The MIT Department of Biology is known globally for its cutting-edge research, pioneering collaborations, commitment to instruction, and mentoring.
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Ever wonder how to streak for singles in a biology lab?
One of the main goals for microbiologists in an experiment is to connect a cell genotype with a specific phenotype. To do this, they need to start with a single cell.
@MITBiology researcher Yashna Thepetta explains how you get there, through a process called "streaking for singles."
Wonder what else you can learn? Visit learn.mit.edu.
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MIT Biology retweeted
U.S. News names MIT the nation’s top university for 2026-2027. Congratulations, Engineers! tinyurl.com/3ha7yejm
ALT MIT sailboat on the Charles River.
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Prism’s work will help reveal how a mutation shifts binding, stability, or activity, uncovering how function and disease actually work.
Read more: prismscience.org/science/
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Our team, led by @jhdavislab @MITBiology is creating new, public models for interpreting motion, and these methods will only improve with time.
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Every year, undergrads from across the country visit labs in @MITBiology and @mitbrainandcog labs (and more) to gain research experience. Learn more about the MSRP-Bio program through the lens of two students' experiences in the lab of @JTroyLittleton. piped.video/watch?v=tpiaFedw…
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MIT neurobiologists discovered that cohesin, a protein that helps shape the structure of the genome, may also be critical for establishing the identity of some neurons.
mcgovern.mit.edu/2026/08/03/…
@MITBiology @ScienceMIT @mitbrainandcog
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New paper from my group at @kochinstitute @MIT_IMES @MITBiology! I am thrilled to share that our paper describing scAmp, a new method for analyzing extrachromosomal DNA amplifications at single-cell resolution, has been published in @NatureComms. Thread below 👇
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Bacteria are some of the best cell biologists in the world. In this episode of the Beyond Biology podcast, MIT's @lamasonlab explains how pathogens hijack our cells—and what that means for the future of infectious disease research.
🎧 Listen now on MIT Learn: bit.ly/4wjo0kv @MITBiology
ALT A person smiling in front of a blue background, speaking into a microphone. Text on the image reads, "Why are pathogens the world’s best cell biologists?"
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🧬 Not all mutations are harmful.
So how do some mutations lead to cancer while others make us who we are?
In the latest MIT Learn Beyond Biology Podcast, @MITBiology's Summer Morrill explains the biology behind cancer and why it isn't a single disease.
Watch: bit.ly/4w0d8Iq
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Why are some bacterial genomes high in purines? In certain species of bacteria, the answer lies in shielding RNA transcripts from a quality-control factor called Rho (1/3).
We're excited to share our latest publication, from graduate student Julia Dierksheide in the lab! In B. subtilis, the fast-moving RNA polymerase outpaces the leading ribosome, leaving mRNA transcripts vulnerable to the transcription termination factor Rho. (1/2)
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Understanding the requirements for expressible sequences is critical for expression engineering of therapeutic agents.
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Rickettsia is the bacterium behind Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever—the deadliest tick-borne bacterial disease in the world.
At the Lamason Lab, part of @MITBiology, researchers are working to understand how intracellular bacterial pathogens, such as rickettsia, hijack host cell processes to promote infection.
Explore more learning moments: bit.ly/4vsmOLp
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Story coming soon from @LillianWEden
ALT Rho (ring of blue and orange orbs) serves, among other roles, as something called a termination factor: a protein that halts the production of single-stranded genetic blueprints (red) that will serve no purpose. Rho’s specificity for this “transcriptional noise” was long a mystery, but researchers in the Department of Biology at MIT found that a purine bias in coding gene sequences shields productive transcripts from Rho termination.
We're excited to share our latest publication, from graduate student Julia Dierksheide in the lab! In B. subtilis, the fast-moving RNA polymerase outpaces the leading ribosome, leaving mRNA transcripts vulnerable to the transcription termination factor Rho. (1/2)
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Excited to share our recent work expanding our understanding of transcription termination, from Jenny Cascino in the lab! Here we show that transcription termination in cyanobacteria proceeds largely outside of known, canonical mechanisms.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128…
(1/2)
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Congratulations to three students who have earned MIT HEALS Graduate Fellowships! Jessie Xiao (studying alpha synuclein in Parkinson's disease), Evan Ruesch (developing tools for optical physiology), & Emma Ibanez (studying sensory neurons in reproductive system). #neuroscience
ALT Jessie Xiao, Evan Ruesch and Emma Ibanez smile as they stand along a railing in MIT's Building 46.
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When I was in college @MITBiology, I worked in the @WhiteheadInst lab of the scientist, Bob Weinberg, who discovered the very first oncogene, ras. Decades later, a drug targeting ras has finally made historic progress in pancreatic cancer. A great moment.
a standing ovation for daraxonrasib at asco. over 40k oncologists, entrepreneurs, investors, and patient advocates together celebrating revmed's breakthru in the fight against pancreatic cancer. u never forget these moments. it's what innovation is all about.
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One of the main goals for microbiologists in an experiment is to connect a cell genotype with a specific phenotype. To do this, they need to start with a single cell.
@MITBiology researcher Yashna Thepetta explains how you get there, through a process called "streaking for singles."
Wonder what else you can learn? Visit learn.mit.edu.
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🏈 What can a ball toss teach us about visual processing and autism?
Tune in to the Beyond Biology podcast to hear @MITBiology Professor Pawan Sinha discuss the science of vision, his research into brain plasticity, and share the inspirational journey behind his nonprofit, Project Prakash.
🎧 Listen to the full episode on MIT Learn: bit.ly/4tRZmFX
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Interested in genetically encodable inhibitors of your favorite biomolecular condensate? Excited to announce our latest work, w/ @jibin_sadasivan, @GeneWeiLiLab, & @LindsayCase19, on protein fragments as generalizable regulators of phase separation. (1/n)
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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