs will impact American taxes and the federal deficit. “These drugs could touch tens of millions of Americans, that’s the good news,” says Deese. “They have the potential to reduce obesity, address diabetes and reduce the health care costs associated with that. The problem is that the scale and the cost of these drugs is so large, that it could add enormously to the federal budget.”
Senior Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota writes for Forbes about the ways AI is reshaping drug development. “In the next three years, we can anticipate a more streamlined, efficient and cost-effective drug development process, ultimately leading to faster access to life-saving drugs for patients worldwide,” Hayes-Mota writes. “This is not just an evolution; it is a revolution in healthcare powered by the intelligence of machines.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a machine-learning model that can identify which drugs should not be taken together, reports Politico. “The researchers built a model to measure how intestinal tissue absorbed certain commonly used drugs,” they write. “They then trained a machine-learning algorithm based on their new data and existing drug databases, teaching the new algorithm to predict which drugs would interact with which transporter proteins.”
MIT researchers have developed new technology that allows vaccines to be directly inserted into the lymph nodes to target two of the most common mutations in the KRAS gene, which cause roughly one third of all cancers, reports Jaimie Seaton for Scientific American. “The team modified the small vaccine components to include a fatty acid, which enables the vaccine to effectively hitch a ride on albumin, a common protein found throughout the body,” explains Seaton. “Albumin serves as a molecular shuttle bus, with pockets on its surface where fatty acids can bind to it.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that while AI systems could help doctors come to the right diagnosis more often, the diagnostic gains aren’t always distributed evenly, with more improvements tied to patients with lighter skin, report Daniel Payne, Erin Schumaker, and Ruth Reader for Politico. “AI could be a powerful tool to improve care and potentially offer providers a check on their blindspots," they write. "But that doesn’t mean AI will reduce bias. In fact, the study suggests, AI could cause greater disparities in care.”
Elemind Technologies, a neuro-tech startup founded by scientists from MIT and elsewhere, is developing, “an approach that redirects brain wave through non-invasive stimulation – using sound, light, touch and electric pulses – to potentially address a range of neurological conditions in a more targeted ways than drugs,” reports Robert Weisman for The Boston Globe.
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed an AI model that is capable of identifying 3 ½ times more people who are at high-risk for developing pancreatic cancer than current standards, reports Felice J. Freyer for The Boston Globe. “This work has the potential to enlarge the group of pancreatic cancer patients who can benefit from screening from 10 percent to 35 percent,” explains Freyer. “The group hopes its model will eventually help detect risk of other hard-to-find cancers, like ovarian.”
Popular Mechanics reporter Jill Waldbieser spotlights Prof. Hugh Herr and his work developing prosthetic limbs that integrate with their human hosts using a surgical technique that preserves the sensation in artificial limbs. “In the future, on the order of five years or so, we’ll be so good at this, we’ll completely restore the signals from the prosthetic to the brain and from the brain to the prosthetic, like the limb was never amputated,” says Herr.
Prof. Canan Dagdeviren and her team have developed a wearable ultrasound patch that can be used to screen for breast cancer at home, reports Grace Browne for Wired. “Dagdeviren wants to give people the opportunity to know what’s happening inside their bodies every day, the same way we check the weather forecast,” writes Browne.
Smithsonian Magazine reporter Sarah Kuta spotlights MIT researchers and their work in developing an ingestible vibrating pill that simulates the feeling of being full. The device “could someday offer an obesity treatment that doesn’t rely on standard medications or surgery,” writes Kuta.
MIT researchers have created a vibrating capsule that can send signals to the brain to simulate the sensation of being full, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “The capsule, which is roughly the size of a standard multi-vitamin, contains a vibrating motor, powered by a silver oxide battery,” explains Heater. “After reaching the stomach, gastric acid dissolves the outside layer and completes the circuit, kickstarting the vibration.”
Researchers at MIT have developed a vibrating pill that “significantly reduces food consumption by mimicking the feeling of fullness,” reports Arianna Johnson for Forbes. Researchers believe, “the pill can be used as a cheaper, noninvasive option to treat obesity and other weight-related illnesses,” writes Johnson.
A new analysis from MIT researchers has found that preventative screenings such as a colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy can reduce cancer rates more than previous analyses suggested, reports Ernie Mundell for HealthDay. “Prior colon cancer screening studies found that regular colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy reduced that rate by 25% -- to 0.75%,” explains Mundell. “But the new analysis took into account the number of participants in a colon cancer screening trial who decided, for whatever reason, to skip screening. When these "non-adherent" folks were eliminated from statistical calculations, the actual percentage of people who went on to develop colon cancer over a 10-year span fell to just 0.5%.”
Writing for STAT, Prof. Joseph Doyle addresses new research that suggests food “as medicine can improve health and lower health care costs.” “Researchers, clinicians and policymakers all share a common goal to fight food insecurity and improve population health,” writes Doyle. “Randomized clinical trials are key tools for discerning what works best, for whom and why, information that we should all be hungry for.”
MIT researchers have created “a vibrating pill that stimulates nerve endings in the stomach to tell the brain it’s time to stop eating,” reports Mitch Leslie for Science. “A gel plug in the pill keeps the motor from switching on,” explains Leslie. “But the gel dissolves rapidly when it contacts stomach fluid, allowing the motor to start turning. When that happens, the pill shakes for about 38 minutes, roughly the amount of time it would stay in the stomach. The researchers hypothesized that these vibrations would stimulate the stretch-sensing nerve endings and signal satiety.”