Cities could collect samples from airports, train stations, and emergency rooms and “build up a map, sort of like a weather map, that show pathogen flows over time.” Start data mining sewage systems, and you could probably detect the arrival of something like H1N1 early enough to prevent an outbreak, Schadt says. “We are finding viruses specific to the foods you eat, like chicken, tomatoes, peppers, and garlic,” he says. “If we have different sewage substations, we could address the diet compositions of the whole population and correlate it with health.”

Today I'll talk about Fight Club: IDEAS Cage Matches. I am reminded of Monty Python's "I'd like to have an argument..." skit. From its name, I am certainly reminded of the movie Fight Club. Think of a cage match as a civilized combination of the two. The nickname for the matches is Grey Matter Smackdown.

The Self-Assembly Line is a large-scale version of a self-assembly virus capsid, demonstrated as an interactive and performative structure. A discrete set of modules are activated by stochastic rotation from a larger container/structure that forces the interaction between units. The unit geometry and attraction mechanisms (magnetics) ensure the units will come into contact with one another and auto-align into locally-correct configurations. Overtime as more units come into contact, break away, and reconnect, larger, furniture scale elements, emerge.

Using the DNA origami method, in which complex three-dimensional shapes and objects are constructed by folding strands of DNA, Shawn Douglas, Ph.D., a Wyss Technology Development Fellow, and Ido Bachelet, Ph.D., a former Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow who is now an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Nano-Center at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, created a nanosized robot in the form of an open barrel whose two halves are connected by a hinge. The DNA barrel, which acts as a container, is held shut by special DNA latches that can recognize and seek out combinations of cell-surface proteins, including disease markers. When the latches find their targets, they reconfigure, causing the two halves of the barrel to swing open and expose its contents, or payload.

cadnano simplifies and enhances the process of designing three-dimensional DNA origami nanostructures. Through its user-friendly 2D and 3D interfaces it accelerates the creation of arbitrary designs. The embedded rules within cadnano paired with the finite element analysis performed by cando, provide relative certainty of the stability of the structures.

BIOMOD is a design competition in which undergraduate teams compete to master control of biomolecules on the nanometer scale. Focus areas may include—but are not limited to—biomolecular robotics, biomolecular logic and computing, and structural bionanotechnology. Students conceive and execute projects during the summer and then gather in Boston in November to present their work and win awards.

Dubbed the Rare Genomics Institute, the non-profit organization could be considered a Kickstarter for genomics. The project first connects a patient with a research institution that’s willing to take their case, and then develops a budget that can be funded by friends, family and online supporters.

The past 60 years have seen huge advances in many of the scientific, technological and managerial factors that should tend to raise the efficiency of commercial drug research and development (R&D). Yet the number of new drugs approved per billion US dollars spent on R&D has halved roughly every 9 years since 1950, falling around 80-fold in inflation-adjusted terms.

We sent our fresh and frozen fish samples to an outside lab for DNA testing. Researchers extracted genetic material from each sample and compared the genetic sequences against standardized gene fragments that identify its species in much the same way that criminal investigators use genetic fingerprinting.

Small is the New Big: Designing Our Future at the Nanoscale, Humanscale, and Beyond

MinION is a disposable device that contains the sensor chip, ASIC and nanopores that are needed to perform a complete single molecule sensing experiment. Plugging directly into a laptop or desktop computer through a USB port, it is a self contained device to deliver real time experimental data. The MinION is adaptable for DNA sequencing, protein sensing and other nanopore sensing techniques. 

This movie provides an overview of how nanopores can be used to sequence DNA.