Vaccines aren't yet using our immune system's full potential
The most important invention in medicine could save even more lives
I’m a PhD student in Biological Engineering at MIT. Around two billion people in the world are infected with a microscopic bug called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Despite this, only a fraction develop tuberculosis. And a fraction of those infected – almost 5,000 a day – die. I put on Stranger Things-esque protection equipment and probe these bacteria to ask, what allows them bacteria to win this tug-of-war? To understand this variation, I look at how both human and bacteria cells change on a genetic level in response to each other, as a member of the Blainey Lab, located in the Broad Institute, and Bryson Lab, located in the Ragon Institute and MIT.
The most important invention in medicine could save even more lives
From the axolotl's regenerating limbs to naked mole rat cancer resistance, new sequencing is uncovering new possibilities
A microscopic moonshot hopes to revolutionize biology
Researchers increasingly view the disease as a sprawling, evolving metropolis of cells
It's complicated, and the road from lab to clinic is long
Prominent researchers can take the gamble, but junior scientists risk retribution
New research finds that we might need to take a step back from the inside of cells
A New York Times story is a case study in what can go wrong in translating science
A new method could make it more affordable to diagnose diseases
Cells evolved haphazardly, not in one overall arc
A story of failure, collaboration, and incredibly tiny medicine
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