The Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the most prestigious and influential institutions of higher education in the United States, with an international reputation for outstanding research and education programs. As MIT has developed into a world-class research university, it has developed a number of unique partnerships with other research institutions in the United States and throughout the world that have augmented and contributed significantly to the field of stem cell research.
MIT was started as a result of the commitment and vision of William Barton Rogers and others, who sought to create a university that emphasized technology and science. These were particularly important concerns during the early 1860s, when MIT was launched, during the incipient Industrial Revolution.
Rogers’ idea focused on three pillars of education, known later as the “Rogers Plan.” Rogers called for the creation of a university that stressed the value of “learning by doing,” the value of useful and applicable knowledge, and the value of blending together both liberal arts and professional education curriculums. In 1861 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, recognizing the value of such an institution, granted a charter establishing MIT.
However, with the onset of the American Civil War, the development of MIT was somewhat curtailed. During MIT’s early years of existence, neighboring Harvard University proposed a merger between the two schools that was ultimately rejected by MIT.
In 1909 MIT moved to its current campus, located on a mile-long section along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The move facilitated the growth of MIT and also enhanced its reputation within the collegiate realm. In the 1930s, MIT began to develop a stronger basic research focus, which has continued to flourish to this day, focusing more exclusively on the sciences such as biology, physics, and chemistry, rather than focusing on the more vocational aspects of the sciences or of engineering, such as drafting.
As World War II loomed, MIT became a major center for scientific research in the United States, particularly for research devoted to defense purposes. The war led to significant expansions in MIT’s research role in the nation, as well as the growth of labs on and near the MIT campus. Following the conclusion of World War II, the United States faced the enormous challenge of the Cold War period. Because of the perceived technological race between the United States and the Soviet Union, research and research cooperation between the U.S. government and MIT took on renewed vigor during this period, contributing to another period of massive growth at MIT. Because of the university’s growth and expansion of its research programs, MIT is recognized as one of the most prestigious and important research institutions in the United States and performs a scientific leadership role that it continues into the modern era.
research AT MIT
MIT has been recognized as contributing to advances in many different scientific fields. Historically, MIT researchers helped lay the groundwork for a wide variety of scientific fields with broad practical applications. MIT researchers developed some of the earliest and most advanced electronic circuitry design and helped develop technologies such as radar, the internet, and the synthesis of penicillin, many of which have revolutionized modern life. In recent years, MIT scientists contributed significantly to the genetic analysis of diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s disease and Huntington’s disease and also took the lead in completing the Human Genome Project.
MIT fosters research collaboration among MIT faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates, as well as with other institutions. MIT currently works closely with other universities across the United States and the world in many areas of research. Research institutes such as the White-head Institute represent efforts by MIT to expand collaborative focus with recognition that greater collaboration frequently leads to superior research having a positive and beneficial effect on society.
MIT programs such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program enable undergraduates to participate broadly in advanced research on campus. This program frequently involves a majority of the MIT undergraduate population and provides them with the opportunity to become involved in research very early in their college experience.
stem cell research
As the role of MIT has expanded beyond defense-related research, it has played an important role in advancing molecular and cellular biology, and specifically stem cell research. Much of the groundbreaking stem cell research that occurs at MIT is conducted at the Whitehead Institute, an institute that MIT helped to develop as a fiscally independent entity. All Whitehead Institute members are jointly appointed in MIT’s Biology Department, and their labs are staffed by MIT postdoctoral fellows and both graduate and undergraduate students.
The role of the Whitehead Institute and of the larger MIT research community in stem cell research has continued to expand in recent years, with a number of recent scientific advances that may transform the stem cell research field.
In December 2007, MIT-Whitehead researchers including Rudolf Jaenisch and others announced that sickle cell anemia had been successfully treated in mice, using stem cells derived from mouse fibro-blasts (skin cells), without the traditional use of an oocyte or an embryo. The discovery came on the heels of other announcements from researchers at MIT and other institutions that it was possible to develop viable embryonic-like stem cells without destroying an embryo or oocyte. These advances could represent a watershed change in the field of stem cell research, helping to avoid some of the more difficult moral questions that have long plagued this field of research.
Frequent objections to stem cell research result from the harvesting of embryonic stem cells from embryos and from the use of human oocytes in the creating these cells. The new technique offers a potential method of avoiding this ethical dilemma and improving future stem cell therapeutics by creating stem cells specific to each individual patient. The announcement that embryonic-like stem cells derived from mouse fibroblasts had been used to successfully combat sickle cell anemia in mice adds credibility to the hope that this technique might be used therapeutically in the future.
Others within the Whitehead Institute and MIT are working to advance stem cell research in a number of different ways. Dr. Harvey Lodish of the Whitehead Institute has worked extensively with hematopoietic stem cells to develop new cul-turing techniques and practical methods of using adult hematopoietic stem cells in treating hemato-logical disease.
Significant research has also taken place at MIT with the goal of understanding and regulating stem cell differentiation. For stem cells to become useful therapies, it is of great importance that we direct the final fates of stem cells. The principle of stem cell differentiation is a cornerstone underlying much of the current research, which aims to use stem cells for practical and therapeutic ends.
It is hoped that the growth of new collaborations and partnerships between MIT institutions and other research institutions will build further on this research and aid in the development of new research with broad implications for biology, medicine, and a wide array of scientific fields.
