Research
Camera Culture

Making the invisible visible–inside our bodies, around us, and beyond–for health, work, and connection
Research
Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek

Inventing disruptive technologies for nanoelectronic devices and creating new paradigms for life-machine symbiosis
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Article Research

Volta Labs: Improving workflows for genetic applications

Spinoff Volta Labs was co-founded by Media Lab alum Udayan Umapathi and Center for Bits and Atoms alum Will Langford.
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Project Research

DropletIO

DropletIO proposes aqueous droplets as a programmable material for biology, art, and design. The DropletIO system can actuate and sense m...
Archived
Research
City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
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Fluid Interfaces

Designing Systems for Cognitive Support
Project Research

Agonist-antagonist Myoneural Interface (AMI)

Humans can accurately sense the position, speed, and torque of their limbs, even with their eyes shut. This sense, known as proprioceptio...
Publication Research

Design and preliminary results of a reaction force series elastic actuator for bionic knee and ankle prostheses

M. E. Carney, T. Shu, R. Stolyarov, J. F. Duval and H. M. Herr, "Design and Preliminary Results of a Reaction Force Series Elastic Actuator for Bionic Knee and Ankle Prostheses," in IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 542-553, Aug. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TMRB.2021.3098921.
Project Research

Physiophone: Electrophysiology Sonification

The human body produces a variety of different electrophysiological signals from brain-waves (EEG) to the electrical activity of the hear...
Publication Research

Ubiquitous Conformable Systems for Imperceptible Computing

Fernandez, S. V., Sadat, D., Tasnim, F., Acosta, D., Schwendeman, L., Shahsavari, S., Dagdeviren, C.†, “Ubiquitous Conformable Systems for Imperceptible Computing”, Foresight, doi.org/10.1108/FS-07-2020-0067, 2021.
Project Research

WiStress: Contactless Stress Monitoring

WiStress is a system that can monitor a user’s stress passively using wireless signals. WiStress can be installed on a desk or near a cou...
Project Research

Research resiliency through lean labs

Academic research groups, especially the ones directed by new junior faculty, are under pressure to produce high-quality work timely whil...
Research
Conformable Decoders

Converting the patterns of nature and the human body into beneficial signals and energy
Article Research

Canan Dağdeviren: Follow your dream because life is too short to follow someone else’s

Bioengineer Canan Dağdeviren is living her dream, decoding physical patterns of the human body in order to diagnose and cure diseases.
Project Research

3D neuromuscular model of the human ankle-foot complex

During the gait cycle, the human ankle complex serves as a primary power generator while simultaneously stabilizing the entire limb. Thes...
Project Research

Biplanar Fluoroscopy Gait Analysis

Biplanar fluoroscopy (BiFlo) enables three-dimensional bone kinematics analysis using x-ray videos and bone geometry from segmented CT. H...
Project Research

Computational Biomechanics

This research track focuses on the use of computational (and experimental) techniques to understand the biomechanical behavior of human t...
Project Research

Personalized Bionics for Dynamic Gait

The design of next-generation bionic ankles and knees aims to improve bionic actuators on all metrics: range of motion, power density, ba...
Project Research

An osseointegrated prosthesis with bi-directional neural communication

Recent advancements in orthopedic implants have made way for a new generation of bionic limbs that attach directly to the skeleton. Lever...
Project Research

Revolutionizing amputation surgery for the restoration of natural neural sensation and mobility

Lower-extremity amputation surgery has not seen significant change since the Civil War. This research is focused on the development of no...
Project Research

Powered Ankle-Foot Prosthesis

The human ankle provides a significant amount of net positive work during the stance period of walking, especially at moderate to fast wa...
Project Research

Neural interface technology for advanced prosthetic limbs

Recent advances in artificial limbs have resulted in the provision of powered ankle and knee function for lower extremity amputees and po...
Project Research

Effect of a powered ankle on shock absorption and interfacial pressure

Lower-extremity amputees face a series of potentially serious post-operative complications. Among these are increased risk of further amp...
Article Research

Surgical technique improves sensation, control of prosthetic limb

New study describes first human implementation of novel approach to limb amputation.
Article Research

‘I can still feel it’: Groundbreaking arm amputation surgery makes a ‘phantom’ hand seem real

Read about the first upper-limb amputation performed using the AMI procedure created by Media Lab researchers + Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Article Research

New device from MIT, Harvard can quickly detect COVID variants in saliva samples

The team talks to CBS Boston about their work on a low-cost tabletop device that can quickly detect SARS-CoV-2 using a saliva sample.
Article Research

New device can diagnose Covid-19 from saliva samples

The tabletop diagnostic yields results in an hour and can be programmed to detect variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Publication Research

Experimentally Verified Finite Element Modeling and Analysis of a Conformable Piezoelectric Sensor

Amiri, N., Tasnim, F., Tavakkoli Anbarani, M., Dagdeviren, C.†, Karami, A.†, “Experimentally Verified Finite Element Modeling and Analysis of a Conformable Piezoelectric Sensor”, Smart Materials and Structures, 30 085017, 2021.
Research
Sculpting Evolution

Cultivating wisdom through evolutionary and ecological engineering
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Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
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Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability
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Research
Mediated Matter

Designing for, with, and by nature
Project Research

Research Area | Rapid Fabrication and Deployment of Medical Devices and Technologies

We have significant expertise and motivation to bring problems from the clinic and society into the laboratory to develop novel bioengine...
Research
Health 0.0

Health 0.0
Article Research

Bionics: The Future of Prosthetics

Hugh Herr discusses the implications of the technology behind his work, from regenerative medicine and surgery to elderly mobility.
Research
Community Biotechnology

Community Biotechnology
Archived
Project Research

Maiden Flight

Maiden Flight is an autonomous biological laboratory environment designed for studying the impact of space flight on the sole reproductiv...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Synthetic Apiary

The Synthetic Apiary proposes a new kind of environment, bridging urban and organismic scales by exploring one of the most important orga...
Archived
Project Research

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Clinical Development: A Translational Perspective

Technical summary: Future of clinical development is on the verge of a major transformation due to convergence of large new digital data ...
Project Research

Deep Learning to Develop and Analyze Computational Hematoxylin and Eosin Staining of Tissue Images for Digital Biopsies

Staining of tissues sections using chemical and biological dyes has been used for over a century for visualizing various tissue types and...
Project Research

Automated End-to-End Deep Learning Framework for Classification and Tumor Localization from Native Non-stained Pathology Images

This study reports an end-to-end deep learning framework for virtual H&E staining, automatic classification, and localization of pros...
Project Research

PhysioHMD

Virtual and augmented reality headsets are unique as they have access to our facial area, an area that presents an excellent opportunity ...
Research
Beyond the Cradle

Virtual Beyond the Cradle
Project Research

conformable Facial Code Extrapolation Sensor (cFaCES)

AbstractDevices that facilitate nonverbal communication typically require high computational loads or have rigid and bulky form factors&n...
Project Research

A tailored, electronic textile conformable suit for large-scale spatiotemporal physiological sensing in vivo

The rapid advancement of electronic devices and fabrication technologies has further promoted the field of wearables and smart textiles. ...
Publication Research

Self-assembling peptide scaffolds in the clinic

Gelain, F., Luo, Z., Rioult, M. et al. Self-assembling peptide scaffolds in the clinic. npj Regen Med 6, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41536-020-00116-w
Archived
Project Research

SeqCLR: Self-supervised learning of features for time-series data

Interpreting human electroencephalogram (EEG) is a challenging task and requires years of medical training. We present a framework for le...
Archived
Project Research

Near-Infrared Transillumination Guides Administration of Dental 2D Radiography and Cone Beam Computed Tomography Imaging

Two-dimensional radiographs are commonly used for evaluating sub-surface hard structures of teeth, but they have low sensitivity for earl...
Project Research

Self-Learning AI Model Learns from Patient Data to Design Novel Clinical Trials

Technical summaryUnstructured learning problems without well-defined rewards are unsuitable for current reinforcement learning (RL) appro...
Research
Personal Robots

Building intelligent personified technologies that collaborate with people to help them learn, thrive, and flourish.
Center for Civic Media
Archived
Project Research

Non-full-length G protein-coupled receptors: An unexpected discovery may lead to design new molecular devices

It was believed that functionalities of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) require full-length sequences which are negated by residue de...
Publication Research

Non-full-length Water-Soluble CXCR4QTY and CCR5QTY Chemokine Receptors: Implication for Overlooked Truncated but Functional Membrane Recepto

An unexpected discovery of truncated GPCR receptors raises questions about pseudogenes, the "Dark Matter" in genomes and for new devices.
Publication Research

Near-infrared imaging for detecting caries and structural deformities in teeth

K. Angelino, D. A. Edlund, P. Shah. Near-Infrared Imaging for Detecting Caries and Structural Deformities in Teeth. Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine (2017). PMID: 28507826
Project Research

Detecting Biomarkers with Printable Paper Diagnostics

Paper diagnostics can be used for affordable and scalable biomarker detection. We propose new methods for stabilizing cellulose-based imm...
Project Research

Doze: On-skin Scent Diffusion and Drug Delivery Patch

Doze is an IoT enabled platform for personalized scent diffusion and on-skin drug delivery. Leveraging a hydrogel technology, the Doze sy...
Project Research

Miniaturized Neural System for Chronic, Local Intracerebral Drug Delivery (MiNDS)

Recent advances in medications for neurodegenerative disorders are expanding opportunities for improving the debilitating symptoms suffer...
Project Research

Flexible piezoelectric devices for gastrointestinal motility sensing

Improvements in ingestible electronics with the capacity to sense physiological and pathophysiological states have transformed the standa...
Publication Research

QTY code-designed water-soluble Fc-fusion cytokine receptors bind to their respective ligands.

Hao, SL., Jin D., Zhang, S. & Qing, R. (2020) QTY code-designed water-soluble Fc-fusion cytokine receptors bind to their respective ligands. QRB Discovery 1 (e4) 1-9, Cambridge University Press
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Research
Design Fiction

Sparking discussion about the social, cultural, and ethical implications of emerging technologies through design and storytelling
Archived
Research
Synthetic Neurobiology

Revealing insights into the human condition and repairing brain disorders via novel tools for mapping and fixing brain computations
Archived
Project Research

Optogenetics: Molecules enabling neural control by light

We have pioneered the development of fully genetically encoded reagents that, when targeted to specific cells, enable their physiology to...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Tools for recording high-speed brain dynamics

The brain is a three-dimensional, densely-wired circuit that computes via large sets of widely distributed neurons interacting at fast ti...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Prototype strategies for treating brain disorders

New technologies for recording neural activity, controlling neural activity, or building brain circuits, may be capable someday of servin...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Tools for mapping the molecular architecture and wiring of the brain

Complex biological systems such as brain circuits are extended 3-D structures made out of nanoscale building blocks such as proteins, RNA...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Understanding normal and pathological brain computations

We are providing our tools to the community, and also using them within our lab, to analyze how specific brain mechanisms (molecular, cel...
Archived