MIT Department of Biology

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Jennifer Cloutier's ambition to understand how tissues regenerate after damage was ignited by a spinal-cord injury at age six.

The Promise of Regeneration HMS grad Jennifer Cloutier has a habit of pushing limits

"Once I joined the MITxBio team, I came to understand visual representations of biological phenomena in a new way." Instructor of Blended and Online Initiatives Darcy Gordon spoke about teaching biology through multimedia.

Learning, doing, and teaching biology through multimedia Producing multimedia for online courses involves lifelong learning

In a whirlwind team project, undergraduates Aniket Dehadrai SB ’22 and Brindha Rathinasabapthi SB ’24 of the Boyer lab pioneered a new method to study how hearts are built. Read more: bit.ly/3PE25j6

Congratulations to our PhD graduates from September 2021, February 2022, and June 2022! We are so proud of you, and can't wait to see the places you'll go 🎓

How does a flatworm transition from healing to regeneration? A team in the Reddien lab has discovered equinox, a gene that allows planarians to regrow body parts after healing wounds. Read more: bit.ly/3lCtXGM

Congrats to the MIT School of Science's 2022 Searle Scholars, Lindsay Case and Guangyu Robert Yang! The award honors outstanding assistant professors who have high potential for ongoing innovative research contributions in medicine, chemistry, or the biological sciences.

Lindsay Case and Guangyu Robert Yang named 2022 Searle Scholars MIT scientists Lindsay Case and Guangyu Robert Yang have been named 2022 Searle Scholarships.

Researchers in the Jaenisch lab have developed an improved recipe for creating mature liver cells in the lab.

Thyroid hormone found to be a missing ingredient in lab-made liver cells Researchers in Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch’s lab tackled the problem of how to make mature liver from stem cells in the lab, and found that thyroid hormone signaling plays a key role.

The Lourido lab developed a new method to probe gene function in the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and uncovered a previously unstudied kinase, SPARK, linked to the parasites' ability to enter and leave host cells. Read more: bit.ly/3LG9oEO

Work from Graham Walker’s lab suggests that one historically under-appreciated cause of bacterial death, called oxidative stress, could help scientists develop antibiotics that kill bacteria more effectively. Read more:

A new database of potential antibiotic targetsTwo proteins found to induce cell death through incomplete base excision repair Depletion of either the DapB or Dxr proteins causes oxidative stress and cell death in bacteria, which could aid the development of more effective antibiotics.

The Australian stinging tree is covered in silicon needles laced with one of nature’s most excruciating toxins, a compound called moroidin. The Weng lab recently published the first method to biosynthesize moroidin within the tissues of harmless plants such as to***co, facilitating research on the compound’s utility for cancer treatments.

Researchers biosynthesize anti-cancer compound found in venomous Australian tree A pain-causing compound in the Australian stinging tree has applications for cancer treatment, but it’s difficult to harvest enough to study. Whitehead Institute scientists present a way to synthesize the compound in the leaves of harmless to***co plants, and potentially in a culture dish.