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Rationale engineering generates a compact new tool for gene therapy
Scientists at the McGovern Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have reengineered a compact RNA-guided enzyme they found in bacteria into an efficient, programmable editor of human DNA. The protein they created, called NovaIscB, can be adapted to make precise changes to the genetic code, modulate the activity of specific genes, or […]
NeuroTransmissions: May 2025
Daily mindfulness practice reduces anxiety for autistic adults
Just ten to 15 minutes of mindfulness practice a day led to reduced stress and anxiety for autistic adults who participated in a study led by scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute. Participants in the study used a free smartphone app to guide their practice, giving them the flexibility to practice when and where they chose. […]
A visual pathway in the brain may do more than recognize objects
When visual information enters the brain, it travels through two pathways that process different aspects of the input. For decades, scientists have hypothesized that one of these pathways, the ventral visual stream, is responsible for recognizing objects, and that it might have been optimized by evolution to do just that. Consistent with this, in the past decade, […]
Twenty-five years after its founding, the McGovern Institute is shaping brain science and improving human lives at a global scale
In 2000, Patrick J. McGovern ’59 and Lore Harp McGovern made an extraordinary gift to establish the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, driven by their deep curiosity about the human mind and their belief in the power of science to change lives. Their $350 million pledge began with a simple yet audacious vision: […]
Looking under the hood at the brain’s language system
As a young girl growing up in the former Soviet Union, Evelina Fedorenko PhD ’07 studied several languages, including English, as her mother hoped that it would give her the chance to eventually move abroad for better opportunities. Her language studies not only helped her establish a new life in the United States as an […]
To the brain, Esperanto and Klingon appear the same as English or Mandarin
Within the human brain, a network of regions has evolved to process language. These regions are consistently activated whenever people listen to their native language or any language in which they are proficient. A new study by MIT researchers finds that this network also responds to languages that are completely invented, such as Esperanto, which […]
NeuroTransmissions: March 2025
Ten years of bigger samples, better views
Nearly 150 years ago, scientists began to imagine how information might flow through the brain based on the shapes of neurons they had seen under the microscopes of the time. With today’s imaging technologies, scientists can zoom in much further, seeing the tiny synapses through which neurons communicate with one another and even the molecules […]