Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Other

Glaxosmithkline Intellectual Property Development Limited

Standard Bank Group Limited

Andreas Mershin

Shuguang Zhang

Yael Gregory Maguire

David Kong

Brian Cook

Neil Adam Gershenfeld

Asmamaw T Wassie

Issam Nemeh

Patrick J Moran

Todd Allison Quinn

Karolina Corin

Wadi Nemeh

Liselotte Kaiser

Dai Ohnishi

John Irvin Glass

Yoshikatsu Miura

Manu Prakash

Patrick James Moran

Daisuke Niwa

Elizabeth Strychalski

Katarzyna P Adamala

Atsushi Tazuke

Scott Lefton

Christopher Maurer

Patritsia Maria Stathatou

Johanna F Graveland-Bikker

Alexander Leffell

Johanna F Bikker

Deborah Nemeh

Filippos Touriomousis

David Lai

Thrasyvoulos Karydis

James Pelletier

Carolyn Margaret Cameron-Kirksmith

Synells are created by encapsulating components and iteratively optimizing each synell for a desired trait. Each synell is tested during each interation. Failed synells are discarded. Additional synell components are added during each iteration, with iterative optimization being repeated until synells having the trait are created. A method for synell reproduction includes creating a synell having a desired trait, determining a recipe for the synell, digitizing the recipe, and transmitting the digitized recipe to another location. The recipe is reconstituted at the other location and the synell is reproduced using the recipe. On-demand biosynthesis of synells includes generating droplets containing different synell components within a microfluidic device, fusing them into combinations, and storing them until a request for a synell having a particular trait is received. Fused droplets having the component combination for the trait, or being combinable to produce it, are retrieved and encapsulated to form the requested synell.

Synell creation, evolution, and digital transmission

A method of making a food source or medicinal composition and a mycotecture construction unit includes (a) cultivating a mycelium/substrate composite and edible mushrooms, and (b) manufacturing the mycotecture construction unit. A mycelium inoculum is formed of a preselected fungus and used to inoculate a substrate. Mycelium are grown in the inoculated substrate in a growing column and edible mushrooms are harvested from the mycelium, leaving a mycelium-substrate composite. The manufacture of the mycotecture construction unit includes placing the mycelium-substrate composite into a modular, reconfigurable press having a cavity with a predetermined shape; pressing the mycelium-substrate composite at a predetermined pressure; and heating the mycelium-substrate composite in a heating chamber. The construction unit is packaging, an insulation panel, a building construction material, or a household fitting with excellent compression strength, compressive modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, insulative properties, and fire retardant properties.

Method for mycotecture

The invention comprises a novel modular, generalizable meso-micro-nano-fluidic platform apparatus, design and methodology which in exemplary embodiments may be applied in conjunction with a novel external triggering and automation/feedback loop control mechanism deployed via computer to explore the phase space of single or double emulsification for applications including the encapsulation of hydrophilic active pharmacological ingredients (APIs). End use applications include the mass production of particulate encapsulation of hydrophobic or hydrophilic APIs with automatic or user-supervised feedback methodology to control and discover mass production or per-drug customized settings of interest for the manufacture of novel or extant therapeutics. This invention allows for a process to produce monodispersed particles of varying sizes and may be used to rapidly screen for optimal size for maximal bioavailability of API particles either on lab bench for in vitro dissolution or in vivo studies, and patient-specific handhelds for maximal drug inhalation.

Methods and apparatus for variable emulsification

Handheld current sensor

A current sensor may take measurements of electrical currents that flow between two limbs of a patient through at least a portion of the patient's torso. The current measurements may be taken during a single diagnostic session while the patient holds a ground electrode in a hand of one limb and a probe electrode is sequentially placed at different locations on the distal portions of other limbs. Each of the measurement locations may be an acupuncture point. An electrical current state for the diagnostic session may be calculated. This state may consist of current ranges for one or more electrical currents that are measured during the session. A lookup table may be employed to determine one or more medical conditions that are indicated by the current state. Alternatively, a trained machine learning model may predict, based on the measured currents, one or more medical conditions.

Methods and apparatus for electro-meridian diagnostics

One or more light sources may apply stimuli to a colony of organisms. The stimuli may include visible and non-visible light. The stimuli, taken together, may tend to favor survival of organisms that are adapted to perform photosynthesis which involves absorbing energy from infrared or ultraviolet light. In some cases, the set of stimuli may include illuminating the entire colony of organisms with green light, illuminating only a first portion of the colony with pulsed ultraviolet light, and illuminating only a second portion of the colony with pulsed infrared light.

Methods and apparatus for shifted-wavelength photosynthetic energy harvesting and biomass production

Methods, systems, and apparatus implementing a generalizable self-calibrating protocol coupled with machine learning algorithms in an exemplary setting of classifying perceptual states as corresponding to the experience of perceptually opposite mental states (including pain or no pain) are disclosed. An embodiment presented represents inexpensive, commercially available, wearable EEG sensors providing sufficient data fidelity to robustly differentiate the two perceptually opposite states. Low-computational overhead machine learning algorithms that can be run on a mobile platform can be used to find the most efficient feature handles to classify perceptual states as self-calibrated by the user. The invention is generalizable to states beyond just pain and pave the way towards creating EEG NFB applications targeting arbitrary, self-calibrated perceptual states in at-home and wearable settings.

Methods, systems, and apparatus for self-calibrating EEG neurofeedback

In exemplary implementations, transplantation of nucleic acids into cells occurs in microfluidic chambers. The nucleic acids may be large nucleic acid molecules with more than 100 kbp. In some cases, the microfluidic chambers have only one orifice that opens to a flow channel. In some cases, flow through a microfluidic chamber temporarily ceases due to closing one or more valves. Transplantation occurs during a period in which the contents of the chambers are shielded from shear forces. Diffusion, centrifugation, suction from a vacuum channel, or dead-end loading may be used to move cells or buffers into the chambers.

Methods and apparatus for transplantation of nucleic acid molecules

The invention provides a bio-sensing nanodevice comprising: a stabilized biologically-derived G-protein coupled receptor&#x2014;the olfactory receptor&#x2014;on a support, a real time receptor-ligand binding detection method, an odorant delivery system and an odorant recognition program. The biologically-derived G-protein coupled receptor can be stabilized on nanotechnology using surfactant peptide. The said nanodevice provides a greater surface area for better precision and sensitivity to odorant detection. The invention further provides a microfluidic chip containing a stabilized biologically-derived G-protein coupled receptor&#x2014;the olfactory receptor&#x2014;immobilized on a support, and arranged in at least two dimensional microarray system. The invention also provides a method of delivering odorant comprising the step of manipulating the bubbles in complex microfluidic networks wherein the bubbles travel in a microfluidic channel carrying a variety of gas samples to a precise location on a chip. The invention further provides method of fabricating hOR17-4 olfactory receptor.

Bio-sensing nanodevice

In illustrative implementations of this invention, microfluidic perfusion tubing is easily and precisely inserted into a microfluidic device. The tubing is inserted in a manner that aligns one or more holes in the perfusion tubing with one or more channels in the microfluidic device. For example, a hole in the tip of a perfusion tube may open into a channel in the microfluidic device. Or, multiple holes in a tube may open into different channels in a microfluidic device. The system may include a microfluidic device, two or more couplers, and a support frame. The microfluidic device may be inserted into a recessed region of the support frame, and the couplers may be attached to the support frame. The effect of doing so is to fix the position of the components relative to each other, and to precisely align holes in the tubes with channels in the microfluidic device.

Methods and apparatus for microfluidic perfusion

In exemplary implementations of this invention, an electronic olfactor determines whether a scent being tested matches the scent of a positive control. The electronic olfactor can perform this scent matching even in a changing olfactory environment, and even if the positive control scent is a combination of hundreds or thousands of different odorants. No prior training is needed, and no attempt is made to identify a single odorant that is unambiguously responsible for a scent. Instead, a computer compares the total scent pattern of a positive control sample with the total scent pattern of a test sample, across a sweep of many permutations of electrical inputs to scent sensors, to try to find any condition under which the total scent patterns do not match. If such a condition cannot be found, then the computer declares a match between the test and target scents.

Methods and apparatus for artificial olfaction

The present invention provides a wet or dry bio-sensitized photoelectric conversion device (photodetector or photovoltaic) comprising: a stabilized biologically-derived sensitizer, such as a stablilized photosystem I (PS-I), deposited on nanowires, semiconductor material, electrodes and a support. The nanowires provide a greater surface area of the light absorption layer for better energy conversion efficiency and are chosen such as to complement the absorption spectrum of the sensitizer and protect the sensitizer from photobleaching.

Bio-sensitized solar cells (BSSC)

The invention provides a bio-sensing nanodevice comprising: a stabilized G-protein coupled receptor on a support, a real time receptor-ligand binding detection method, a test composition delivery system and a test composition recognition program. The G-protein coupled receptor can be stabilized using surfactant peptide. The nanodevice provides a greater surface area for better precision and sensitivity to odorant detection. The invention further provides a microfluidic chip containing a stabilized G-protein coupled receptor immobilized on a support, and arranged in at least two dimensional microarray system. The invention also provides a method of delivering odorant comprising the step of manipulating the bubbles in complex microfluidic networks wherein the bubbles travel in a microfluidic channel carrying a variety of gas samples to a precise location on a chip. The invention further provides method of fabricating hOR17-4 olfactory receptor.

Multiplexed olfactory receptor-based microsurface plasmon polariton detector

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Andreas Mershin