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Research
Tangible Media

Invent new tangible and embodied interactions that inspire and engage people
Research
Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability
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Sculpting Evolution

Cultivating wisdom through evolutionary and ecological engineering
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Molecular Machines

Engineering at the limits of complexity with molecular-scale parts
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Media Lab Research Theme: Life with AI

Life with AI | Designing the future of smart systems to improve the human experience
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Media Lab Research Theme: Future Worlds

Future Worlds | Design and action for the future we want to live in
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Media Lab Research Theme: Decentralized Society

Decentralized Society | Architecting the new internet for the good of the people
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Media Lab Research Theme: Cultivating Creativity

Cultivating Creativity | Catalyzing a global movement enabling everyone to unlock and unleash their individual and collective creativity
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Media Lab Research Theme: Connected Mind + Body

Connected Mind + Body | Revolutionizing the future of mental and physical wellbeing
Archived
Project Research

Responsive Science

Responsive Science is a way of conducting research that invites openness and community involvement from the earliest stages of each project…
Archived
Project Research

Evolving Decoy ACE2 Receptor Mimics As COVID-19 Therapeutics

COVID-19 has over only a few short months resulted in the deaths of >400,000 people worldwide (as of mid-June 2020) and has forced many …
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Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Designing, prototyping, and building the artifacts of our sci-fi space future
Article Research

It shouldn’t be easy to buy synthetic DNA fragments to recreate the 1918 flu virus

In STAT, Media Lab Professor Kevin Esvelt calls for stronger regulation of synthetic DNA.
Article Research

Uruguay wants to use gene drives to eradicate devastating screwworms

The project was inspired by a conversation with Media Lab Professor Kevin Esvelt, a pioneer in developing gene drives.
Project Research

Studying the evolution of gene drive systems

How will gene drive systems evolve once released into the wild? Can they be reliably overwritten and blocked by immunizing reversal drives?…
Article Research

CRISPR gene drives and the future of evolution

Professor Kevin Esvelt talks to science journalist Hannah Thomasy about the power—and the risks—of biotechnology.
Post Research

Guillermo Herrera-Arcos receives fellowships from K. Lisa Yang ICoN Center and Government of Mexico

Guillermo Herrera-Arcos from the Media Lab's Biomechatronics group has received two fellowships in support of his PhD.
Project Research

Secure DNA

A world in which thousands of people can construct and release autonomous biological agents is unlikely to flourishProfessor Kevin Esvelt, …
Project Research

Understanding Molecular Evolution

Humanity has harnessed evolution to sculpt domesticated animals, crops, and molecules, but the process remains a black box. Which combinati…
Project Research

Mice Against Ticks - Preventing tick-borne disease by permanently immunizing mice

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne infection in North America. People are infected when bitten by ticks; ticks are typically infe…
Archived
Project Research

Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes (SETG)

The widespread synthesis of common organic building blocks in space could have biased life beyond Earth towards chemical similarities to li…
Archived
Article Research

How to make Covid the last pandemic

A new paper published by Kevin Esvelt lays out a blueprint for preventing, preparing for, and responding to future pandemics.
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Research
Health 0.0

Health 0.0
Archived
Project Research

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Clinical Development: A Translational Perspective

Technical summary: Future of clinical development is on the verge of a major transformation due to convergence of large new digital data so…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Self-Learning AI Model Learns from Patient Data to Design Novel Clinical Trials

Technical summaryUnstructured learning problems without well-defined rewards are unsuitable for current reinforcement learning (RL) approac…
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Archived
Project Research

Deep Learning to Develop and Analyze Computational Hematoxylin and Eosin Staining of Tissue Images for Digital Biopsies

Staining of tissues sections using chemical and biological dyes has been used for over a century for visualizing various tissue types and m…
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Archived
Research
Open Ocean

Open Ocean
Archived
Project Research

Tranceflora—Amy's Glowing Silk

We collaborated with NIAS (National Institute of Agricultural Science) to genetically engineer silkworms to develop new kinds of silk for f…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Egstrogen Farms

A transgenic chicken commercial for ovulating womenEsgtrogen Farms is a fictional company that raises genetically modified chickens that pr…
Archived
Article Research

Volta Labs grabs $20 million to address a growing genomics bottleneck

Volta Labs, co-founded by alumni Udayan Umapathi and Will Langford, has announced a $20 million Series A funding round.
Post Research

Emma Chory wins 2022 SLAS Innovation Award

The SLAS Innovation Award is a $10,000 cash prize recognizing the work behind one exceptional podium presentation.
Post Research

MAS.S64. Real-world Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence and Genome Editing Technologies

MAS.S64 Real-world Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence and Genome Editing Technologies - Fall 2020 Online CourseWhen: Tuesdays, 3-4 …
Article Research

Speeding up directed evolution of molecules in the lab

Using a new robotic platform, researchers can simultaneously track hundreds of microbial populations as they evolve new proteins.
Article Research

Volta Labs: Improving workflows for genetic applications

Spinoff Volta Labs was co-founded by Media Lab alum Udayan Umapathi and Center for Bits and Atoms alum Will Langford.
Archived
Project Research

DropletIO

DropletIO proposes aqueous droplets as a programmable material for biology, art, and design. The DropletIO system can actuate and sense mac…
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Project Research

Ocean Cultures

The Māori of Aotearoa (New Zealand) have a long and deep connection to their island and ocean ecosystem. Concepts such as rā…
Article Research

The ethical way to alter organisms

An inventor of CRISPR-based gene drive has some advice to improve science, ethics, and the life-saving potential of these technologies.
Article Research

Episode 6: Reshaping nature through gene drives

Kevin Esvelt and other experts talk about the risks and possible benefits of using gene drives to eliminate diseases and invasive species.
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Research
Design Fiction

Sparking discussion about the social, cultural, and ethical implications of emerging technologies through design and storytelling
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Research
Synthetic Neurobiology

Revealing insights into the human condition and repairing brain disorders via novel tools for mapping and fixing brain computations
Article Research

Nature-inspired CRISPR enzymes for expansive genome editing

Applied computational biology discoveries vastly expand the range of CRISPR’s access to DNA sequences.
Project Research

Robust Genome Editing with Broad Targeting CRISPR Enzymes

Programmable CRISPR enzymes are powerful and versatile tools for genome editing. They, however, require a specific protospacer adjacent mot…
Article Research

Gene drives could stop the world's oldest problems. Kevin Esvelt wants to make sure they don't start any.

Esvelt's career has gone from straight science into ethics and safety.
Article Research

If you care about the future of Earth, you must care about the human species

How biologist Kevin Esvelt came to know the planet, in his own words.
Post Research

Daisy drive: A local, open, and community-responsive approach to solving ecological problems

Pursue modular "daisy drive" platforms with the potential to safely, efficiently, and reversibly edit local sub-populations of organisms
Project Research

Gene Editing and Biomedical Ethics

This work is being continued through The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT.The initiative, working wi…
Archived
Article Research

Is biohacking ethical? It’s complicated. A new Netflix series explains why.

Unnatural Selection tackles tough questions about CRISPR gene editing, designer babies, and more.
Article Research

This gene technology could change the world. Its maker isn’t sure it should.

How does one scientist deal with the potential ramifications of his own creation?
Article Research

In-cell sequencing reveals genome’s natural geometry

A new method for sequencing the genome of an intact single cell may help researchers understand how key autism genes are regulated.
Article Research

Ticks: They’re not just for hikers anymore

The menacing mites have invaded suburban backyards and even parts of Boston. And Lyme disease isn’t the only thing they carry.
Article Research

A community-guided genome editing project can fight Lyme disease

Kevin Esvelt writes about the Sculpting Evolution group’s project to immunize mice against Lyme disease through gene editing.
Article Research

We can change the DNA of an entire species—in the wild

On Should This Exist?, Sculpting Evolution head Kevin Esvelt grapples with the potential benefits and consequences of gene drive.
Article Research

Ed Boyden on minding your brain

A conversation between Ed Boyden and Tyler Cowen on optogenetics and expansion microscopy to storytelling and the nature of consciousness.
Project Research

Daisy Drives

Who should decide whether, when, and how to alter the environment? These are hard questions, especially when the decisions will impact peop…
Article Research

Keeping genetic engineering localized

In a paper published in PNAS, researchers at MIT and Harvard University describe a self-limiting gene drive system.
Article Research

Scientists release controversial genetically modified mosquitoes in high-security lab

Scientists hope these genetically modified "gene drive" mosquitoes could help eradicate malaria.
Article Research

Fighting Lyme disease with gene editing

Cummings School and MIT are working with Massachusetts citizens to deploy immune mice as frontline soldiers in the war against the disease.
Article Research

Part 1: Gene Drive; Part 2: Gene Drive and Local Drive

iBiology features two introductory classes from CRISPR expert Kevin Esvelt, head of the Media Lab's Sculpting Evolution group.
Article Research

Gene drive should be a nonprofit technology

Unlike a normal edit, gene drive systems could lastingly alter or suppress local or global populations of a target species.
Project Research

Brainstorm: Anima Mundi

We'd like to introduce you to a very special neuroscience project that we are currently conducting in the setting of a traditional fine art…
Publication Research

Chimeric CRISPR guides enhance Cas9 target specificity

Noah Jakimo, Pranam Chatterjee, Joseph M. Jacobson. Chimeric CRISPR guides enhance Cas9 target specificity, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/147686
Archived
Project Research

Brain-Controlled Interface for the Motile Control of Spermatozoa

The reproductive organs of the female body have long been a site of contention, where opposing ideologies in religion, politics, and cultur…
Archived
Project Research

Synthetic Genome Engineering

We are currently developing novel DNA editing technologies to broaden the scope of genome engineering. Our strategy is based on identifying…
Article Research

Voters to decide on intro of altered mice to combat Lyme

Residents are invited to weigh in on a plan to release genetically-modified mice on Nantucket to combat tick-borne diseases
Article Research

Lyme disease is spreading, and it’s partly this mouse’s fault

Black-legged ticks in forests of the Northeast and Midwest have a variety of options for the three blood meals they consume in their lifeti…
Article Research

Transparency advocate shakes up genetic engineering

Kevin Esvelt has emerged as a leader in the debate about the ethics and politics of releasing genetically engineered animals.
Article Research

This Woman Just Figured Out How to Control Sperm with Her Brain

Transdisciplinary artist Ani Liu spoke to us about her project as commentary on the state of reproductive rights today.
Article Research

Cracking the Genetic Code with Kevin Esvelt

Kevin Esvelt leads the Sculpting Evolution Group at MIT. Their work explores “evolutionary and ecological engineering and responsive science