Health

  • Evaluating a new way to open clogged arteries


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    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 treatments has drawbacks, including the risk of side effects.

    A new study from MIT analyzes the potential usefulness of a new treatment that combines the benefits of angioplasty balloons and drug-releasing stents, but may pose fewer risks. With t...

  • Sorting out the structure of a Parkinson’s protein


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    Clumps of proteins that accumulate in brain cells are a hallmark of neurological diseases such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Over the past several years, there has been much controversy over the structure of one of those proteins, known as alpha synuclein.

    MIT computational scientists have now modeled the structure of that protein, most commonly associated with Parkinson’s, and found that it can take o...

  • Peter Szolovits honored with Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    Professor Peter Szolovits has been named the recipient of the 2013 Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence. The award is presented annually by the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) in honor of Morris F. Collen, a pioneer in the field.

    According to the ACMI, the award is the "highest honor in informatics that is presented by the American College of Medical Informatics to an individual whose personal commitment and dedication t...

  • How the brain loses and regains consciousness


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    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 of consciousness.

    In a new study that tracked brain activity in human volunteers over a two-hour period as they lost and regained consciousness, researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have identified distinctive b...

  • Some cancer mutations slow tumor growth


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    A typical cancer cell has thousands of mutations scattered throughout its genome and hundreds of mutated genes. However, only a handful of those genes, known as drivers, are responsible for cancerous traits such as uncontrolled growth. Cancer biologists have largely ignored the other mutations, believing they had little or no impact on cancer progression.

    But a new study from MIT, Harvard University, the Broad Institute and Brigham an...

  • Big medical data


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    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 treatments and products, better management of medical data, and improvements in health-care delivery.

    At the end of 2012,...

  • New material harvests energy from water vapor


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology


    MIT engineers have created a new polymer film that can generate electricity by drawing on a ubiquitous source: water vapor.

    The new material changes its shape after absorbing tiny amounts of evaporated water, allowing it to repeatedly curl up and down. Harnessing this continuous motion could drive robotic limbs or generate enough electricity to power micro- and nanoelectronic devices, such as environmental senso...

  • Tiny tools help advance medical discoveries


    - MIT News - Topic - Health sciences and technology
    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 treatments and products, better management of medical data, and improvements in health-care delivery.

    To understand the progression of complex dise...