When Tomás Vega SM’19 was 5years old,he began to stutter.The experience gave him an appreciation for the adversity that can come with adisability.It also showed him the power of technology.“A keyboard and amouse were outlets,”Vega says.“They allowed me to be fluent in the things Idid.I was able to transcend my limitations in away,so Ibecame obsessed with human augmentation and with the concept of cyborgs.I also gained empathy.I think we all have empathy,but we apply it according to our own experiences.”Vega has been using technology to augment human capabilities ever since.He began programming when he was 12.In high school,he helped people manage disabilities including hand impairments and multiple sclerosis.In college,first at the University of California at Berkeley and then at MIT,Vega built technologies that helped people with disabilities live more independently.Today Vega is the co-founder and CEO of Augmental,a startup deploying technology that lets people with movement impairments seamlessly interact with their personal computational devices.Augmental’s first product is the MouthPad,which allows users to control their computer,smartphone,or tablet through tongue and head movements.The MouthPad’s pressure-sensitive touch pad sits on the roof of the mouth,and,working with apair of motion sensors,translates tongue and head gestures into cursor scrolling and clicks in real time via Bluetooth.“We have abig chunk of the brain that is devoted to controlling the position of the tongue,”Vega explains.“The tongue comprises eight muscles,and most of the muscle fibers are slow-twitch,which means they don’t fatigue as quickly.So,I thought why don’t we leverage all of that?”People with spinal cord injuries are already using the MouthPad every day to interact with their favorite devices independently.One of Augmental’s users,who is living with quadriplegia and studying math and computer science in college,says the device has helped her write math formulas and study in the library—use cases where other assistive speech-based devices weren’t appropriate.“She can now take notes in class,she can play games with her friends,she can watch movies or read books,”Vega says.“She is more independent.Her mom told us that getting the MouthPad was the most significant moment since her injury.”That’s the ultimate goal of Augmental:to improve the accessibility of technologies that have become an integral part of our lives.“We hope that aperson with asevere impairment can be as competent using aphone or tablet as somebody using their hands,”Vega says. 查看详细>>

Deep brain stimulation,by implanted electrodes that deliver electrical pulses to the brain,is often used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders.However,the electrodes used for this treatment can eventually corrode and accumulate scar tissue,requiring them to be removed.MIT researchers have now developed an alternative approach that uses ultrasound instead of electricity to perform deep brain stimulation,delivered by afiber about the thickness of ahuman hair.In astudy of mice,they showed that this stimulation can trigger neurons to release dopamine,in apart of the brain that is often targeted in patients with Parkinson’s disease.“By using ultrasonography,we can create anew way of stimulating neurons to fire in the deep brain,”says Canan Dagdeviren,an associate professor in the MIT Media Lab and the senior author of the new study.“This device is thinner than ahair fiber,so there will be negligible tissue damage,and it is easy for us to navigate this device in the deep brain.”In addition to offering apotentially safer way to deliver deep brain stimulation,this approach could also become avaluable tool for researchers seeking to learn more about how the brain works.MIT graduate student Jason Hou and MIT postdoc Md Osman Goni Nayeem are the lead authors of the paper,along with collaborators from MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research,Boston University,and Caltech.The study appears today in Nature Communications.Deep in the brain Dagdeviren’s lab has previously developed wearable ultrasound devices that can be used to deliver drugs through the skin or perform diagnostic imaging on various organs.However,ultrasound cannot penetrate deeply into the brain from adevice attached to the head or skull.“If we want to go into the deep brain,then it cannot be just wearable or attachable anymore.It has to be implantable,”Dagdeviren says.“We carefully customize the device so that it will be minimally invasive and avoid major blood vessels in the deep brain.”Deep brain stimulation with electrical impulses is FDA-approved to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.This approach uses millimeter-thick electrodes to activate dopamine-producing cells in abrain region called the substantia nigra.However,once implanted in the brain,the devices eventually begin to corrode,and scar tissue that builds up surrounding the implant can interfere with the electrical impulses.The MIT team set out to see if they could overcome some of those drawbacks by replacing electrical stimulation with ultrasound.Most neurons have ion channels that are responsive to mechanical stimulation,such as the vibrations from sound waves,so ultrasound can be used to elicit activity in those cells.However,existing technologies for delivering ultrasound to the brain through the skull can’t reach deep into the brain with high precision because the skull itself can interfere with the ultrasound waves and cause off-target stimulation.“To precisely modulate neurons,we must go deeper,leading us to design anew kind of ultrasound-based implant that produces localized ultrasound fields,”Nayeem says.To safely reach those deep brain regions,the researchers designed ahair-thin fiber made from aflexible polymer.The tip of the fiber contains adrum-like ultrasound transducer with avibrating membrane.When this membrane,which encapsulates athin piezoelectric film,is driven by asmall electrical voltage,it generates ultrasonic waves that can be detected by nearby cells.“It’s tissue-safe,there’s no exposed electrode surface,and it’s very low-power,which bodes well for translation to patient use,”Hou says.In tests in mice,the researchers showed that this ultrasound device,which they call ImPULS(Implantable Piezoelectric Ultrasound Stimulator),can provoke activity in neurons of the hippocampus.Then,they implanted the fibers into the dopamine-producing substantia nigra and showed that they could stimulate neurons in the dorsal striatum to produce dopamine.“Brain stimulation has been one of the most effective,yet least understood,methods used to restore health to the brain.ImPULS gives us the ability to stimulate brain cells with exquisite spatial-temporal resolution and in amanner that doesn’t produce the kind of damage or inflammation as other methods.Seeing its effectiveness in areas like the hippocampus opened an entirely new way for us to deliver precise stimulation to targeted circuits in the brain,”says Steve Ramirez,an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University,and afaculty member at B.U.’s Center for Systems Neuroscience,who is also an author of the study. 查看详细>>

The MIT Electron-conductive Cement-based Materials Hub(EC^3 Hub),an outgrowth of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub(CSHub),has been established by afive-year sponsored research agreement with the Aizawa Concrete Corp.In particular,the EC^3 Hub will investigate the infrastructure applications of multifunctional concrete—concrete having capacities beyond serving as astructural element,such as functioning as a“battery”for renewable energy.Enabled by the MIT Industrial Liaison Program,the newly formed EC^3 Hub represents alarge industry-academia collaboration between the MIT CSHub,researchers across MIT,and aJapanese industry consortium led by Aizawa Concrete,a leader in the more sustainable development of concrete structures,which is funding the effort.Under this agreement,the EC^3 Hub will focus on two key areas of research:developing self-heating pavement systems and energy storage solutions for sustainable infrastructure systems.“It is an honor for Aizawa Concrete to be associated with the scaling up of this transformational technology from MIT labs to the industrial scale,”says Aizawa Concrete CEO Yoshihiro Aizawa.“This is aproject we believe will have afundamental impact not only on the decarbonization of the industry,but on our societies at large.”By running current through carbon black-doped concrete pavements,the EC^3 Hub’s technology could allow cities and municipalities to de-ice road and sidewalk surfaces at scale,improving safety for drivers and pedestrians in icy conditions.The potential for concrete to store energy from renewable sources—a topic widely covered by news outlets—could allow concrete to serve as a“battery”for technologies such as solar,wind,and tidal power generation,which cannot produce aconsistent amount of energy(for example,when acloudy day inhibits asolar panel’s output).Due to the scarcity of the ingredients used in many batteries,such as lithium-ion cells,this technology offers an alternative for renewable energy storage at scale. 查看详细>>

Geologists at MIT and Oxford University have uncovered ancient rocks in Greenland that bear the oldest remnants of Earth’s early magnetic field.The rocks appear to be exceptionally pristine,having preserved their properties for billions of years.The researchers determined that the rocks are about 3.7 billion years old and retain signatures of amagnetic field with astrength of at least 15 microtesla.The ancient field is similar in magnitude to the Earth’s magnetic field today.The open-access findings,appearing today in the Journal of Geophysical Research,represent some of the earliest evidence of amagnetic field surrounding the Earth.The results potentially extend the age of the Earth’s magnetic field by hundreds of millions of years,and may shed light on the planet’s early conditions that helped life take hold.“The magnetic field is,in theory,one of the reasons we think Earth is really unique as ahabitable planet,”says Claire Nichols,a former MIT postdoc who is now an associate professor of the geology of planetary processes at Oxford University.“It’s thought our magnetic field protects us from harmful radiation from space,and also helps us to have oceans and atmospheres that can be stable for long periods of time.”Previous studies have shown evidence for amagnetic field on Earth that is at least 3.5 billion years old.The new study is extending the magnetic field’s lifetime by another 200 million years. 查看详细>>

When cancer patients undergo chemotherapy,the dose of most drugs is calculated based on the patient’s body surface area.This is estimated by plugging the patient’s height and weight into an equation,dating to 1916,that was formulated from data on just nine patients.This simplistic dosing doesn’t take into account other factors and can lead to patients receiving either too much or too little of adrug.As aresult,some patients likely experience avoidable toxicity or insufficient benefit from the chemotherapy they receive.To make chemotherapy dosing more accurate,MIT engineers have come up with an alternative approach that can enable the dose to be personalized to the patient.Their system measures how much drug is in the patient’s system,and these measurements are fed into acontroller that can adjust the infusion rate accordingly.This approach could help to compensate for differences in drug pharmacokinetics caused by body composition,genetic makeup,chemotherapy-induced toxicity of the organs that metabolize the drugs,interactions with other medications being taken and foods consumed,and circadian fluctuations in the enzymes responsible for breaking down chemotherapy drugs,the researchers say.“Recognizing the advances in our understanding of how drugs are metabolized,and applying engineering tools to facilitate personalized dosing,we believe,can help transform the safety and efficacy of many drugs,”says Giovanni Traverso,an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT,a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,and the senior author of the study.Louis DeRidder,an MIT graduate student,is the lead author of the paper,which appears today in the journal Med. 查看详细>>

The radiation detectors used today for applications like inspecting cargo ships for smuggled nuclear materials are expensive and cannot operate in harsh environments,among other disadvantages.Now,in work funded largely by the U.S.Department of Homeland Security with early support from the U.S.Department of Energy,MIT engineers have demonstrated afundamentally new way to detect radiation that could allow much cheaper detectors and aplethora of new applications.They are working with Radiation Monitoring Devices,a company in Watertown,Massachusetts,to transfer the research as quickly as possible into detector products.In a2022 paper in Nature Materials,many of the same engineers reported for the first time how ultraviolet light can significantly improve the performance of fuel cells and other devices based on the movement of charged atoms,rather than those atoms’constituent electrons.In the current work,published recently in Advanced Materials,the team shows that the same concept can be extended to anew application:the detection of gamma rays emitted by the radioactive decay of nuclear materials.“Our approach involves materials and mechanisms very different than those in presently used detectors,with potentially enormous benefits in terms of reduced cost,ability to operate under harsh conditions,and simplified processing,”says Harry L.Tuller,the R.P.Simmons Professor of Ceramics and Electronic Materials in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering(DMSE). 查看详细>>

“How do we get to making nanomaterials that haven’t been evolved before?”asked Angela Belcher at the 2023 Mildred S.Dresselhaus Lecture at MIT on Nov.20.“We can use elements that biology has already given us.”The combined in-person and virtual audience of over 300 was treated to alight-up,3D model of M13 bacteriophage,a virus that only infects bacteria,complete with apull-out strand of DNA.Belcher used the feather-boa-like model to show how her research group modifies the M13’s genes to add new DNA and peptide sequences to template inorganic materials.“I love controlling materials at the nanoscale using biology,”said Belcher,the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering,materials science professor,and of the Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.“We all know if you control materials at the nanoscale and you can start to tune them,then you can have all kinds of different applications.”And the opportunities are indeed vast—from building batteries,fuel cells,and solar cells to carbon sequestration and storage,environmental remediation,catalysis,and medical diagnostics and imaging.Belcher sprinkled her talk with models and props,lined up on atable at the front of the 10-250 lecture hall,to demonstrate awide variety of concepts and projects made possible by the intersection of biology and nanotechnology. 查看详细>>

From Oct.23-24,a delegation consisting of 21 MIT students,one MIT postdoc,and four students from the University of the District of Columbia met in Washington for the MIT Science Policy Initiative’s Executive Visit Days(ExVD).Now in its 13th cycle,this trip offers aplatform where university students and young researchers can connect with officials and scientists from different federal agencies,discuss issues related to science and technology policy,and learn about the role the federal government plays in addressing these issues.The delegation visited seven different agencies,as well as the MIT Washington Office,where the group held virtual calls with personnel from the National Institutes of Health and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.Visits to the National Science Foundation,Department of Energy Office of Science,White House Office of Science and Technology Policy(OSTP),Environmental Protection Agency,and National Aeronautics and Space Administration then followed over the course of two days.The series of meetings,facilitated by the MIT Science Policy Initiative(SPI),offered awindow into the current activities of each agency and how individuals can engage with science policy through the lens of each particular agency.The Science Policy Initiative is an organization of students and postdocs whose core goal is not only to grow interest at MIT and in the community at large in science policy,but also to facilitate the exchange of ideas between the policymakers of today and the scientists of tomorrow.One of the various trips organized by SPI every year,ExVD allows students to gain insight into the work of federal agencies,while also offering the chance to meet with representatives from these agencies,many of whom are MIT alumni,and discuss their paths toward careers in science policy.Additionally,ExVD serves as an opportunity for participants to network with students,postdocs,and professionals outside of their fields but united by common interests in science policy.“I believe it is critical for students with vital technical expertise to gain asense of the realities of policymaking,”says Phillip Christoffersen,a PhD student researching AI in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and SPI ExVD 2023 chair.“Due to the many complexities of modern life,we are simultaneously reaching tipping points in many fields—AI,climate change,biotechnology,among many others.For this reason,science and science policy must increasingly move in lockstep for the good of society,and it falls on us as scientists-in-training to make that happen.”One example of the delegation’s visits was to the White House OSTP,located directly next to the West Wing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.This special agency of fewer than 200 staff,most of whom are either in rotation or on loan from other federal agencies,directly reports to the president on all matters related to science and policy.The atmosphere at the White House complex and the exchanges with Kei Koizumi,principal deputy director for policy at OSTP,deeply inspired the students and showcased the vast impact science can have on federal policy.The overall sentiment among the ExVD participants has been that of reborn motivation,having become inspired to participate in policy matters,either as aportion of their graduate research or in their future career.The ExVD 2023 cohort is thankful to the MIT Washington office,whose generous support was crucial to making this trip areality.Furthermore,the delegation thanks the MIT Science Policy Initiative’s leadership team for organizing this trip,enabling an extremely meaningful experience. 查看详细>>

On Oct.5,the Department of Chemistry,funded by agenerous donation from Frank Laukien’94,hosted the GlycoMIT Symposium,an interdepartmental celebration of advancements in glycobiology research.Defined broadly by the National Institutes of Health,glycobiology is“the study of the structure,biosynthesis,biology,and evolution of saccharides(also called carbohydrates,sugar chains,or glycans)that are widely distributed in nature and of the proteins that recognize them.”Various applications for glycobiology research include neurobiology and aging,cancer,and infectious disease and the microbiome.“Of the three chemical motifs involved in the recognition of pathogens—nucleic acids,proteins,and glycans—glycans are by far the most diverse and poorly understood,”said department head and Haslam and Dewey Professor Troy Van Voorhis.“By breaking new ground in glycoscience,MIT can make new discoveries about the chemical building blocks of life and pioneer new therapeutics for human health.This field is inherently multidisciplinary—combining avariety of perspectives from the chemical,biological,and physical sciences to control and measure complex glycan assemblies in living systems.It is therefore crucial that this effort involves not just chemistry,but biology,physics,and computation.”More than 100 members of the MIT community and beyond gathered in the Bartos Theater for aseries of faculty presentations and akeynote speech from Richard D.Cummings,the S.Daniel Abraham Professor of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.Faculty presented updates on their glycobiology findings,and how these advancements pertain to research across all fields,and to humanity in general.Following aluncheon with Laukien and School of Science dean Nergis Mavalvala,MIT faculty members Barbara Imperiali,Laura L.Kiessling,Tobi Oni,Katharina Ribbeck,Matthew D.Shoulders,and Jessica Stark each presented a20-minute talk about their research.After the faculty presentations concluded,attendees of the symposium gathered for areception to enjoy hors d‘oeuvres,drinks,and poster presentations on further glycobiology research from members of each of the speakers’groups,as well as others from across the Institute.Kiessling,who spearheaded the event alongside fellow professor of chemistry Matthew D.Shoulders,presented atalk entitled“Glycans in Health and Disease.”In the Department of Chemistry,the Kiessling Group uses chemical biology to elucidate the biological roles of carbohydrates,with afocus on learning new mechanistic concepts.Imperiali,the Class of 1922 Professor of Biology and Chemistry,holds adual appointment in both departments,and delivered atalk entitled“Bacterial Glycan Biology:Making Sense of the Madness.”Research in the Imperiali Group employs amultidisciplinary approach involving synthesis,state-of-the-art spectroscopy,molecular modeling,enzymology,and molecular biology to address fundamental problems at the interface of chemistry and biology.Oni,a fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,presented atalk titled“Leveraging Glycan-Dependent Epitopes for Tumor Targeting and Detection.”The Oni Lab seeks new methods of understanding,detecting,and potentially treating pancreatic cancer.Ribbeck is the Andrew(1956)and Erna Viterbi Professor of Biological Engineering,and her talk was entitled“From Molecular Mysteries to Medicine:The Therapeutic Promise of Glycans.”Her research group’s focus is on basic mechanisms by which mucus barriers exclude or allow passage of different molecules and pathogens,and the mechanisms pathogens have evolved to penetrate mucus barriers.Her research provides the foundation for atheoretical framework that captures general principles governing selectivity in mucus,and likely other biological hydrogels,such as the extracellular matrix and bacterial biofilms. 查看详细>>

Robert van der Hilst,the Schlumberger Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences,has announced his decision to step down as the head of the Department of Earth,Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the end of this academic year.A search committee will convene later this spring to recommend candidates for Van der Hilst’s successor.“Rob is aconsummate seismologist whose images of Earth’s interior structure have deepened our understanding of how tectonic plates move,how mantle convection works,and why some areas of the Earth are hot-spots for seismic and geothermal activity,”says Nergis Mavalvala,the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and the dean of the MIT School of Science.“As an academic leader,Rob has been asteadfast champion of the department’s cross-cutting research and education missions,especially regarding climate sciences writ large at MIT.His commitment to diversity and community have made the department—and indeed,MIT—a better place to do our best work.”“For 12 years,it has been my honor to lead this department and collaborate with all our community members—faculty,staff,and students,”says Van der Hilst.“EAPS is at the vanguard of climate science research at MIT,as well Earth and planetary sciences and studies into the co-evolution of life and changing environments.”Among his other leadership roles on campus,Van der Hilst most recently served as co-chair of the faculty review committee for MIT’s Climate Grand Challenges in which EAPS researchers secured nine finalists and two,funded flagship projects.He also serves on the Institute’s Climate Nucleus to help enact Fast Forward:MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade.In his more-than-decade as department head,one of Van der Hilst’s major initiatives has been developing,funding,and constructing the Tina and Hamid Moghadam Building,rapidly nearing completion adjacent to Building 54.The$35 million,LEED-platinum Building 55 will be avital center and showcase for environmental and climate research on MIT’s campus.With assistance from the Institute and generous donors,the renovations and expansion will add classrooms,meeting,and event spaces,and bring headquarters offices for EAPS,the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution(WHOI)Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science,and MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative(ESI)together,all under one roof.He also helped secure the generous gift that funded the Norman C.Rasmussen Laboratory for climate research in Building 4,as well as the Peter H.Stone and Paola Malanotte Stone Professorship,now held by prominent atmospheric scientist Arlene Fiore.On the academic side of the house,Van der Hilst and his counterpart from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering(CEE),Ali Jadbabaie,the JR East Professor and CEE department head,helped develop MIT’s new bachelor of science in climate system science and engineering(Course 1-12),jointly offered by EAPS and CEE.As part of MIT’s commitment to aid the global response to climate change,the new degree program is designed to train the next generation of leaders,providing afoundational understanding of both the Earth system and engineering principles—as well as an understanding of human and institutional behavior as it relates to the climate challenge.Beyond climate research,Van der Hilst’s tenure at the helm of the department has seen many research breakthroughs and accomplishments:from high-profile NASA missions with EAPS science leadership,including the most recent launch of the Psyche mission and the successful asteroid sample return from OSIRIS-REx,to the development of next-generation models capable of describing Earth systems with increasing detail and accuracy.Van der Hilst helped enable such scientific advancements through major improvements to experimental facilities across the department,and,more generally,his mission to double the number of fellowships available to EAPS graduate students.“By reducing the silos and inequities created by our disciplinary groups,we were able to foster collaborations that allow faculty,students,and researchers to explore fundamental science questions in novel ways that expand our understanding of the natural world—with profound implications for helping to guide communities and policymakers toward asustainable future,”says Van der Hilst. 查看详细>>