When Earth iced over, early life may have sheltered in meltwater ponds
Modern-day analogs in Antarctica reveal ponds teeming with life similar to early multicellular organisms.
QS ranks MIT the world’s No. 1 university for 2025-26
Ranking at the top for the 14th year in a row, the Institute also places first in 11 subject areas.
Eight with MIT ties win 2025 Hertz Foundation Fellowships
The fellowships recognize doctoral students who have “the extraordinary creativity and principled leadership necessary to tackle problems others can’t solve.”
With AI, researchers predict the location of virtually any protein within a human cell
Trained with a joint understanding of protein and cell behavior, the model could help with diagnosing disease and developing new drugs.
Biologists identify targets for new pancreatic cancer treatments
Their study yielded hundreds of “cryptic” peptides that are found only on pancreatic tumor cells and could be targeted by vaccines or engineered T cells.
Dopamine signals when a fear can be forgotten
Study shows how a dopamine circuit enables mice to extinguish fear after a peril has passed, opening new avenues for understanding and potentially treating fear-related disorders.
Using AI to explore the 3D structure of the genome
Two meters of DNA is crammed into the nucleus of every human cell. Bin Zhang wants to know how gene expression works in this minuscule space.
Lighting up biology’s basement lab
Senior Technical Instructor Vanessa Cheung ’02 brings the energy, experience, and excitement needed to educate students in the biology teaching lab.
Always looking to home
Mingmar Sherpa, a researcher in the Martin Lab in the Department of Biology, has remained connected to his home in Nepal at every step of his career.
Enhancing the future of teaching and learning at MIT
The MIT Festival of Learning sparked discussions on better integrating a sense of purpose and social responsibility into hands-on education.
New study reveals how cleft lip and cleft palate can arise
MIT biologists have found that defects in some transfer RNA molecules can lead to the formation of these common conditions.
Restoring healthy gene expression with programmable therapeutics
CAMP4 Therapeutics is targeting regulatory RNA, whose role in gene expression was first described by co-founder and MIT Professor Richard Young.
MIT affiliates named 2024 AAAS Fellows
The American Association for the Advancement of Science recognizes six current affiliates and 27 additional MIT alumni for their efforts to advance science and related fields.
MIT scientists engineer starfish cells to shape-shift in response to light
The research may enable the design of synthetic, light-activated cells for wound healing or drug delivery.
At the core of problem-solving
Stuart Levine ’97, director of MIT’s BioMicro Center, keeps departmental researchers at the forefront of systems biology.