Rice University bioengineers have developed a new construction kit for building custom sense-and-respond circuits in human cells. The research, published in the journal Science, represents a major breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology that could revolutionize therapies for complex conditions like autoimmune disease and cancer. Source: Rice University News & Media Relations

Former NIBIB Director Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew's viewpoint article in JAMA discusses the integration of medicine and engineering to transform how disease is prevented, diagnosed, and treated. JAMA

A new gene editing tool that helps cellular machinery skip parts of genes responsible for diseases has been applied to reduce the formation of amyloid-beta plaque precursors in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report. Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign News Bureau

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers developed AI frameworks to identify evidence-driven hypotheses that could advance biologically inspired materials. Source: MIT News

Researchers at Boston University and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have invented a new approach to biologically engineering tissue structures called ESCAPE (engineered sacrificial capillary pumps for evacuation). Source: Wyss Institute/Harvard University News

Parinaz Fathi, a Rockville native who graduated from the University of Maryland in 2015 before moving on to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to complete her Ph.D.in 2020, has been named tot he 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 List in the Science category. Source: The MoCo Show

Parinaz Fathi ’15 (mechanical engineering) was featured on the Science list. She developed VIPER (Vital Injury Protein Evaluation for Recovery), a powerful tool that can predict survival in cases of traumatic injury. Source: Maryland Today

A tiny, four-fingered “hand” folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to infect them, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report. Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign News Bureau

AnemiaPhone, a technology developed by a multidisciplinary team of Cornell researchers to accurately, quickly and cheaply assess iron deficiency, has been transferred to the Indian Council of Medical Research of the government of India for integration into its programs for anemia, women’s health, and maternal and child health throughout the country. Source: Cornell Chronicle