
New Drug Capsule May Allow Weekly HIV Treatment
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a capsule that can deliver a week’s worth of HIV drugs in a single dose. This advance could make it much easier for patients to adhere to the strict schedule of dosing required for the drug cocktails used to fight the virus, the researchers say.…
Boosting the Antibiotic Arsenal
MIT researchers have discovered a way to make bacteria more vulnerable to a class of antibiotics known as quinolones, which include ciprofloxacin and are often used to treat infections such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The new strategy overcomes a key limitation of these drugs, which is that they often fail against infections that feature a very…
CRISPR-Carrying Nanoparticles Edit the Genome
In a new study, MIT researchers have developed nanoparticles that can deliver the CRISPR genome-editing system and specifically modify genes in mice. The team used nanoparticles to carry the CRISPR components, eliminating the need to use viruses for delivery. Using the new delivery technique, the researchers were able to cut out certain genes in about…
New Target for Treating ‘Undruggable’ Lung Cancer
Mutations in the KEAP1 gene could point the way to treating an aggressive form of lung cancer that is driven by “undruggable” mutations in the KRAS gene, according to a new study by MIT researchers. KEAP1 mutations occur alongside KRAS mutations in about 17 percent of lung adenocarcinoma cases. Tyler Jacks, director of MIT’s Koch…
One Vaccine Injection Could Carry Many Doses
MIT engineers have invented a new 3-D fabrication method that can generate a novel type of drug-carrying particle that could allow multiple doses of a drug or vaccine to be delivered over an extended time period with just one injection. The new microparticles resemble tiny coffee cups that can be filled with a drug or…
Deploying Therapeutic Payloads to Cells
Preliminary Link Between Circadian Clock Disruption, Tumor Growth
A handful of large studies of cancer risk factors have found that working the night shift, as nearly 15 percent of Americans do, boosts the chances of developing cancer. MIT biologists have now found a link that may explain this heightened risk. In humans and most other organisms, a circadian clock governed by light regulates the timing…