DNA study casts light on century-old mystery of how cells divide

22-Jan-2018 - Scientists have solved a longstanding puzzle of how cells are able to tightly package DNA to enable healthy cell division. Their findings shed light on how single cells can compact DNA 10,000-fold to partition it between two identical cells - a process that is essential for growth, repair and ...

New technology offers fast peptide synthesis

02-Mar-2017 - Manufacturing small proteins known as peptides is usually very time-consuming, which has slowed development of new peptide drugs for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and bacterial infections. To help speed up the manufacturing process, MIT researchers have designed a machine that can rapidly ...

Portable device produces biologic drugs on demand

02-Aug-2016 - For medics on the battlefield and doctors in remote or developing parts of the world, getting rapid access to the drugs needed to treat patients can be challenging. Biopharmaceutical drugs, which are used in a wide range of therapies including vaccines and treatments for diabetes and cancer, are ...

Why gold nanoparticles can penetrate cell walls

Gold nanoparticles with special coatings can deliver drugs or biosensors to a cell's interior without damaging it

26-Aug-2013 - Cells are very good at protecting their precious contents — and as a result, it's very difficult to penetrate their membrane walls to deliver drugs, nutrients or biosensors without damaging or destroying the cell. One effective way of doing so, discovered in 2008, is to use nanoparticles of pure ...

MIT researchers develop a better way to grow stem cells

23-Aug-2010 - Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. However, scientists who work with such cells have had trouble growing large enough ...

RNA offers a safer way to reprogram cells

New technique could revert cells to immature state that can develop into any cell type

28-Jul-2010 - In recent years, scientists have shown that they can reprogram human skin cells to an immature state that allows the cells to become any type of cell. This ability, known as pluripotency, holds the promise of treating diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease by transforming the patients' ...

New microscopy technique offers close-up, real-time view of cellular phenomena

MIT scientists record first microscopic images showing deadly effects of AMPs

16-Mar-2010 - For two decades, scientists have been pursuing a potential new way to treat bacterial infections, using naturally occurring proteins known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Now, MIT scientists have recorded the first microscopic images showing the deadly effects of AMPs, most of which kill by ...

New nanoparticles target cardiovascular disease

Could potentially eliminate need for arterial stents in some patients

20-Jan-2010 - Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have built targeted nanoparticles that can cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine, an advance that potentially provides an alternative to drug-releasing stents in some patients with cardiovascular disease. The particles, dubbed "nanoburrs" ...

MIT neuroengineers silence brain cells with multiple colors of light

New tools show potential for treating brain disorders

11-Jan-2010 - Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. When targeted to specific neurons, these tools could potentially lead to new treatments for the abnormal brain activity associated with disorders such as ...

Scientists decipher the 3-D structure of the human genome

Fractal globule architecture packs two meters of DNA into each human cell, avoids knots

14-Oct-2009 - Scientists have deciphered the three-dimensional structure of the human genome, paving the way for new insights into genomic function and expanding our understanding of how cellular DNA folds at scales that dwarf the double helix. In a paper in Science, they describe a new technology called Hi-C ...