Supercharged vaccine could offer strong protection with just one dose

supercharged-vaccine-could-offer-strong-protection-with-just-one-dose

Researchers at MIT and the Scripps Research Institute have shown that they can generate a strong immune response to HIV with just one vaccine dose, by adding two powerful adjuvants — materials that help stimulate the immune system.

In a study of mice, the researchers showed that this approach produced a much wider diversity of antibodies against an HIV antigen, compared to the vaccine given on its own or with just one of the adjuvants. The dual-adjuvant vaccine accumulated in the lymph nodes and remained there for up to a month, allowing the immune system to build up a much greater number of antibodies against the HIV protein.

This strategy could lead to the development of vaccines that only need to be given once, for infectious diseases including HIV or SARS-CoV-2, the researchers say.

“This approach is compatible with many protein-based vaccines, so it offers the opportunity to engineer new formulations for these types of vaccines across a wide range of different diseases,

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Universal nanosensor unlocks the secrets to plant growth

universal-nanosensor-unlocks-the-secrets-to-plant-growth

Researchers from the Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) interdisciplinary research group within the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have developed the world’s first near-infrared fluorescent nanosensor capable of real-time, nondestructive, and species-agnostic detection of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) — the primary bioactive auxin hormone that controls the way plants develop, grow, and respond to stress.

Auxins, particularly IAA, play a central role in regulating key plant processes such as cell division, elongation, root and shoot development, and response to environmental cues like light, heat, and drought. External factors like light affect how auxin moves within the plant, temperature influences how much is produced, and a lack of water can disrupt hormone balance. When plants cannot effectively regulate auxins, they may not grow well, adapt to changing conditions, or produce as much food. 

Existing IAA detection methods, such as liquid chromatography, require taking plant samples from the plant — which harms or removes part of it.

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A new approach could fractionate crude oil using much less energy

a-new-approach-could-fractionate-crude-oil-using-much-less-energy

Separating crude oil into products such as gasoline, diesel, and heating oil is an energy-intensive process that accounts for about 6 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Most of that energy goes into the heat needed to separate the components by their boiling point.

In an advance that could dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed for crude oil fractionation, MIT engineers have developed a membrane that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size.

“This is a whole new way of envisioning a separation process. Instead of boiling mixtures to purify them, why not separate components based on shape and size? The key innovation is that the filters we developed can separate very small molecules at an atomistic length scale,” says Zachary P. Smith, an associate professor of chemical engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.

The new filtration membrane can efficiently separate heavy and light components from oil,

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Particles carrying multiple vaccine doses could reduce the need for follow-up shots

particles-carrying-multiple-vaccine-doses-could-reduce-the-need-for-follow-up-shots

Around the world, 20 percent of children are not fully immunized, leading to 1.5 million child deaths each year from diseases that are preventable by vaccination. About half of those underimmunized children received at least one vaccine dose but did not complete the vaccination series, while the rest received no vaccines at all.

To make it easier for children to receive all of their vaccines, MIT researchers are working to develop microparticles that can release their payload weeks or months after being injected. This could lead to vaccines that can be given just once, with several doses that would be released at different time points.

In a study appearing today in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers showed that they could use these particles to deliver two doses of diphtheria vaccine — one released immediately, and the second two weeks later.

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New model predicts a chemical reaction’s point of no return

new-model-predicts-a-chemical-reaction’s-point-of-no-return

When chemists design new chemical reactions, one useful piece of information involves the reaction’s transition state — the point of no return from which a reaction must proceed.

This information allows chemists to try to produce the right conditions that will allow the desired reaction to occur. However, current methods for predicting the transition state and the path that a chemical reaction will take are complicated and require a huge amount of computational power.

MIT researchers have now developed a machine-learning model that can make these predictions in less than a second, with high accuracy. Their model could make it easier for chemists to design chemical reactions that could generate a variety of useful compounds, such as pharmaceuticals or fuels.

“We’d like to be able to ultimately design processes to take abundant natural resources and turn them into molecules that we need, such as materials and therapeutic drugs.

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