Sterilizing with the sun
With the recent launch of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel...
View ArticleNew insight into how people choose insurance plans
Economists often talk about “moral hazard,” the idea that people’s behavior changes in the presence of insurance. In finance, for instance, investors may take more risks if they know they will be...
View ArticleResearch update: Chemists find help from nature in fighting cancer
Inspired by a chemical that fungi secrete to defend their territory, MIT chemists have synthesized and tested several dozen compounds that may hold promise as potential cancer drugs.A few years ago,...
View ArticleHow the brain loses and regains consciousness
Since the mid-1800s, doctors have used drugs to induce general anesthesia in patients undergoing surgery. Despite their widespread use, little is known about how these drugs create such a profound loss...
View ArticleMIT student inventor Nikolai Begg receives Lemelson-MIT student prize
Nikolai Begg grew up in a box of LEGO bricks and hasn’t stopped tinkering since. He is an accomplished inventor with a portfolio of novel medical devices, and today, Begg was named the recipient of the...
View ArticleStudy offers new way to discover HIV vaccine targets
Decades of research and three large-scale clinical trials have so far failed to yield an effective HIV vaccine, in large part because the virus evolves so rapidly that it can evade vaccine-induced...
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Research advances therapy to protect against dengue virus
Photo: James Gathany/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Nearly half of the world’s population is at risk of infection by the dengue virus, yet there is no specific treatment for the disease....
View ArticleCommerce’s call to action
Thomas J. Donahue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called for a new push for immigration reform as part of a larger business-oriented economic agenda in remarks at MIT yesterday. The...
View ArticleInventors honored for bringing life-saving health solutions to the developing...
Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Maria Oden established the Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB) engineering design initiative at Rice University in 2006 with the goals of developing and improving access to...
View ArticleHow Medicaid affects adult health
Enrollment in Medicaid helps lower-income Americans overcome depression, get proper treatment for diabetes, and avoid catastrophic medical bills, but does not appear to reduce the prevalence of...
View ArticleNanotechnology could help fight diabetes
Injectable nanoparticles developed at MIT may someday eliminate the need for patients with Type 1 diabetes to constantly monitor their blood-sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin. The...
View ArticleEvaluating a new way to open clogged arteries
Over the past few decades, scientists have developed many devices that can reopen clogged arteries, including angioplasty balloons and metallic stents. While generally effective, each of these...
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A step closer to artificial livers
Prometheus, the mythological figure who stole fire from the gods, was punished for this theft by being bound to a rock. Each day, an eagle swept down and fed on his liver, which then grew back to be...
View ArticleStudents take their LGO tools to African clinics
Every student in the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program travels for internships and plant treks, but not many wind up working in Africa. Unless they're part of Global Health Delivery Lab...
View ArticleAllocating flu vaccines to maximize number of people remaining healthy
Flu and similar respiratory diseases start and peak at different times in different geographical locations. In 2009 in the United States, the H1N1 flu first started in August in the Southeast, as...
View ArticleSeeing the human pulse
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new algorithm that can accurately measure the heart rates of people depicted in ordinary digital video by...
View ArticleFrom Katmandu to Cambridge
Nepalese doctor Aditi Giri spent last month shadowing several physicians at MIT Medical and gaining first-hand knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system. Of her journey from Katmandu to Cambridge, she...
View ArticleIt’s not too late to protect yourself against the flu
With more than 7,000 flu shots administered during two walk-in clinics at the Stratton Student Center this month, the MIT community is exceptionally well prepared for flu season, says Howard Heller,...
View ArticleCreating a healthier community for graduate-student families
What can MIT do more to improve the health and wellbeing of MIT graduate students and their families, particularly families who are new to this country? It’s a question Maryanne Kirkbride, MIT...
View ArticleMIT experiencing gastroenteritis outbreak
Officials at MIT Medical are reporting an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis on campus and reminding everyone in the community to be vigilant about hygiene practices, particularly hand-washing....
View ArticleNew medical operations
The enactment of the Affordable Care Act will bring tens of millions of U.S. citizens into the private health-insurance market for the first time, while also expanding Medicaid, the government-run...
View ArticleStudy: Having Medicaid increases emergency room visits
Adults who are covered by Medicaid use emergency rooms 40 percent more than those in similar circumstances who do not have health insurance, according to a unique new study, co-authored by an MIT...
View ArticleObserving the observers
A kidney transplant is a lifesaving operation — and yet every year in the United States, about 10 percent of donated kidneys go unused, after being rejected by multiple potential recipients. Why is...
View ArticleGruber outlines key upcoming moments in Affordable Care Act rollout
The closely watched rollout of the Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance for all U.S. citizens, will face at least three key mileposts in 2014, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber said in a...
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