Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers have created a robot that is made of hydrogels and powered by water that has the potential to be used in surgical applications. Tough, rubbery and mostly water, these robots can perform an array of tasks including kicking a ball or grabbing and releasing live fish. The transparent robots move […]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bob Langer on drug delivery
Robert Langer, a pioneer in drug delivery and the most cited engineer in history, has co-founded 30 companies and treated more than 20 million patients as a result of his innovations. In a conversation with Wired, he spoke about his career, which has spanned for 4 decades and began with his 1976 discovery of a method to delay […]
MIT, Brigham researchers deliver strands of RNA using ultrasound
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham & Women’s Hospital have developed a technique to deliver strands of RNA to colon cells using bursts of ultrasound waves. The team’s technique turned down the production of a protein involved in inflammatory bowel disease in mice. The paper, which was published in Gastroenterology, described a simple […]
New drug capsule delivers medicine for weeks after swallowing
Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spurred by a challenge from Bill Gates, developed a star-shaped drug capsule that can gradually release medication and stay in the stomach for to 2 weeks after being swallowed. The study, published yesterday in Science Translational Medicine, described the team’s work using the device to deliver an anti-parasitic drug, invermectin, which […]
Prioritizing patient preference & risk in device trials
Patients with a rare, chronic disease can find themselves in a conundrum when seeking treatment: Researchers can’t find enough patients to enroll in a statistically rigorous clinical trial and there is uncertainty in the regulatory path. Frustrated by the lack of treatment options on the market, patients may be willing to accept a certain level of […]
Researchers look to create massive human cell ‘atlas’
Scientists launched a global initiative on Friday to map out and describe every cell in the human body in a vast atlas that could transform researchers’ understanding of human development and disease. The atlas, which could take more than a decade to complete, aims to chart the types and properties of all human cells across all […]
MIT, Singapore Univ. dev 3-D-printed structures that “remember” their shapes
By Sarah Faulkner Engineers from MIT and Singapore University of Technology and Design are using light to create 3D structures that remember their shape when triggered by external stimuli like temperature. These structures, also known as shape-memory polymers, could be useful as delivery vessels for drugs in the human body. Get the full story at […]
New from the biotech store: an improved gene editing tool
(Reuters) – Scientists have developed an improved gene editing tool that significantly reduces potentially dangerous “off-target” edits, promising an even more precise and efficient system for manipulating human DNA. Editing the genes of living organisms, including humans, holds out great promise for treating diseases. But it could also be used to create “designer babies”, prompting […]
MIT Researchers convert MRI scans into precise 3D heart models
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston Children’s Hospital said today they developed a system that can take convert an MRI scan of a heart into a 3-D printed model. The printed hearts can be used to give surgeons a hands-on, tangible model of the heart they will be operating on before they touch a […]