News & Stories

SMART researchers discover unique lysin capable of killing multidrug-resistant bacteria

Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, alongside collaborators at Nanyang Technological University, have identified a novel phage lysin — Abp013 — that could be used as an alternative antimicrobial agent against two of the most deadly bacteria: Acinetobacter baumannii […]

Q&A: Climate Grand Challenges finalists on building equity and fairness into climate solutions

Note: This is the first in a four-part interview series that will highlight the work of the Climate Grand Challenges finalists, ahead of the April announcement of several multiyear, flagship projects. The finalists in MIT’s first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition each received $100,000 to develop bold, interdisciplinary research and innovation plans designed to attack some of […]

Can the world meet global climate targets without coordinated global action?

Like many of its predecessors, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland concluded with bold promises on international climate action aimed at keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, but few concrete plans to ensure that those promises will be kept. While it’s not too late for the Paris Agreement’s […]

Study sheds light on antibiotics-associated diarrhea

A joint study by the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, may have found the reason some patients experience diarrhea after taking the antibiotic amoxicillin-clavulanate, commonly known as Augmentin. It is a widely prescribed antibiotic used to treat many infections, including pneumonia and urinary […]

Tuning in to invisible waves on the JET tokamak

Research scientist Alex Tinguely is readjusting to Cambridge and Boston. As a postdoc with the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), the MIT graduate spent the last two years in Oxford, England, a city he recalls can be traversed entirely “in the time it takes to walk from MIT to Harvard.” With its ancient stone […]

First-ever Climate Grand Challenges recognizes 27 finalists

All-carbon buildings, climate-resilient crops, and new tools to improve the prediction of extreme weather events are just a few of the 27 bold, interdisciplinary research projects selected as finalists from a field of almost 100 proposals in the first MIT Climate Grand Challenges competition. Each of the finalist teams received $100,000 to develop a comprehensive […]

Building technological tools for nuclear disarmament

Mentorship has played a central role in the twists and turns of Associate Professor Areg Danagoulian’s life. As a boy, it led him first to mathematics, where a passionate teacher and mentorship from his parents instilled in him a love for the subject. He then followed in the footsteps of his physicist parents and became […]

A nudge to resume economic activity

In these pandemic-affected times, concern about Covid-19 can make it hard to know when to take part in “normal,” prepandemic activities. That may be especially true this winter, with the Omicron virus variant spreading and its severity still being studied. But even at times during the pandemic when cases have been falling, there is often […]

A new way to perform “general inverse design” with high accuracy

Researchers have discovered a novel way to perform “general inverse design” with reasonably high accuracy. This breakthrough paves the way for further development of a burgeoning and fast-moving field that could eventually enable the use of machine learning to accurately identify materials based on a desired set of user-defined properties. This could be revolutionary for […]

Courtney Lesoon and Elizabeth Yarina win Fulbright-Hays Scholarships

Two MIT doctoral students in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning have received the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Scholarship for Doctoral Dissertation Research Award. Courtney Lesoon and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Yarina are the first awardees from MIT in more than a decade. The fellowship provides opportunities for doctoral students to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad. The […]