Chemical Biology and Metabolomics
Image Credit: Lucas Sullivan, Vander Heiden Lab
Research in Chemical Biology and Metabolomics at MIT aims to discover small molecules and chemical modifications of macromolecules that regulate metabolism, cell signaling, and homeostasis and to model aspects of cellular metabolism.
Scientists use computational modeling to design “ultrastable” materials
These highly stable metal-organic frameworks could be useful for applications such as capturing greenhouse gases.
Materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have a rigid, cage-like structure that lends itself to a variety of applications, from gas storage to drug delivery. By changing the building blocks that go into the materials, or the way they are arranged, researchers can design MOFs suited to different uses.
Laura L. Kiessling
Uncovering how cells control their protein output
Gene-Wei Li investigates the rules that cells use to maintain the correct ratio of the proteins they need to survive.
A typical bacterial genome contains more than 4,000 genes, which encode all of the proteins that the cells need to survive. How do cells know just how much of each protein they need for their everyday functions?
Connor W. Coley
The fluid that feeds tumor cells
The substance that bathes tumors in the body is quite different from the medium used to grow cancer cells in the lab, biologists report.
Mapping the brain at high resolution
New 3-D imaging technique can reveal, much more quickly than other methods, how neurons connect throughout the brain.
Engineering "capture compounds" to probe cell growth
Researchers develop a method to investigate how bacteria respond to starvation and to identify which proteins bind to the "magic spot" - ppGpp.
Exploring Cancer metabolism
Matthew Vander Heiden seeks new cancer treatments that exploit tumor cells' abnormal metabolism
Biologists discover how pancreatic tumors lead to weight loss
Shortfall of digestive enzymes can lead to tissue breakdown in early stages of pancreatic cancer.