https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/PostsWowchemy (https://wowchemy.com)en-usMon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/images/logo_hu824973b0e9eedfd7e339f3ab3f0c6ec4_36236_300x300_fit_lanczos_3.pnghttps://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2025-05-12-yeji-defense/Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2025-05-12-yeji-defense/<p>Congratulations to Yeji on a successful thesis defense!!!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2025-01-27-sharm-mcgovern-fellowship/Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2025-01-27-sharm-mcgovern-fellowship/<p>Congratulations to Sharm for being awarded the Lore Harp McGovern 25th Anniversary Postdoctoral Fellowship!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-12-16_taylor-mrsaward/Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-12-16_taylor-mrsaward/<p>Congratulations to Taylor for winning the Rising Star Award from the Symposium SB02 at MRS!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-12-10_yeji-mrsstudentaward/Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-12-10_yeji-mrsstudentaward/<p>Congratulations to Yeji for winning the MRS Student Silver Award!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-10-11_magnetoelectric/Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-10-11_magnetoelectric/<p>Novel magnetic nanodiscs could provide a much less invasive way of stimulating parts of the brain, paving the way for stimulation therapies without implants or genetic modification, MIT researchers report.</p> <p>The scientists envision that the tiny discs, which are about 250 nanometers across (about 1/500 the width of a human hair), would be injected directly into the desired location in the brain. From there, they could be activated at any time simply by applying a magnetic field outside the body. The new particles could quickly find applications in biomedical research, and eventually, after sufficient testing, might be applied to clinical uses.</p> <p>The development of these nanoparticles is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper by Polina Anikeeva, a professor in MIT’s departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, graduate student Ye Ji Kim, and 17 others at MIT and in Germany.</p> <p><a href="https://dmse.mit.edu/news/tiny-magnetic-discs-offer-remote-brain-stimulation-without-transgenes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01798-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Link to the paper</a></p> <p><a href="https://mcgovern.mit.edu/2024/10/11/tiny-magnetic-discs-offer-remote-brain-stimulation-without-transgenes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">McGovern Institute News</a> <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2024/tiny-magnetic-discs-offer-remote-brain-stimulation-without-transgenes-1011" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MIT News</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-09-10_claudia-tr35/Tue, 10 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-09-10_claudia-tr35/<p>Congratulations to Claudia for being named one of this years&rsquo;s TR35 awardees! <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/innovator/claudia-cea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.technologyreview.com/innovator/claudia-cea/</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-08-27_taylor/Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-08-27_taylor/<p>Congratulations to Taylor for being awarded NIH F32!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-07-15_polina-dmse-head/Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-07-15_polina-dmse-head/<p>Polina Anikeeva PhD ’09, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor at MIT, has been named the new head of MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), effective July 1.</p> <p>“Professor Anikeeva’s passion and dedication as both a researcher and educator, as well as her impressive network of connections across the wider Institute, make her incredibly well suited to lead DMSE,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.</p> <p>In addition to serving as a professor in DMSE, Anikeeva is a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, director of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center, a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.</p> <p>Anikeeva leads the MIT Bioelectronics Group, which focuses on developing magnetic and optoelectronic tools to study neural communication in health and disease. Her team applies magnetic nanomaterials and fiber-based devices to reveal physiological processes underlying brain-organ communication, with particular focus on gut-brain circuits. Their goal is to develop minimally invasive treatments for a range of neurological, psychiatric, and metabolic conditions.</p> <p>Anikeeva’s research sits at the intersection of materials chemistry, electronics, and neurobiology. By bridging these disciplines, Anikeeva and her team are deepening our understanding and treatment of complex neurological disorders. Her approach has led to the creation of optoelectronic and magnetic devices that can record neural activity and stimulate neurons during behavioral studies.</p> <p>Throughout her career, Anikeeva has been recognized with numerous awards for her groundbreaking research. Her honors include receiving an NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the Pioneer Award from the NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program. MIT Technology Review named her one of the 35 Innovators Under 35 and the Vilcek Foundation awarded her the Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.</p> <p><a href="https://dmse.mit.edu/news/polina-anikeeva-named-head-of-dmse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2024/polina-anikeeva-named-head-department-materials-science-engineering-0715" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MIT News</a> <a href="https://mcgovern.mit.edu/2024/07/15/polina-anikeeva-named-head-of-the-department-of-materials-science-and-engineering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">McGovern Institute News</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-06-17_keisuke-yan-tan-fellowship/Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-06-17_keisuke-yan-tan-fellowship/<p>Congratulations to Keisuke for being awarded Y Eva Tan fellowship in Molecular Therapeutics!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-06-07_pema-mcgovernfellowship/Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-06-07_pema-mcgovernfellowship/<p>Congratulations to Pema for being awarded Friends of McGovern Fellowship!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-04-04_xavier_nsf-grfp/Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-04-04_xavier_nsf-grfp/<p>Congratulations to Xavier for being awarded NSF GRFP fellowship!&quot; subtitle!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-02-06-atharva-defense/Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-02-06-atharva-defense/<p>Congratulations to Atharva on a successful thesis defense!!!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-01-26-flo-defense/Fri, 26 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2024-01-26-flo-defense/<p>Congratulations to Flo on a successful thesis defense: &ldquo;Magnetic Tools for Neural Interfacing&rdquo;!!!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-12-21_mittop10-2023/Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-12-21_mittop10-2023/<p>Our work on the development of multifunctional fibers for unraveling connections between the gut and the brain (<a href="https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/publication/shahriari-2023-multifunctional/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sahasrabudhe, et al., Nat. Biotechnol., 2023</a>) is one of the MIT Top 10 research stories of 2023. Congratulations Atharva and co-authors!</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/mits-top-research-stories-1221" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-11-30_atharva_mrsaward/Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-11-30_atharva_mrsaward/https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-11-14_yeji_sfnaward/Tue, 14 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-11-14_yeji_sfnaward/https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-19_indie/Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-19_indie/<p>A team of researchers at MIT’s McGovern and Picower Institutes has advanced the clinical potential of a thin, flexible fiber designed to simultaneously monitor and manipulate neural activity at targeted sites in the brain. The collaborative team improved upon an earlier model of the multifunctional fiber, developed in the lab of McGovern Institute Associate Investigator Polina Anikeeva, to explore dynamic changes to neural signaling as large animals engage in a working memory task. The results appear Oct. 6 in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh0974" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Science Advances</a>.</p> <p>The new device, developed by Indie Garwood, who recently received her PhD in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, includes four microelectrodes for detecting neural activity and two microfluidic channels through which drugs can be delivered. This means scientists can deliver a drug that alters neural signaling within a particular part of the brain, then monitor the consequences for local brain activity. This technology was a collaborative effort between Anikeeva, who is also the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and Picower Institute Investigators Emery Brown and Earl Miller, who jointly supervised Garwood to develop a multifunctional neurotechnology for larger and translational animal models, which are necessary to investigate the neural circuits that underlie high-level cognitive functions. With further development and testing, similar devices might one day be deployed to diagnose or treat brain disorders in human patients.</p> <p><a href="https://mcgovern.mit.edu/2023/10/19/a-multifunctional-tool-for-cognitive-neuroscience/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-19_soft-optical-fiber/Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-19_soft-optical-fiber/<p>Scientists have a new tool to precisely illuminate the roots of nerve pain.</p> <p>Engineers at MIT have developed soft and implantable fibers that can deliver light to major nerves through the body. When these nerves are genetically manipulated to respond to light, the fibers can send pulses of light to the nerves to inhibit pain. The optical fibers are flexible and stretch with the body.</p> <p>The new fibers are meant as an experimental tool that can be used by scientists to explore the causes and potential treatments for peripheral nerve disorders in animal models. Peripheral nerve pain can occur when nerves outside the brain and spinal cord are damaged, resulting in tingling, numbness, and pain in affected limbs. Peripheral neuropathy is estimated to affect more than 20 million people in the United States.</p> <p>“Current devices used to study nerve disorders are made of stiff materials that constrain movement, so that we can’t really study spinal cord injury and recovery if pain is involved,” says Siyuan Rao, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who carried out part of the work as a postdoc at MIT. “Our fibers can adapt to natural motion and do their work while not limiting the motion of the subject. That can give us more precise information.”</p> <p>“Now, people have a tool to study the diseases related to the peripheral nervous system, in very dynamic, natural, and unconstrained conditions,” adds Xinyue Liu PhD ’22, who is now an assistant professor at Michigan State University (MSU).</p> <p>Details of their team’s new fibers are reported today (<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-023-02020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nat. Methods</a>) in a study appearing in Nature Methods. Rao’s and Liu’s MIT co-authors include Atharva Sahasrabudhe, a graduate student in chemistry; Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering; and Polina Anikeeva, professor of materials science and engineering, along with others at MSU, UMass-Amherst, Harvard Medical School, and the National Institutes of Health.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/soft-optical-fibers-nerve-related-pain-1019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-06-welcome-ethan/Fri, 06 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-06-welcome-ethan/<p>We welcome Ethan Frey (DMSE) to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-01-welcome-claudia/Sun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-10-01-welcome-claudia/<p>We welcome Claudia Cea to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-09-04-welcome-jacob/Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-09-04-welcome-jacob/<p>We welcome Jacob Beckham to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-08-21_welcome-lee/Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-08-21_welcome-lee/<p>We welcome Lee Maresco to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-07-17-welcome-taylor/Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-07-17-welcome-taylor/<p>We welcome Taylor Cannon to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-magnetic-robot/Fri, 07 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-magnetic-robot/<p>MIT scientists have developed tiny, soft-bodied robots that can be controlled with a weak magnet. The robots, formed from rubbery magnetic spirals, can be programmed to walk, crawl, swim — all in response to a simple, easy-to-apply magnetic field.</p> <p>“This is the first time this has been done, to be able to control three-dimensional locomotion of robots with a one-dimensional magnetic field,” says Professor Polina Anikeeva, whose team published an open-access paper on the magnetic robots June 3 in the journal Advanced Materials. “And because they are predominantly composed of polymer and polymers are soft, you don’t need a very large magnetic field to activate them. It’s actually a really tiny magnetic field that drives these robots,” adds Anikeeva, who is a professor of materials science and engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, a McGovern Institute for Brain Research associate investigator, as well as the associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics and director of MIT’s <a href="https://yangtan.mit.edu/k-lisa-yang-brain-body-center/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center</a>.</p> <p>The new robots are well suited to transport cargo through confined spaces and their rubber bodies are gentle on fragile environments, opening the possibility that the technology could be developed for biomedical applications. Anikeeva and her team have made their robots millimeters long, but she says the same approach could be used to produce much smaller robots.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/magnetic-robots-walk-crawl-swim-0707" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-07-01-welcome-xavier/Sat, 01 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-07-01-welcome-xavier/<p>We welcome Xavier Smith (EECS) to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-gut-fiber/Thu, 22 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-gut-fiber/<p>The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors. This extensive communication network also influences our mental state and has been implicated in many neurological disorders.</p> <p>MIT engineers have designed a new technology for probing those connections. Using fibers embedded with a variety of sensors, as well as light sources for optogenetic stimulation, the researchers have shown that they can control neural circuits connecting the gut and the brain, in mice.</p> <p>In a new study, the researchers demonstrated that they could induce feelings of fullness or reward-seeking behavior in mice by manipulating cells of the intestine. In future work, they hope to explore some of the correlations that have been observed between digestive health and neurological conditions such as autism and Parkinson’s disease.</p> <p>“The exciting thing here is that we now have technology that can drive gut function and behaviors such as feeding. More importantly, we have the ability to start accessing the crosstalk between the gut and the brain with the millisecond precision of optogenetics, and we can do it in behaving animals,” says Polina Anikeeva, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, director of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center, associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.</p> <p>Anikeeva is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in Nature Biotechnology. The paper’s lead authors are MIT graduate student Atharva Sahasrabudhe, Duke University postdoc Laura Rupprecht, MIT postdoc Sirma Orguc, and former MIT postdoc Tural Khudiyev.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/unraveling-connections-between-brain-gut-0622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-05-08-indie-defense/Mon, 08 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-05-08-indie-defense/<p>Congratulations to Indie on a successful thesis defense, &ldquo;Probing the depths of unconsciousness with multifunctional neurotechnology&rdquo;, at the MGH Ether Dome!!!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-02-21-welcome-jun/Tue, 21 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-02-21-welcome-jun/<p>We welcome Dongjun (Jun) Jung to the Bioelectronics group!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-01-09-anthony-defense/Mon, 09 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2023-01-09-anthony-defense/<p>Congratulations to Anthony on a successful thesis defense on &ldquo;Localized cytokines protect neuronal integrity and drive potent anti-cancer immunity&rdquo;!!!</p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2022-brain-body-center/Wed, 25 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2022-brain-body-center/<p>The inextricable link between our brains and our bodies has been gaining increasing recognition among researchers and clinicians over recent years. Studies have shown that the brain-body pathway is bidirectional — meaning that our mental state can influence our physical health and vice versa. But exactly how the two interact is less clear.</p> <p>A new research center at MIT, funded by a $38 million gift to the McGovern Institute for Brain Research from philanthropist K. Lisa Yang, aims to unlock this mystery by creating and applying novel tools to explore the multidirectional, multilevel interplay between the brain and other body organ systems. This gift expands Yang’s exceptional philanthropic support of human health and basic science research at MIT over the past five years.</p> <p>“Lisa Yang’s visionary gift enables MIT scientists and engineers to pioneer revolutionary technologies and undertake rigorous investigations into the brain&rsquo;s complex relationship with other organ systems,” says MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “Lisa’s tremendous generosity empowers MIT scientists to make pivotal breakthroughs in brain and biomedical research and, collectively, improve human health on a grand scale.”</p> <p>The <a href="https://yangtan.mit.edu/k-lisa-yang-brain-body-center/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center</a> will be directed by Polina Anikeeva, professor of materials science and engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and an associate investigator at the McGovern Institute. The center will harness the power of MIT’s collaborative, interdisciplinary life sciences research and engineering community to focus on complex conditions and diseases affecting both the body and brain, with a goal of unearthing knowledge of biological mechanisms that will lead to promising therapeutic options.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2022/k-lisa-yang-brain-body-center-established-mit-0525" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2022-wulff-lecture/Fri, 13 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2022-wulff-lecture/<p>A pivotal moment in Polina Anikeeva’s career was when she looked at an MRI scan of Parkinson’s disease patient, about a decade ago.</p> <p>Now professor of materials science and engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, Anikeeva had recently worked on optoelectronics, devices that can detect and control light, and her work was used to illuminate the quantum-dot displays on Samsung TVs. But Anikeeva’s research interests started to stray into biology and neuroscience, disciplines outside her immediate orbit.</p> <p>“I wanted to apply my knowledge as a materials scientist and engineer to problems that were unsolved, to devices that didn’t exist,” said Anikeeva on April 22, while delivering the Department of Materials Science and Engineering’s twice-yearly Wulff Lecture.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2022/wulff-lecture-polina-anikeeva-shows-versatility-diversity-materials-science-0513" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2022-pioneer/Wed, 06 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2022-pioneer/<p>Polina Anikeeva of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering won the NIH Director&rsquo;s Pioneer Award on Oct. 6.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2022/school-engineering-fourth-quarter-awards-0118" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-drug-activity-control/Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-drug-activity-control/<p>Hormones and nutrients bind to receptors on cell surfaces by a lock-and-key mechanism that triggers intracellular events linked to that specific receptor. Drugs that mimic natural molecules are widely used to control these intracellular signaling mechanisms for therapy and in research.</p> <p>In a recent publication, a team led by MIT Associate Professor Polina Anikeeva, a McGovern Institute for Brain Research Associate Investigator, and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Research Assistant Professor James Frank introduce a microfiber technology to deliver and activate a drug that can be induced to bind its receptor by exposure to light.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/controlling-drug-activity-light-1217" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-mechanical-way-to-stimulate-neurons/Sun, 19 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-mechanical-way-to-stimulate-neurons/<p>In addition to responding to electrical and chemical stimuli, many of the body’s neural cells can also respond to mechanical effects, such as pressure or vibration. But these responses have been more difficult for researchers to study, because there has been no easily controllable method for inducing such mechanical stimulation of the cells. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a new method for doing just that.</p> <p>The finding might offer a step toward new kinds of therapeutic treatments, similar to electrically based neurostimulation that has been used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other conditions. Unlike those systems, which require an external wire connection, the new system would be completely contact-free after an initial injection of particles, and could be reactivated at will through an externally applied magnetic field.</p> <p>The finding is reported in the journal ACS Nano, in a paper by former MIT postdoc Danijela Gregurec, Alexander Senko PhD ’19, Associate Professor Polina Anikeeva, and nine others at MIT, at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and in Spain.</p> <p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/neural-cell-stimulation-magnet-0720" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-gaseous-messenger-molecule/Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-gaseous-messenger-molecule/<p>Nitric oxide is an important signaling molecule in the body, with a role in building nervous system connections that contribute to learning and memory. It also functions as a messenger in the cardiovascular and immune systems.</p> <p>But it has been difficult for researchers to study exactly what its role is in these systems and how it functions. Because it is a gas, there has been no practical way to direct it to specific individual cells in order to observe its effects. Now, a team of scientists and engineers at MIT and elsewhere has found a way of generating the gas at precisely targeted locations inside the body, potentially opening new lines of research on this essential molecule’s effects.</p> <p>The findings are reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper by MIT professors Polina Anikeeva, Karthish Manthiram, and Yoel Fink; graduate student Jimin Park; postdoc Kyoungsuk Jin; and 10 others at MIT and in Taiwan, Japan, and Israel.</p> <p><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2020/nitric-oxide-messenger-molecule-inside-body-demand-0629" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-hormone-release/Fri, 10 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-hormone-release/<p>Abnormal levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are linked to a variety of mental health disorders, including depression and PTSD. MIT researchers, including the Anikeeva group, have now devised a way to remotely control the release of these hormones from the adrenal gland using magnetic nanoparticles.</p> <p>To achieve control over hormone release, Dekel Rosenfeld, an MIT-Technion postdoc in Professor Anikeeva’s group, has developed specialized magnetic nanoparticles that can be injected into the adrenal gland. When exposed to a weak magnetic field, the particles heat up slightly, activating heat-responsive channels that trigger hormone release. This technique can be used to stimulate an organ deep in the body with minimal invasiveness.</p> <p>The researchers now plan to use this approach to study how hormone release affects PTSD and other disorders, and they say that eventually it could be adapted for treating such disorders. This method would offer a much less invasive alternative to potential treatments that involve implanting a medical device to electrically stimulate hormone release, which is not feasible in organs such as the adrenal glands that are soft and highly vascularized.</p> <p><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2020/remote-control-hormone-release-nanoparticles-0410" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-macvicar-fellow/Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2020-macvicar-fellow/<p>Congratulations to Polina, who was named a 2020 MacVicar Fellow.</p> <p>The MacVicar Fellowships are MIT&rsquo;s highest teaching award, recognizing creativity and excellence in undergraduate education. The program was named after Margaret MacVicar, the first dean for undergraduate education and founder of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). Nominations are made by departments and include letters of support from colleagues, students, and alumni. Fellows are appointed to 10-year terms in which they receive $10,000 per year of discretionary funds.</p> <p>Professor Anikeeva is richly deserving of this honor; she is dedicated to Course 3 students, and they recognize how she believes in them, encourages them, and pushes them to do the best job possible. Students call her classes “incredibly hard” but fun and exciting at the same time. She is “the consummate scientist, splitting her time evenly between honing her craft, sharing knowledge with students and colleagues, and mentoring aspiring researchers,” wrote one. Other nomination letters recount Anikeeva&rsquo;s passion and devotion to her work and students. Professor Anikeeva champions her students in faculty and committee meetings as well, advocating for their issues and best interests.</p> <p><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2020/2020-macvicar-faculty-fellows-named-0309" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2019-digital-learning/Tue, 20 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2019-digital-learning/<p>Seven MIT educators, including DMSE lecturer Jessica Sandland and Professor Polina Anikeeva, have received awards this year for their significant digital learning innovations and their contributions to teaching and learning at MIT and around the world.</p> <p>Professor Anikeeva and Jessica Sandland were both awarded the MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs (massive open online courses), which is given to educators who have developed MOOCs that share the best of MIT knowledge with learners around the world. They received this award for teaching 3.024x (Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials). The course was praised for its global impact and the way it enhanced the residential experience.</p> <p><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2019/seven-mit-educators-honored-digital-learning-innovation-0702" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2019-artificial-muscles/Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2019-artificial-muscles/<p>MIT researchers, including professors Polina Anikeeva, Yoel Fink, and Cem Tasan, have developed a new fiber-based system that could be used as artificial muscles for robots, prosthetic limbs, or other mechanical and biomedical applications. Inspired by cucumber plants, which use their tightly-coiled tendrils to pull the plants upwards, this system utilizes a heat-activated coiling-and-pulling mechanism. Two materials that have different rates of thermal expansion are joined, causing the resulting fiber to form a tight coil with a surprisingly strong pulling force when even a small increase in temperature is applied. This process of contracting and expanding was shown in testing to maintain its strength even after repeating 10,000 times.</p> <p>These fibers can span a wide range of sizes, and can easily be manufactured in batches up to hundreds of meters long. They are extremely lightweight and can respond quickly. Such fibers could be useful as actuators in robotic arms, legs, or grippers, as well as in prosthetic limbs, although postdoc Mehmet Kanik says that the possibilities for materials of this type are virtually limitless.</p> <p><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2019/artificial-fiber-muscles-0711" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2018-vilvek-prize/Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://bioelectronics.mit.edu/post/2018-vilvek-prize/<p align="center"> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gUR7uqhmxW0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p> <p>Polina Anikeeva has been awarded a 2018 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science. Awarded annually by the Vilcek Foundation, the $50,000 prizes recognize younger immigrants who have demonstrated exceptional promise early in their careers.</p> <p><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/polina-anikeeva-and-feng-zhang-awarded-2018-vilcek-prize-0201" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the full story</a></p>