AI (Artificial Intelligence)

In the horticultural world, some vines are especially grabby. As they grow, the woody tendrils can wrap around obstacles with enough force to pull down fences and trees. Inspired by vines’ twisty tenacity, engineers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a robotic gripper that can snake around and lift a variety of objects and […]

Antibody treatments for cancer and other diseases are typically delivered intravenously, requiring patients to go to a hospital and potentially spend hours receiving infusions. Now Professor Patrick Doyle and his colleagues have taken a major step toward reformulating antibodies so that they can be injected with a standard syringe, making treatment easier and more accessible. 

Researchers at MIT and Microsoft have used artificial intelligence to create molecular sensors that could detect early signs of cancer via a urine test. The researchers developed an AI model to design short proteins that are targeted by enzymes called proteases, which are overactive in cancer cells. Nanoparticles coated with these proteins, called peptides, can

As people age, their immune function weakens. Owing to shrinkage of the thymus, where T cells normally mature and diversify, populations of these immune cells become smaller and can’t react to pathogens as quickly. But researchers at MIT and the Broad Institute have now found a way to overcome that decline by temporarily programming cells

In the vision disorder amblyopia (or “lazy eye”), impaired vision in one eye early in life causes neural connections in the brain’s visual system to shift toward supporting the other eye, leaving the amblyopic eye less capable even if the original impairment is corrected. Current interventions don’t work after infancy and early childhood, when the

MIT researchers have developed a new method for designing 3D structures that can spring up from a flat sheet of interconnected tiles with a single pull of a string. The technique could be used to make foldable bike helmets and medical devices, emergency shelters and field hospitals for disaster zones, and much more. Mina Konaković

Several years ago, Suzanne Berger was visiting a manufacturing facility in Ohio, talking to workers on the shop floor, when a machinist offered a thought that could serve as her current credo.  “Technology takes a step forward—workers take a step forward too,” the employee said.  Berger, to explain, is an MIT political scientist who for