Tuesday, November 18th, 2014

Time	Event
5:00a	Two sensors in one MIT chemists have developed new nanoparticles that can simultaneously perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescent imaging in living animals. Such particles could help scientists to track specific molecules produced in the body, monitor a tumor’s environment, or determine whether drugs have successfully reached their targets. In a paper appearing in the Nov. 18 issue of Nature Communications, the researchers demonstrate the use of the particles, which carry distinct sensors for fluorescence and MRI, to track vitamin C in mice. Wherever there is a high concentration of vitamin C, the particles show a strong fluorescent signal but little MRI contrast. If there is not much vitamin C, a stronger MRI signal is visible but fluorescence is very weak. Future versions of the particles could be designed to detect reactive oxygen species that often correlate with disease, says Jeremiah Johnson, an assistant professor of chemistry at MIT and senior author of the study. They could also be tailored to detect more than one molecule at a time. “You may be able to learn more about how diseases progress if you have imaging probes that can sense specific biomolecules,” Johnson says. Dual action Johnson and his colleagues designed the particles so they can be assembled from building blocks made of polymer chains carrying either an organic MRI contrast agent called a nitroxide or a fluorescent molecule called Cy5.5. When mixed together in a desired ratio, these building blocks join to form a specific nanosized structure the authors call a branched bottlebrush polymer. For this study, they created particles in which 99 percent of the chains carry nitroxides, and 1 percent carry Cy5.5. Nitroxides are reactive molecules that contain a nitrogen atom bound to an oxygen atom with an unpaired electron. Nitroxides suppress Cy5.5’s fluorescence, but when the nitroxides encounter a molecule such as vitamin C from which they can grab electrons, they become inactive and Cy5.5 fluoresces. Nitroxides typically have a very short half-life in living systems, but University of Nebraska chemistry professor Andrzej Rajca, who is also an author of the new Nature Communications paper, recently discovered that their half-life can be extended by attaching two bulky structures to them.  Furthermore, the authors of the Nature Communications paper show that incorporation of Rajca’s nitroxide in Johnson’s branched bottlebrush polymer architectures leads to even greater improvements in the nitroxide lifetime. With these modifications, nitroxides can circulate for several hours in a mouse’s bloodstream — long enough to obtain useful MRI images. The researchers found that their imaging particles accumulated in the liver, as nanoparticles usually do. The mouse liver produces vitamin C, so once the particles reached the liver, they grabbed electrons from vitamin C, turning off the MRI signal and boosting fluorescence. They also found no MRI signal but a small amount of fluorescence in the brain, which is a destination for much of the vitamin C produced in the liver. In contrast, in the blood and kidneys, where the concentration of vitamin C is low, the MRI contrast was maximal. Mixing and matching The researchers are now working to enhance the signal differences that they get when the sensor encounters a target molecule such as vitamin C. They have also created nanoparticles carrying the fluorescent agent plus up to three different drugs. This allows them to track whether the nanoparticles are delivered to their targeted locations. “That’s the advantage of our platform — we can mix and match and add almost anything we want,” Johnson says. These particles could also be used to evaluate the level of oxygen radicals in a patient’s tumor, which can reveal valuable information about how aggressive the tumor is. “We think we may be able to reveal information about the tumor environment with these kinds of probes, if we can get them there,” Johnson says. “Someday you might be able to inject this in a patient and obtain real-time biochemical information about disease sites and also healthy tissues, which is not always straightforward.” Steven Bottle, a professor of nanotechnology and molecular science at Queensland University of Technology, says the most impressive element of the study is the combination of two powerful imaging techniques into one nanomaterial. “I believe this should deliver a very powerful, metabolically linked, multi-combination imaging modality which should provide a highly useful diagnostic tool with real potential to follow disease progression in vivo,” says Bottle, who was not involved in the study. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. (Comment on this)
11:30a	Hewlett Foundation funds new MIT initiative on cybersecurity policy MIT has received $15 million in funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to establish an initiative aimed at laying the foundations for a smart, sustainable cybersecurity policy to deal with the growing cyber threats faced by governments, businesses, and individuals. The MIT Cybersecurity Policy Initiative (CPI) is one of three new academic initiatives to receive a total of $45 million in support through the Hewlett Foundation’s Cyber Initiative. Simultaneous funding to MIT, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley is intended to jump-start a new field of cyber policy research. The idea is to generate a robust “marketplace of ideas” about how best to enhance the trustworthiness of computer systems while respecting individual privacy and free expression rights, encouraging innovation, and supporting the broader public interest. With the new awards, the Hewlett Foundation has now allocated $65 million over the next five years to strengthening cybersecurity, the largest-ever private commitment to this nascent field. “Choices we are making today about Internet governance and security have profound implications for the future. To make those choices well, it is imperative that they be made with a sense of what lies ahead and, still more important, of where we want to go,” says Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation. “We view these grants as providing seed capital to begin generating thoughtful options.” “I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Larry Kramer throughout this process. His dedication and the Hewlett Foundation’s remarkable generosity provide an opportunity for MIT to make a meaningful and lasting impact on cybersecurity policy,” MIT President L. Rafael Reif says. “I am honored by the trust that the Foundation has placed in MIT and excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.” Each of the three universities will take complementary approaches to addressing this challenge. MIT’s CPI will focus on establishing quantitative metrics and qualitative models to help inform policymakers. Stanford’s Cyber-X Initiative will focus on the core themes of trustworthiness and governance of networks. And UC Berkeley’s Center for Internet Security and Policy will be organized around assessing the possible range of future paths cybersecurity might take. Interdisciplinary approach The Institute-wide CPI will bring together scholars from three key disciplinary pillars: engineering, social science, and management. Engineering is vital to understanding the architectural dynamics of the digital systems in which risk occurs. Social science can help explain institutional behavior and frame policy solutions, while management scholars offer insight on practical approaches to institutionalize best practices in operations. MIT has a strong record of applying interdisciplinary approaches to large-scale problems from energy to cancer. For example, the MIT Energy Initiative has brought together faculty from across campus — including the social sciences — to conduct energy studies designed to inform future energy options and research. These studies include technology policy reports focused on nuclear power, coal, natural gas, and the smart electric grid. “We’re very good at understanding the system dynamics on the one hand, then translating that understanding into concrete insights and recommendations for policymakers. And we’ll bring that expertise to the understanding of connected digital systems and cybersecurity. That’s our unique contribution to this challenge,” says Daniel Weitzner, the principal investigator for the CPI and a principal research scientist in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Developing a more formal understanding of the security behavior of large-scale systems is a crucial foundation for sound public policy. As an analogy, Weitzner says, imagine trying to shape environmental policy without any way of measuring carbon levels in the atmosphere and no science to assess the cost or effectiveness of carbon mitigation tools. “This is the state of cybersecurity policy today: growing urgency, but no metrics and little science,” he says. CSAIL is home to much of the technology that is at the core of cybersecurity, such as the RSA cryptography algorithm that protects most online financial transactions, and the development of web standards via the MIT-based World Wide Web Consortium. “That gives us the ability to have our hands on the evolution of these technologies to learn about how to make them more trustworthy,” says Weitzner, who was the United States deputy chief technology officer for Internet policy in the White House from 2011 to 2012, while on leave from his longtime position at MIT. First steps In pioneering a new field of study, CPI’s first challenge is to identify key research questions, select appropriate methodologies to guide the work, and establish patterns of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Research challenges include: How policymakers should address security risks to personal health information; How financial institutions can reduce risk by sharing threat intelligence; Developing cybersecurity policy frameworks for autonomous vehicles like drones and self-driving cars; and How to achieve regional and even global agreements on both privacy and security norms in online environments. To address these issues, CPI will not only bring to bear different disciplines from across MIT — from computer science to management to political science — but also engage with stakeholders outside the Institute, including government, industry, and civil society organizations. “We want to understand their challenges and work with them on formulating solutions,” Weitzner said. In addition to research, a contribution of the CPI in the long run will be to create a pipeline of students to serve as the next generation of leaders working at this intersection of technology and public policy. The mission of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is to “help people build measurably better lives.” The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development and population, performing arts, and philanthropy, as well as grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Foundation was established by the late William Hewlett with his wife, Flora Lamson Hewlett, and their eldest son, Walter B. Hewlett. William Hewlett, who earned an SM degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1936, was co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company, a multinational information technology company. (Comment on this)
12:00p	Inventing China’s future In 2011, China’s legislature endorsed a national five-year plan that emphasized, among other things, the need for a boost in innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. That has become a driving force behind the annual MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (MIT-CHIEF), organized by a number of MIT’s Chinese students. Launched in 2011, the forum aims to foster exchanges between MIT and Chinese tech entrepreneurs — and researchers and students — in hopes of advancing modernization efforts in China to solve energy, environmental, and other issues.    This year, hundreds of researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and students from China and MIT — and across the United States — attended the forum, which included panel discussions and lectures by more than 30 speakers. Panel discussion topics included recent advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence; the future of online education, including massive open online courses; managing and funding startups in China and the United States; opportunities for space technology and health care entrepreneurship; and the importance of U.S. and Chinese startup incubators. “We believe that great ideas can be applied anywhere. Because most of our attendees are Chinese, we hope they can take inspiration from the forum and apply those ideas back to China,” says Yichao Pan, a PhD student in mechanical engineering and co-president of this year’s MIT-CHIEF. But a major component of the forum is its business plan competition for young startups that have potential to innovate in China. With its innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem, Pan says, MIT is the perfect place to host the forum, whose theme this year was “Invent the Future.” “MIT is a great place to start a company, so we want to extend the influence of MIT to other places through the greater Boston area and, through those students in attendance, probably to China,” he says. Keynote speakers included Donald Sadoway, the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry; Joe Chen SM ’95, founder and CEO of leading Chinese social network service Renren; Semyon Dukach, the managing director of the Techstars startup accelerator in Boston; Bill Aulet, managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship; and Peng Yang, co-founder of the One Foundation charity and the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology environmental protection organization. Opening remarks were delivered by Alexander “Sandy” Pentland, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science. Yasheng Huang, associate dean for international programs and action learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management, delivered the closing remarks. Investing in the future This year, more than 200 teams submitted ideas to the forum’s business plan competition, with only six — hailing from MIT and five other universities across the United States — making it to Saturday night’s finale. The six teams each took home a piece of the $20,000 pot, with one $10,000 first-place winner, two $3,000 second-place winners, and three $1,500 third-place winners. Competiting startups, and other entrepreneurs, were also invited to pitch their ideas to Bob Xiaoping Xu, founder of ZhenFund, a Chinese seed-fund firm for early stage startups. Taking home the grand prize was Prometheon Pharma, a team based at the University of Florida. The startup, founded in 2011, has developed biodegradable patches for needleless drug delivery of large-molecule drugs, such as insulin. When applied to skin, a formula on the patch melts into an adhesive gel that also serves as a drug reservoir, so the medication can be steadily delivered through the skin, with results comparable to those from needle injections. Prometheon expects to launch a product in 2018 across Asia, where diabetes is a growing problem. Devon Grimmé, Prometheon’s director of business development, says the prize money will finance an upcoming trip to meet with Chinese pharmaceutical companies. But the big check was only one benefit of participating in the competition, Grimmé says: “The money’s great. But the value really is the networking and the feedback from the people in industry that are theoretical investors. Just being selected as a finalist kind of affirms that we’re on to something.” Earning a third-place prize was an MIT team, BelLEDs Technologies, which is developing smart LED lights that can wirelessly connect to the Internet and change colors to match people’s moods and music, with aims of accelerating adoption of energy efficient LED lights worldwide. The MIT co-founders are Michael Chen, a PhD student in chemistry; Daniel Taub SM ’09; and Alan Zhou PhD ’94.  The two other third-place teams were WeeeApp, an app to make recycling electronics easier, and GreenPoints, which is developing technology to measure energy usage in hotel rooms. The two second-place winners were RapidSOS, which is making a push-button mobile app that connects people instantly with 911, and Sintact Medical Systems, which is developing a polymer film that can be applied to organs to prevent scarring and fusing after surgery. As part of the program, a number of participating teams throughout the five-stage competition — including the finale, various workshops, and demo days — had access to networking and mentorship, as well as a chance to travel to China over each summer to pitch the business to investors and potential partners. This year, 12 startups — 10 from MIT — specializing in clean tech and health care made that China trip, including two winners of other MIT entrepreneurship competitions this year: $100K Entrepreneurship Competition winner Disease Diagnostics Group, which is designing a magnetic-based malaria detector that’s faster and more accurate than traditional tests; and Clean Energy Prize winner Unified Solar, which is making a circuit that augments the output of partially shaded solar cells. “We really want to show people what’s different about MIT startups,” says Pan, who has been an organizer for MIT-CHIEF for two years. “They want to make a huge impact in the world. They’re not just going after money. We’re looking for solid technologies, like clean tech and health care, and bring them to China.” Previous business-plan contestants have included Smarking (2013), which was selected for California’s Y-Combinator accelerator this year; Strikingly (2012), which enrolled in the 2012 Y-Combinator; Hermes HQ (2013), which enrolled in Boston’s 2013 Techstars accelerator; and FACES (2014), which is now launching in China. Zhibiao Rao, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, participated in past MIT-CHIEF events, eventually becoming inspired to launch his own startup, Framely. This year, he took his startup through the business plan contest, where he noticed other Chinese students getting in on the action. “This forum highly inspires Chinese overseas students to start up their own companies,” he said. “In 2011, most Chinese students participated in this event, because they were interested in it. This year, people not [only] talk about ideas and interests, but [also] more about actions. They are starting up companies and trying to get talented people to join them.” Speaking of entrepreneurship Forum panels and keynotes focused on the challenges of bringing novel technologies to market and the challenges of launching a companies, from both U.S. and Chinese perspectives. The panel, “Early Stage Investment and Incubator,” moderated by Christina Chase, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Martin Trust Center, for instance, had U.S. and Chinese investors weigh in on how to get financing here and in China. Another panel, “Start-up Development” — moderated by Elaine Chen, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan — focused on financing, team-building, and customer relations in the startup world. In his keynote, Sadoway addressed the challenges of launching his startup, Ambri, which is developing a liquid-metal battery, based on high-temperature molten metal and salt, that can provide much longer energy storage for the grid. Ambri plans to release its product by late next year. But major hurdles include manufacturing the batteries at scale, the vast complexity of introducing novel technologies to energy, and finding a first client. “They say, ‘The early bird gets the worm,’ but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese,” Sadoway said. “Nobody wants to be that first adopter.” Chinese investors who attend MIT-CHIEF are encouraged to take heed of such innovations coming out of MIT, Pan says. “That’s another way to bridge the U.S. and China,” he says. This year’s forum was sponsored by 26 initiatives, businesses, and organizations, including ones at MIT, China, and across the greater Boston area. MIT faculty and staff advisors include: Aulet; Huang; Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering; Karl Koster, the executive director of Corporate Relations at MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program; Alan White, the senior associate dean and senior lecturer at MIT Sloan; and Victor Zue, the Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. (Comment on this)
5:01p	3 Questions: Israel Ruiz on MIT’s role in Boston’s 2024 Olympics bid Today, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) visited Boston. Israel Ruiz, MIT’s executive vice president and treasurer, serves as one of four co-chairs — along with Katie Lapp, Harvard University’s executive vice president; Gloria Larson, president of Bentley University; and Robert Caret, president of the University of Massachusetts at Boston — of the Boston 2024 Institutional Outreach Subcommittee, a group that is working to engage universities across Massachusetts in support of Boston’s bid. He spoke with MIT News about the Institute’s role in the city’s Olympics bid. Q. Why did the USOC come to Boston today? A. Boston is one of four American cities — along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington — vying to become the United States Olympic Committee’s (USOC) nominee to host the summer Olympics and Paralympic Games in 2024. Today, Boston hosted the USOC, with meetings at MIT’s Media Lab in the morning and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the afternoon — the last such meeting to be held in Boston before the USOC decides among the four cities in January.   MIT President L. Rafael Reif offered welcoming remarks as the meeting opened this morning. Gov. Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and the presidents of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Northeastern, Tufts, and Bentley also participated in the day’s events. This was an opportunity for Boston to showcase itself as a center of innovation with a passion for sport, and for members of the U.S. Olympic Committee to experience the city and see firsthand the possibility for a walkable Olympic games with great international appeal. Of particular interest to me is that there is a movement to develop financially sustainable approaches to hosting the games, so that cities can afford to continue the great traditions of the Olympics. I believe that MIT — along with other higher education institutions across the Boston region — has much to contribute to this discussion. We have the opportunity to do things differently, and to chart a new approach to hosting the games for future generations. Q. How does the bid process work, and what are the next steps in the selection process? A. Each of the four U.S. applicant cities competing to host the summer Olympics in 2024 must submit a proposal describing plans for key venues — sporting events, the stadium, and “Olympic village” — along with plans for transportation and security; public support; and financing for the games. This first phase of the bid process lasts six months, with the cities’ final proposals due in December. The Boston 2024 Partnership is a nonprofit organization formed to prepare the bid materials. The group is governed by a 36-member executive committee, and has launched a series of subcommittees aimed at master planning, fundraising, outreach, and engagement. As co-chair of the Institutional Outreach Subcommittee, I am a member of the executive committee. The U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to select an applicant city in mid-January, and the successful city will go on to compete internationally to host the games. This second phase of the bid process is 2 1/2 years in duration; announcement of the final host city is expected in summer 2017. Once selected, the host city then has seven years to prepare for the games, which will take place in the summer of 2024. Q. What is MIT’s role in Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics? A. MIT was invited to participate as part of the overall university engagement for the games. The Institutional Outreach Committee that I serve on is helping to engage people from universities across Massachusetts, and we are imagining possibilities for K-12 outreach around sport, health, and wellness; youth engagement around community service; and programs for Olympic athletes to return to Boston for educational experiences after the games. MIT has had a number of students that have competed as Olympic athletes for a range of countries, with nine alumni receiving Olympic medals. We also foresee faculty engagement around innovation. Professor Carlo Ratti of MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and his colleagues from the Senseable City Lab have been talking with the Boston 2024 team about opportunities to use real-time urban data, such as cellphone network information, to better understand urban flows and patterns of activity. Using mobility patterns to reveal unused capacity in the transportation infrastructure could inform planning and help to achieve a walkable Olympics, complemented by appropriate transportation infrastructure. One thing we talk a great deal about is the potential legacy of the Boston games, and the possibilities for positive impact on the city and surrounding areas. If the Olympics come to Boston, we are likely to see improvements to transportation infrastructure, such as increased capacity on the Red Line, which would be great for Cambridge, the Kendall Square area, and MIT. One of the strengths of the Boston area is the vast number of universities located in very close proximity — meaning that there are tremendous opportunities for student engagement and volunteerism. Dean for Student Life Chris Colombo is collaborating with student affairs officers from other universities to consider these opportunities. I, myself, was a student volunteer during the 1992 summer Olympics in Barcelona, and it was a thrilling experience that I will never forget. The games had an amazing impact on the city, and the rejuvenation was wonderful to watch. Director of Athletics Julie Soriero is engaging with us to imagine how MIT might contribute to the games; the Institute offers one of the broadest intercollegiate athletics programs in the world, with 33 varsity sports overall. If Boston is successful and is ultimately selected as the host city, we are pursuing possibilities for MIT to provide the sporting venues for archery and fencing. MIT has a long history of achievement in archery and in men’s and women’s fencing, with athletes receiving accolades for exceptional academic achievement as well as athleticism: Our head coach for men’s fencing, Jarek Koniusz, was coached by the current U.S. Olympic team coach, Ed Korfanty. And freshman Jin Kim was a member of both the 2014 USA Archery and USA Junior Archery teams. (Comment on this)

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