News

12.19.2018

Katharina Ribbeck has heard every phlegm, booger, and loogie joke in the book. But her research on mucus reveals it to be a marvel of engineering—and a critical line of defense in the immune system Read more

12.7.2018

“A diet or treatment of the microbiome may lead to increased diversity, but that does not mean it's better or healthier for you,” says the engineering professor Read more

11.29.2018

Results could also indicate whether antibiotics have successfully treated the infection Read more

11.24.2018

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with funding from the Department of Defense, want to speed up the clinical trial process with a device that could enable researchers to test new drugs on organ tissue grown in a lab instead of on humans and animals Read more

11.21.2018

Researchers have found that burning peatlands in Indonesia are responsible for much of the haze enveloping Singapore Read more

11.9.2018

Metal cluster in enzyme that breaks down carbon dioxide can switch between two different shapes Read more

11.1.2018

Toxin will accumulate in the environment, particularly in remote regions, as countries delay implementing emissions controls Read more

9.21.2018

Real-world driving produces up to 16 times more emissions, causing 2,700 premature deaths across the EU, researchers estimate Read more

7.27.2018

As scientists gain a deeper understanding of the microbiome's complex ecology, particularly in the gut, it is increasingly clear that our microbiome's diversity, globally speaking, is under threat Read more
 

5.23.2018

A new MIT study reports that if China follows through with its international pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, every one of its provinces will experience benefits to air quality and human health, with associated monetary savings that could offset the total cost of implementing the climate policy Read more

5.21.2018

For Tchelet Segev's master’s thesis, she is working with the Center for Environmental Health Sciences and the Passamaquoddy, a Native American tribe, to analyze the water quality and associated health risks in a region of northeast Maine. As part of this project, Segev has led community meetings and worked with local residents to collect and test water samples Read more

5.16.2018

The grand prize winner at this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition was an MIT spinout that’s developing a system that captures and recycles vaporized water from thermoelectric power plants. The recycled water can be constantly reused in the plant’s cooling system, saving millions of gallons and dollars annually, or be shipped as potable water to water-scarce areas Read more

4.29.2018

Chemistry professor builds on nature to design new drugs and engineer better ways to deliver them. Scientists who want to treat disease by delivering large proteins such as antibodies or enzymes to cells have struggled to overcome one major bottleneck: getting the proteins to cross cell membranes so they can enter the target cells Read more

4.20.2018

The 2018 annual poster session showcases recent work on biological effects of exposure to environmental agents. The session highlighted the work of the environmental health research communities of MIT and some of its peer institutions. We want to thank the participants for making this event such a great success!  To find out the poster winners from this event, please click here

4.2.2018

Katharina Ribbeck studies the sticky substance to uncover its impacts on health and disease.

In 2007, Katharina Ribbeck spent a year as a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School. While there, she heard about a fellowship offered at Harvard that would provide the recipient with a lab, startup funding, and status as an independent investigator. The catch? Applicants had to propose starting a new field of study Read more

3.23.2018

The CEHS invites MIT faculty and research staff with Principal Investigator privileges to submit applications for funding of pilot projects related to basic and translational research in environmental health sciences.  Please see the attached flier for more information.

Funding will start on June 1, 2018. Please feel free to contact Sophea Chan Diaz if you have any further questions. Submission deadline is April 20, 2018.

 

3.14.2018

Human tissue samples linked by microfluidic channels replicate interactions of multiple organs.

MIT engineers have developed new technology that could be used to evaluate new drugs and detect possible side effects before the drugs are tested in humans. Using a microfluidic platform that connects engineered tissues from up to 10 organs, the researchers can accurately replicate human organ interactions for weeks at a time, allowing them to measure the effects of drugs on different parts of the body... Read more

3.1.2018

A new protein may allow researchers to home in on individual neurons, determining their activity minute by minute.

When optogenetics burst onto the scene a little over a decade ago, it added a powerful tool to neuroscientists’ arsenal. Instead of merely correlating recorded brain activity with behaviors, researchers could control the cell types of their choosing to produce specific outcomes. Light-sensitive ion channels (opsins) inserted into the cells allow neuronal activity to be controlled by the flick of a switch... Read more

3.1.2018

Five early career researchers are the 2018 recipients of the NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award (ONES).

The program supports innovative research on the relationship between exposure to environmental substances and human disease... Read more

2.21.2018

A new study finds that many household goods degrade air quality more than once thought... Read more

2.20.2018

New finding suggests differences in how humans and bacteria control production of DNA’s building blocks... Read more

2.12.2018

TREX program from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering takes students to Hawaii to conduct environmental research... Read more

2.1.2018

New cancer research initiative eyes individualized treatment for patients. Details matter — perhaps most noticeably in the fight against cancer.  Some patients respond to a given anticancer therapy, and some do not. A new initiative at MIT takes aim at those details, and the name of the game is precision... Read more

1.24.2018

The unusual characteristics of these abundant, bacteria-killing viruses could lead to evolutionary insights. A type of virus that dominates water samples taken from the world’s oceans has long escaped analysis because it has characteristics that standard tests can’t detect. However, researchers at MIT and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have now managed to isolate and study representatives of these elusive viruses, which provide a key missing link in virus evolution and play an important role in regulating bacterial populations, as a new study reports... Read more

1.19.2018

A team from MIT found that microbial communities are able to form despite rapidly varying conditions... Read more

1.18.2018

“Mucus really is the unsung hero that has been taming problematic pathogens for millions of years...”... Read more

1.3.2018

Research shows the Clean Air Act was likely responsible for a dramatic decline in atmospheric organic aerosol... 

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1.3.2018

Technique may predict which therapies a patient is most sensitive or resistant to... 

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