Who's up at BATS? Bishal Thapa (Voigt Lab): “Engineering Radiation Tolerant Fungi for Space Biomanufacturing” Blythe Irwin (Birnbaum & DeKosky Labs): “Introducing RePLiCA: A Replication-Based Protein:Ligand Cellular Activation Assay” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Brian Cheng (Blainey Lab): “StimDrop: High-Throughput Combinatorial Microfluidics Platform for Transcriptional Profiling” Bruce Enzmann (White & Knouse Labs): “Investigating the Signaling Mechanisms of Organ Size Control in the Liver” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

In a new study, Hansen Lab researchers have measured chromatin movement at timescales ranging from hundreds of microseconds to hours, allowing them to rigorously quantify those dynamics for the first time. https://news.mit.edu/2026/how-chromatin-movement-helps-control-gene-expression-0504

Who's up at BATS? Matt Zackin (Niles Lab): “A Machine Learning Pipeline for Target-Specific Antimalarial Drug Discovery” Daniel Sellers (Ribbeck Lab): “Intestinal Mucin Architecture as a Driver of Microbial Community Health” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #infectiousdisease #mucin

"Ask Janina Ojeiduma ’27 to describe one of her foremost personality traits and she’ll tell you: curiosity." https://betterworld.mit.edu/spectrum/issues/spring-2026/janina-ojeiduma-27-eyes-impact-of-environmental-toxins-on-human-health/

Fraenkel Lab study shows that patterns of molecular activity in the blood may reveal not only a person’s fitness level, but also the biological processes that drive physical performance. https://ow.ly/1l6350YRfuj

Grateful to @natbiotech.nature.com for the opportunity to reflect on my scientific journey, including launching my lab @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Shenghao Guo (Koehler) “Discovery of FBXW7 Binders for Targeted Protein Degradation Using Small Molecule Microarray” Malik George (Voigt, Niles) “Bioprospecting and Evolving Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria for the Advancement of Microbial Biofertilizers” https://ow.ly/3Mt050YOwp9

Who's up at BATS? Rachel McGinn (Bryson Lab): “Bacterial Control of Antigen Presentation on MHC-I in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection” James Jusuf (Hansen Lab): “Genome-Wide Absolute Quantification of Chromatin Looping” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Engelward Lab research suggests that the chemical NDMA is much more likely to cause cancerous mutations after exposure early in life. https://ow.ly/LHns50YKzVM

Next BE Seminar this Thurs 4/9 at 4pm with Richard M. Murray, California Institute of Technology, 'Upscaling Engineering of Synthetic Biomachines via Synthetic Cells.' https://ow.ly/aX2850YIo1J

Huaiyao Peng (Belcher Lab): “Developing Organoid Models and AI-Driven Optical Imaging for Ovarian Cancer Early Detection” Luka Karginov (Lauffenburger): “Learning Features and Paths of Vaccine-Mediated Protection in Tuberculosis via Partial Correlation” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Amanda Chan (Birnbaum Lab): “A Library-Based Examination of T Cell Allorecognition” Qingyang Henry Zhao (Birnbaum & Wittrup): “Decoding Endogenous Anti-Tumor T Cell Responses for Polyclonal TCR-T Therapy” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #TCRrecognition #TILtherapy

BE Seminar Series this Thur, 4pm, 32-155 Melanie Graham, University of Minnesota "You Don’t Control the Immune System, You Design Around It” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

We have many administrative and technical open positions in BE! Learn more: https://be.mit.edu/about/open-staff-positions/

A backup survival pathway can help tumor cells resist certain lung cancer and other drugs. The Forest White Lab reveals that combining therapies may offer a solution. https://ow.ly/U1rf50YARTo

BE Seminar Series continues this Thursday at 4pm with BE alum Jennifer L. Wilson, UCLA "Turning Bugs Into Features - Modeling Drug Off-Target Effects to Understand Cancer Neurology” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Myra Dada (Manalis & Hemann): “Investigating Cell Stiffness as a Determinant of CAR T Efficacy in B-ALL” Connie Wang (Collins & Edelman): “Nanoengineering Materials to Probe Tissue-Implant Interactions” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #CARTtherapy #ramanspectroscopy

Help the MIT School of Engineering empower the next generation of thinkers and doers by contributing today, during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge. https://mit24hourchallenge.mightycause.com/story/School-Of-Engineering

BE Seminar tomorrow at 4pm with Dan Dongeun Huh, University of Pennsylvania “Microengineered Mimicry of Human Health and Disease" https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Miles George (Voigt & Niles Labs): “Containment of Engineered Bacteria by ‘Locking’ them to an Engineered Plant” Justine Shih (Blainey Lab): “Mapping Genetic Variants to Cellular Phenotypes with Targeted Optical Endogenous Sequencing (TOES)” https://ow.ly/AUip50Yn1TF

Who's up at BATS? Evan Collins (Langer & Anderson Labs): “Data-Driven Approaches for Understanding and Improving mRNA Lipid Nanoparticles” Nikita Podobedov (Blainey Lab): “Integration of Label-Free Imaging Modalities with Optical Pooled Screening” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Anastasiya Grebin (Ribbeck Lab): “Mucus as a Host Lever in Recurrent Bacterial Vaginosis” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #bacterialvaginosis #Cervicovaginalmucus #Host–microbeinteractions

Who's up at BATS? Victoria Chen (Voigt Lab): “Tracking Recombinant Genes in Estonia 35 Years After Release” Rachel Myers (Belcher & Hammond Labs): “Engineering Rare Earth Nanoparticles for Early Ovarian Cancer Detection” https://ow.ly/CTAR50Y9SZH

This afternoon, Prof Doug Lauffenburger opened the BE Seminar Series Spring Term 2026 by sharing the history of BE.

Griffith Lab created a mini “liver-on-a-chip.” Tiny clusters of liver cells (shown in magenta) are embedded within a network of blood vessels (green) https://news.mit.edu/2026/new-tissue-models-could-help-researchers-develop-drugs-liver-disease-0203

Scalable TCR synthesis and screening enable antigen reactivity mapping in vitiligo @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful... @mbirnbaum.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social

“Here is a pathogen that has probably killed more people in human history than any other pathogen, so you want to learn how to kill it,” says Bryan Bryson about tuberculosis. https://ow.ly/yhZ750Y4Z3V

New MIT research tackles one of medicine’s biggest threats — antibiotic resistance. Using synthetic biology and AI, Collins Lab researchers are developing programmable antibacterials to outsmart drug-resistant pathogens. https://ow.ly/u19v50Y4nQ7

Alumni & partners: help us spread the word! Our Career Fair is one month away, and we’re still accepting employer registrations. High-quality talent, low barrier to participation. https://ow.ly/ABIe50XXbty

Hiring? Looking for interns? The MIT BioEng Career Fair–Thur, 2/5, MIT campus–connects employers with exceptional engineering & science talent. Affordable, efficient, high-impact recruiting of UG, PhD, and Post-doc talent https://ow.ly/BuG450XVKAY

Professor Forest White among 18 MIT faculty honored as “Committed to Caring” for 2025-27. https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-faculty-committed-to-caring-0108

Sean Luk has seen her grandparents’ cancer battles as a call for urgent action in immunotherapy. “The idea of creating something that is actually able to improve human health is what really drives me now,” Luk says. https://news.mit.edu/2026/addressing-urgent-need-better-immunotherapy-sean-luk-0106

🚨 Recruiting employers! MIT's BioEngineering Career Expo is happening in ONE MONTH 2/5 on MIT campus. Connect with outstanding MIT undergrad, master’s & PhD talent in one afternoon. Spots filling fast—register now: https://ow.ly/2gty50XSbVP

"'We created a new kind of protein therapeutic that can block glycan-based immune checkpoints and boost anti-cancer immune responses,' says Jessica Stark" https://ow.ly/pN1h50XKBui

Out now: We present antibody-lectin chimeras (AbLecs) as a molecular platform to target sugars, or glycans, for cancer immunotherapy. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social @stanford-chemh.bsky.social

Linda Griffith engineers human uterine endometrium in lab dishes, offering in vitro tools to study some uterine diseases and screen drugs to treat them. https://ow.ly/J6IB50XJZyZ

Who's up at BATS today? Patrick Song (Belcher Lab): “Symbiotic Cultures of Bacteria and Yeast as Engineered Living Materials for Water Purification” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

BE Seminar tomorrow with Robbie Majzner, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute “Drawing on Biologic Principles to Engineer More Effective Cancer Immunotherapies” https://ow.ly/eMUL50XBCP3

The Naked Scientists interview with Bryan Bryson on research toward a TB-targeted vaccine as part of their series 'New ways to combat the Antibiotic Apocalypse.' https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/new-tb-targeted-vaccine-picking-where-bcg-left

Who's up at BATS? M Lockwood (COLLINS) “Engineering Saccharomyces boulardii as an Enterically Targeted Living Therapeutic for Ulcerative Colitis” N Cuthbert (NILES) “Investigating Plasmodium falciparum Survival and Resistance through Pfkelch13 Conditional Knockdown” https://ow.ly/qB4150XvOYG

🚨 Attention undergraduate scientists and engineers! 🚨 Want to spend a summer doing research at MIT? Join us for the 2026 MIT Summer Research Program! Learn more and apply: oge.mit.edu/msrp/ @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social

We’re proud to share that nine Wyss Institute faculty and staff have been named to @clarivate.com Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, which recognizes the top 1% of scientists worldwide whose research has been most frequently cited over the past decade.

BE senior Sofia Lara is among four from MIT named 2026 Rhodes Scholars. https://news.mit.edu/2025/four-mit-named-2026-rhodes-scholars-1115

Who's up at BATS? Anna Lapteva (Langer & Anderson): “Rational Design of Modular, Conjugation-free Targeted mRNA Delivery Systems” Allison Glynn (Ribbeck & Raines): “Collagen-Mimetic Peptide Strand Displacement for Programmable Biomaterials” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

In this reel, Pablo talks about the shift from a structured undergraduate life to a more self-directed experience as a doctoral student. #phdlife #gradlife #stemlife

Who's up at BATS? Lauren “Ren” Ramlan (Voigt & Kong ): “Transformation of Non-model Filamentous Fungi for BioMaterial Applications” Sophie VanderWeele (Hansen & Page): “Examining Gene Expression From the ‘inactive’ X Chromosome Between Human and Mouse” https://ow.ly/svT150XorA7

This afternoon at 4pm…

Lean into your curiosity! That's what Felicia did when she decided to pursue a doctoral degree at MIT. #PhDLife #BiologicalEngineering #GradLife https://be.mit.edu/graduate-program/phd-program/

In a new study, Bryson Lab and White Lab researchers identified several possible antigens that could be developed as a new vaccine for TB, the world’s deadliest infectious disease. https://ow.ly/sXeq50XntMf