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Spotlight: Aug 1, 2025

MIT spinout Tissium offers surgeons a new solution for suture-free nerve repair, with flexible polymers that conform to surrounding tissues. “It’s wonderful to see the research we started at MIT reach the point of FDA approval and change peoples’ lives,” Bob Langer says.

Research and Education that Matter

For 20 years, the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Grant Initiative has inspired high school students across the country by supporting them through an extracurricular invention program that culminates in presentations on MIT’s campus each spring.

Many organizations view AI as a way to achieve productivity gains. But new research reveals a more nuanced reality: At manufacturing firms, introducing AI often leads to a temporary decline in performance, followed by stronger growth output, revenue, and employment.

A new model can predict some long-term effects of nuclear waste underground, NSE researchers report. The simulations matched real-world results from an underground experiment, suggesting the model could help validate the safety of nuclear disposal sites.

Researchers have identified compounds that can fight off viral infection by activating a defense pathway inside host cells. These compounds, they hope, could be used as antiviral drugs that work against not just one virus, but any kind of virus.

In a world without MIT, radar wouldn’t have been available to help win World War II. We might not have email, CT scans, time-release drugs, photolithography, or GPS. And we’d lose over 30,000 companies, employing millions of people. Can you imagine?

​Since its founding, MIT has been key to helping American science and innovation lead the world. Discoveries that begin here generate jobs and power the economy — and what we create today builds a better tomorrow for all of us.

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