For decades, scientists have used fluorescent probes to detect molecules, monitor cellular activity and deliver drugs inside cells. Probes based on a compound called naphthalimide are especially popular because they can easily be made in large quantities and their fluorescence can be tweaked by changing their constituent atoms. But they are usually absorbed by cells only in small quantities, which hampers their effectiveness. In addition, little is known about how they cross the cell membrane to reach inside.

Programming the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells has had promising results for treating blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. This tactic has proven more challenging for solid tumors such as breast or lung cancers, but MIT researchers have now devised a novel way to boost the immune response against solid tumors.

By developing nanoparticle “backpacks” that hold immune-stimulating drugs, and attaching them directly to T cells, the MIT engineers showed in a study of mice that they could enhance those T cells’ activity without harmful side effects. In more than half of the treated animals, tumors disappeared completely.

Despite high hopes and high investment in CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, scientists still have a lot to learn about how it works in humans.In the latest example, University of California, Berkeley, scientists found that people’s assumptions about how cells repair the genome after the Cas9 enzyme snips DNA are wrong.

The discovery gives insight into why CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing works remarkably well in nearly every cell attempted, though not with equal success in all cells. And it could help researchers boost the efficiency with which cells insert new DNA into the genome – to replace a harmful mutation with the correct DNA sequence, for example – and generally tweak CRISPR-Cas9 editing to get the desired outcome.

In an advance that could lead to new treatments for a variety of diseases, MIT researchers have devised a new way to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells.

Messenger RNA, a large nucleic acid that encodes genetic information, can direct cells to produce specific proteins. Unlike DNA, mRNA is not permanently inserted into a cell’s genome, so it could be used to produce a therapeutic protein that is only needed temporarily. It can also be used to produce gene-editing proteins that alter a cell’s genome and then disappear, minimizing the risk of off-target effects.

Using sound waves, researchers have developed a gentle, contact-free method for separating circulating tumor cells from blood samples that is fast and efficient enough for clinical use.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are small pieces of a tumor that break away and flow through the bloodstream. They contain a wealth of information about the tumor, such as its type, physical characteristics and genetic mutations that are associated with prognosis and whether certain treatments may be effective. The ability to quickly and efficiently harvest and grow these cells from a blood sample would enable “liquid biopsies” capable of providing robust diagnosis, prognosis and suggestions for treatment strategies based on individual CTC profiling.

A fatal neurodegenerative condition known as Gaucher disease can be prevented in mice following fetal gene therapy, finds a new study led by UCL, the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and National University Health System in Singapore.

The study, published in Nature Medicine, highlights the potential of fetal gene therapy to prevent and cure neonatal lethal neurodegenerative diseases in humans in utero.

In 2016, Penn Engineers published a paper introducing a hand-held device for detecting Zika virus. Using a Thermos, a microfluidics chip and a smartphone, the “smart-connected cup” can screen saliva, urine, or blood samples for signature genetic material of the Zika virus. The device streamlines and condenses processes that health providers usually carry out in a laboratory, providing a way to bring Zika testing to sites where clinical laboratories aren’t present but diagnostics are needed.

Genes produce proteins that keep your body functioning and healthy. But genes that code for protein make up less than 2 percent of your DNA. The rest of the DNA might appear to be dormant at first glance, but scientists now appreciate that this region plays a key role in turning genes on and off. Exactly how it does this has been an open question.

Now, researchers from Princeton University and the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Biology in New York City have introduced a method to link variations in non-coding DNA to the operation of genes. Using machine learning, the researchers created a computational method, called ExPecto, that reads sections of DNA and predicts how that segment will alter the activation and deactivation of genes throughout the body.

A new study of the role microbial communities play on the leaves of plants suggests that fertilizing crops may make them more susceptible to disease.

UC Berkeley biologists found that spraying tomatoes with microbes from healthy tomatoes protected them from disease-causing bacteria, but that fertilizing the tomatoes beforehand negated the protection, leading to an increase in the population of pathogenic microbes on the plants’ leaves.

A team of Cornell and Japanese researchers has discovered a new genetic mechanism that allows certain rice plants to survive monthslong floods. When the plant becomes submerged, a rare form of a gene triggers rapid growth to keep shoots above rising water.

In a study published July 13 in Science, the team identified a rare allele (a mutation) of the semi-dwarf 1 (SD1) gene that orchestrates adaptation to deep water. By identifying the allele, breeders may target it to develop new varieties adapted to long-term flood conditions.

MIT researchers have developed the first molecular clock on a chip, which uses the constant, measurable rotation of molecules — when exposed to a certain frequency of electromagnetic radiation — to keep time. The chip could one day significantly improve the accuracy and performance of navigation on smartphones and other consumer devices.

Today’s most accurate time-keepers are atomic clocks. These clocks rely on the steady resonance of atoms, when exposed to a specific frequency, to measure exactly one second. Several such clocks are installed in all GPS satellites. By “trilaterating” time signals broadcast from these satellites — a technique like triangulation, that uses 3-D dimensional data for positioning — your smartphone and other ground receivers can pinpoint their own location

A lightweight, compact and efficient supercapacitor printed on a flexible plastic sheet has been developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Supercapacitors are devices that could one day replace batteries used in electric cars, cell phones or laptops, because they charge very quickly, and work at almost 100 percent efficiency. But they are usually bulky and can only store limited amounts of energy. Reducing their size without losing efficiency has proved challenging. Fabricating them using existing methods is also costly and complicated.

MIT researchers have designed a polymer material that can change its structure in response to light, converting from a rigid substance to a softer one that can heal itself when damaged.

“You can switch the material states back and forth, and in each of those states, the material acts as though it were a completely different material, even though it’s made of all the same components,” says Jeremiah Johnson, an associate professor of chemistry at MIT, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Program in Polymers and Soft Matter, and the leader of the research team.

In nature, cockroaches can survive underwater for up to 30 minutes. Now, a robotic cockroach can do even better. Harvard’s Ambulatory Microrobot, known as HAMR, can walk on land, swim on the surface of water, and walk underwater for as long as necessary, opening up new environments for this little bot to explore.

This next generation HAMR uses multifunctional foot pads that rely on surface tension and surface tension induced buoyancy when HAMR needs to swim but can also apply a voltage to break the water surface when HAMR needs to sink. This process is called electrowetting, which is the reduction of the contact angle between a material and the water surface under an applied voltage. This change of contact angle makes it easier for objects to break the water surface.

Researchers at Caltech have developed an artificial neural network made out of DNA that can solve a classic machine learning problem: correctly identifying handwritten numbers. The work is a significant step in demonstrating the capacity to program artificial intelligence into synthetic biomolecular circuits.

The work was done in the laboratory of Lulu Qian, assistant professor of bioengineering. A paper describing the research appears online on July 4 and in the July 19 print issue of the journal Nature.

A new combination of materials developed by Stanford researchers may aid in developing a rechargeable battery able to store the large amounts of renewable power created through wind or solar sources. With further development, the new technology could deliver energy to the electric grid quickly, cost effectively and at normal ambient temperatures.

The technology – a type of battery known as a flow battery – has long been considered as a likely candidate for storing intermittent renewable energy. However, until now the kinds of liquids that could produce the electrical current have either been limited by the amount of energy they could deliver or have required extremely high temperatures or used very toxic or expensive chemicals.

Although these materials, known as niobium tungsten oxides, do not result in higher energy densities when used under typical cycling rates, they come into their own for fast charging applications. Additionally, their physical structure and chemical behaviour give researchers a valuable insight into how a safe, super-fast charging battery could be constructed, and suggest that the solution to next-generation batteries may come from unconventional materials. The results are reported in the journal Nature.

The hormone cortisol rises and falls naturally throughout the day and can spike in response to stress, but current methods for measuring cortisol levels require waiting several days for results from a lab. By the time a person learns the results of a cortisol test – which may inform treatment for certain medical conditions – it is likely different from when the test was taken.

Now, a group led by materials scientist Alberto Salleo at Stanford University has created a stretchy patch that, applied directly to the skin, wicks up sweat and assesses how much cortisol a person is producing. A paper about the wearable sensor was published  July 20 in Science Advances.

Researchers used math inspired by wallpaper patterning to discover the new three-dimensional topological insulator, characterized by a unique surface structure. 

An international team of scientists has discovered a new form of insulating material with a metallic surface that could enable more-efficient electronics, or even quantum computing. Their findings were facilitated by the development of a new method for analyzing existing chemical compounds that relies on the mathematical properties that govern the repeating patterns seen in everyday wallpaper

Researchers have found out why new kinds of solar materials are so good at harvesting light – and have provided design rules for making them better.

This opens up the opportunity to design flexible solar cells, which could be used in buildings and clothing.

Traditional solar panels are made from hard, silicon-based materials that are efficient but relatively expensive and not very adaptable. New ‘organic’ solar cells are instead much more flexible – both in terms of how they can be tailored by tweaking the chemistry, and how they can be physically bent.