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Using microlithography, researchers have printed tiny, flexible pillars made of a silicon-based organic polymer. They then placed the tissue, which acts like alveoli on top of the pillars, to create a lung-on-a-chip.

For self-driving cars, algorithms for changing lanes are beset by one of two problems. Either, they rely on detailed statistical models of the driving environment, which are too complex to analyze on the fly; or they’re so simple that they can lead to impractically conservative decisions, such as never changing lanes at all. Now a new algorithm hopes to split the difference, allowing aggressive lane changes than the simple models do but relies only on immediate information about other vehicles’ directions and velocities to make decisions.

Scientists have found a connection between bacteria in the gut and antitumor immune responses in the liver. The study showed that bacteria found in the gut of mice affect the liver’s antitumor immune function. The findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms that lead to liver cancer and for therapeutic approaches to treat them.

While many factors, such as the age of the mother, overall health and genetics ultimately play a role, the correlation between a mother’s nutrition habits and metabolism has been proved to directly impact the growth of her child. And researchers believe they may be one step closer to knowing why.

Zika virus is pathogenic to humans and nonhuman primates but does not naturally affect other species, complicating studies on pathogenesis and the evaluation of vaccines and antiviral therapies. Due to the similarities in physiology, anatomy and the immune system between pigs and humans it was evaluated if pigs can be used as human surrogates in Zika virus research.

Researchers have found that by helping to form clots within tumors, immune cells that flock to a particular type of lung cancer are actually building a foundation for the tumor to spread within the body.

MIT researchers have now devised a new drug-delivering nanoparticle that could offer a better way to treat glioblastoma. The particles, which carry two different drugs, are designed so that they can easily cross the blood-brain barrier and bind directly to tumor cells.

Addressing a critical issue for people with a genetic disorder called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), doctors reported that a skin cream containing rapamycin significantly reduced the disfiguring facial tumors affecting more than 90 percent of people with the condition.

New programs added in respiratory and cardio-metabolic diseases.

Researchers have discovered a new way that the protein RGS14 functions as a molecular brake on learning and memory