News

12/04/2024

Our work on developing a catalyst for converting methane into polymeric materials was just published in Nature Catalysis and featured in MIT News! Using an iron-modified zeolite catalyst, we discovered a method of converting methane into a rapidly growing urea polymer through a reaction-mechanism involving formaldehyde and hydrogen peroxide. This represents an exciting new method of valorizing methane emission streams and producing high-value polymers. Congrats Daniel, Jimin, and the rest of the team!


11/01/2024

The Strano Group work on developing stress sensors for plants was just featured in MIT News! Using carbon nanotubes wrapped in polymers, we are able to sense signals from plants in their response to different environmental effects like pesticides, drought, and attacks from pests!


08/15/2024

Our work on zinc-air microbattery got published in Science Robotics and was featured in the MIT News! These zinc-air batteries, smaller than a grain of sand, could help miniscule robots sense and respond to their environment. Congratulations Ge, Sungyun and the team!


04/17/2024

Our work on plant sensors got published in Nature Communications and was featured in the MIT News! Using a pair of sensors made from carbon nanotubes, we discovered signals that help plants respond to stresses such as heat, light, or attack from insects or bacteria. Farmers could use these sensors to monitor threats to their crops, allowing them to intervene before the crops are lost. Congratulations Mervin, Jolly, Thomas and the team!


09/20/2023

Our work on computational model that predicts how the human body will respond to different versions of glucose-responsive insulin, got published in ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science and was featured in the MIT News! Congratulations Jingfan and the team!


09/07/2023

Strano group work is featured in the popular layperson science text Planta Sapiens by Paco Calvo. Strano’s team has invented technology that can optically transmit the internal chemical signaling within living plants, demonstrating that plants respond in real time to heat stress, bright light, insect bites and other stimuli. The team has interpreted distinct chemical ‘waveforms’ or reaction and diffusion waves that communicate internally the type of stress the plant is undergoing. Strano and collaborators are using this technology to help farmers rapidly respond to agricultural problems in real-time through DISTAP, the collaborative research center established and lead by Strano. See distap.mit.edu.

Front Cover
[Link]


12/19/2022

Ge successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Zhang!


11/15/2022

Prof. Strano has been named a 2022 Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-field by Clarivate Web of Science. The award recognizes “the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations”. Congratulations Michael!

10/13/2022

Our work on emergent microrobotic oscillators, or “beating particles”, got published in Nature Communications and was featured in the MIT News! Congratulations Jingfan and the team!


09/20/2022

Jingfan successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Yang!


06/04/2022

Singapore’s Straits Times featured our team and DiSTAP’s effort on urban farming and food security. Check out this article here: Singapore-MIT team invents tools to help urban farmers boost crop yields. 


05/30/2022

Our work on deep tissue optical sensing by wavelength-induced frequency filtering (WIFF) got published in Nature Nanotechnology and was featured in the MIT News! Congratulations Volo and the team!


05/30/2022

Sam successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Faucher!


03/31/2022

Homeschooled High School Student Summer Internship Opportunity at MIT – Spend your summer learning and doing state-of-the-art science in an MIT research lab!  The Strano Lab is offering projects in the area of plant biology, medicine, and energy applications. [Link]


02/16/2022

Our recent work on the 2D-Polymer was featured in a variety of technical and scientific news organizations, including Boston.com, Phys.org, and USA TODAY.


02/02/2022

Our 2D-Polymer paper got published in Nature and is featured on the front page of MIT News! Congratulations Yuwen and the team!


10/20/2021

Minkyung successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations Dr. Park!


08/04/2021

Kevin successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Silmore!


06/16/2021

David successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Yuan!


02/09/2021

Fine Dining Lovers did a profile on Michael and the group’s pioneering efforts in the plant nanobionics field. Check out this article titled Future Flora: Spinach Emails, MIT and the Birth of Plant Nanobionics.

02/03/2021
Our 2016 study on spinach plants detecting explosives and sending emails is #trending on the internet. Here is Michael talking about the Nature Materials work on Ottawa’s News Talk Radio.

01/14/2021
The Strano Research Group welcomes two new PhD students, Michelle Quien and Thomas Porter.

12/14/2020
SRG’s work on detecting soil arsenic level with plants is featured on the MIT homepage today! Congratulations to the lead author Tedrick and the team! Read the news piece here.


11/18/2020
Michael has been named a 2020 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Web of Science. The award recognizes “the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations”. Congratulations Michael!

10/21/2020
SRG research on designing a heated mask to inactivate coronaviruses was featured on the MIT News! Congratulations to Sam, Professor Strano, and others involved in the work!
For more details about the research, please see the MIT News and Professor Strano’s interview with Boston 25 News here!

07/27/2020
Albert successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Liu!

07/07/2020
Volo gave the Nano Explorations talk about our SynCells! 


06/30/2020
Tedrick successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Lew!

06/23/2020
Congratulations to Kevin on winning (1) Graduate Student Council Teaching Award, (2) ChemE Department Outstanding Graduate TA Award, and (3) ChemE Department Best 10.992 Seminar (Spring Student Talks)!

06/16/2020
Volo was invited to talk with Finding Genius Podcast on our colloidal nanoelectronic state machines. Listen here.

06/16/2020
Tedrick did a podcast interview with NNCO’s Nano Matters. Listen here to learn more about plant stress detection using nanotechnology!

05/16/2020
Singapore’s Straits Times published Michael’s article on Feeding Cities of the Future. Give it a read!

04/21/2020
Tedrick’s paper got published on Nature Plants as the cover article and is featured in MIT News and Phys.org! Congratulations!

04/02/2020
Congratulations to Daniel Lundberg  on winning the prestigious NSF-GRF Fellowship!

03/11/2020
Jingfan’s paper on Glucose-Responsive Insulin modeling is published on ADA’s Diabetes and featured in MIT News! Congratulations!

11/19/2019
Congratulations to Tedrick on winning the Sensors Graduate Student Award at 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting! 

11/09/2019
Congratulations to Michael on winning the AIChE Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering! This award recognizes “outstanding progress in chemical engineering by an AIChE member during their early career”.
For advancing the understanding and application of nanotechnology to engineer new technologies in diagnostics, molecular scale separation, and energy conversion.

08/23/2019
Congratulations to Mike Lee, SRG’s newest PhD! Mike will be heading to San Diego to start his career as an engineer. All the best to Mike!

08/16/ 2019

Come and watch Michael on Channel News Asia! He talks about emerging technologies for urban farming and our DiSTAP center.


07/03/2019
Strano Lab’s plants works are featured in the Science & Vie magazine! 
Read the French version of ‘Et voici les plantes cyborgs’ on the website or here.
An English translation is provided here by Dan Lundberg.

05/29/2019
Sam’s review on single digit nanopore mass transfer is published on JPCC! Congratulations!

05/29/2019
The new Angewandte Chemie paper with Prof. Brian Wardle’s lab is featured on the MIT Homepage! Congratulations!

02/25/2019
Dr. Seon-Yeong Kwak and Tedrick Lew’s chloroplast-selective gene delivery paper is published in Nature Nanotechnology and highlighted on the MIT News site! Congratulations!
01/15/2019
Dr. Ananth Govind Rajan’s new Nature Materials paper is featured on the MIT Homepage! Congratulations!

11/07/2018
Congratulations to Dr. Seon-Yeong Kwak for her recent worked being featured in Popular Science!
11/06/2018
Congratulations to Tedrick Lew for his recent plant protoplast work being selected as the cover for Small!
11/01/2018
Congratulations to Ananth Govind Rajan for being awarded the first prize in the Carbon Nanomaterials Graduate Student Award Session at the AIChE 2018 Meeting!

11/01/2018
Congratulations to Albert Liu for being awarded the first prize in the Inorganic Materials Graduate Student Award Session and the third prize in the Carbon Nanomaterials Graduate Student Award Session at the AIChE 2018 Meeting!

10/28/2018
Prof. Strano discusses SRG research on cell-sized robots on Austrian National Radio. Listen to the clip here!

Prof. Strano discussed the Strano Research Group’s work on aerosolizable colloidal state machines on Austrian National Radio “Österreich 1” (“Austria 1“), which is one of the four nationwide channels run by the Austrian public broadcaster ORF.


08/25/2018
 

“The MIT Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport is part of a Department of Energy (DOE) initiative to advance basic science research for a transforming energy landscape”


04/24/2018
Dr. Seonyeong Kwak and Dr. Volodymyr Koman explain plant nanobionics to 1st graders on VICE.
 

02/24/2018

Anton Cottrill and Dr. Volodymyr Koman’s research on energy harvesting was featured on MIT News. Congratulations!

01/08/2018
SRG research on light emitting plants was featured on CNN!
Congratulations to Prof. Strano and Dr. Seonyeong Kwak!

12/19/2017
Reuters covers Dr. Volodymyr Koman and Professor Strano’s research on developing a drought sensing plant.
 “A sensor printed on plants’ leaves allows them to tell owners when they need water or if they’ve had too much, helping to predict drought. Roselle Chen reports…”

12/19/2017
SRG research on developing a nanobionic light emitting plant was featured on the MIT homepage! Congratulations to Dr. Seonyeong Kwak, Professor Strano, and others involved in the work!
 


11/21/2017

11/13/2017
SRG research on developing plant sensors which detect drought conditions was higlighted on the Boston Globe and on MIT News. Congratulations to Prof. Strano, Dr. Volodymyr Koman, and others involved in this work!
In this work, published in the journal Lab on a Chip, SRG members showed that plants could be used to sense water shortage.


09/26/2017

SRG perspective in Nature Chemistry on glucose-responsive insulin was featured on MIT News and EurekAlert. Congratulations!


08/31/2017

Congratulations to Yannick Eatmon for being selected as a SuperUROP!

Yannick Eatmon will work with the Strano group during the coming year on transport through nanopores. Congratulations to Yannick for being selected for this prestigious honor!


07/27/2017
Materials Processing Center Summer Scholar Kaila Holloway talks about her research experience in the Strano group with postdoc Dr. Freddy Nguyen
 

07/20/2017

Dr. Volodymyr Koman was awarded the Advanced PostDoc Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Congratulations!


06/02/2017
Kevin Silmore was awarded the DOE Computational Science Fellowship! Congratulations!


06/02/2017

Albert Liu was awarded the best graduate teaching assistant award for the course “Transport Phenomena”. Congratulations!


1/28/2017

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a new institute named “Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing Institute”, which involves AIChE, MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), and several industrial companies. Professor Strano is the MIT PI for the institute…


1/15/2017
Nature Reviews Chemistry highlights SRG work on the phase transitions of water inside carbon nanotubes!

The first ever issue of Nature Reviews Chemistry carries a highlight on SRG work about the phase transitions of water inside single carbon nanotubes. Congratulations!

A link to the highlight, titled “Phase transition: Cold as ice


1/06/2017

SRG work on developing an explosive-detecting spinach plant, recently published in the journal Nature Materials, was featured by BostInno as one of the top 7 innovative things to come out of MIT in 2015!


12/29/2016

In a news article, AccuWeather covered recent SRG work on the phase behavior of water inside carbon nanotubes. This work, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnlogy, showed the existence of solid water phases at temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Celsius, the conventional boiling point of…


12/05/2016
Prof. Strano featured on Science Friday segment discussing SRG work on explosive-detecting spinach!

The link to the segment is: http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/no-nose-but-a-heck-of-a-sniffer/

The work was also featured on MIT News and on the MIT Homepage:


12/05/2016
Forbes covers SRG work on water inside carbon nanotubes!
The link to the article on Forbes is: http://www.forbes.com/sites/samlemonick/2016/12/05/a-weird-new-property-…

This work was also covered by MIT News…


11/30/2016

SRG work on water freezing point elevation inside carbon nanotubes featured on MIT News. Congratulations!

SRG work on “Observation of extreme phase transition temperatures of water confined inside isolated carbon nanotubes”, published in Nature Nanotechnology recently (http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/…


11/30/2016
Professor Strano was an invited speaker at the 13th Annual Meeting of STS Forum held from October 2 to 4, 2016 in Kyoto, Japan
 


11/27/2016

SRG work on explosive-detecting spinach plant featured on Fox News. Congratulations!

SRG work on developing an explosive-detecting spinach plant, recently published in the journal Nature Materials, was featured on Fox News. The segment featured Professor Strano, graduate student Tedrick Lew, and UROP Rosalie Sinclair. Congratulations!


11/27/2016
Min Hao Wong receives oral presentation award at the 2016 AIChE Annual Meeting. Congratulations!

Min Hao Wong won the oral presentation award from the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division (FPBE) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) at the 2016 Annual Meeting held at San Francisco, CA in November 2016. Congratulations!


11/17/2016
Albert (Tianxiang) Liu wins the 1st place in the AIChE 2016 Carbon Nanomaterials Graduate Student Award. Congratulations!

11/10/2016
Prof. Strano featured on BBC Radio 5 live Science and on Naked Scientists Specials Podcasts!

You can catch the BBC Radio 5 live Science program here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081mrtf


11/01/2016
SRG research on making explosive-detecting nanobionic spinach featured on MIT Homepage, BBC, and elsewhere!

By embedding spinach leaves with carbon nanotubes, SRG has transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone. This work, published in Nature Materials, has been highlighted by BBC, MIT News, and…


5/13/2016

Jamila Smith-Dell, an Undergraduate Researcher (UROP) working with the Strano group was awarded the SuperUROP Award. Congratulations!


4/08/2016

Zhe (David) Yuan was awarded the Chyn Duog Shiah Memorial Fellowship by the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE), MIT! Congratulations!



1/20/2016

Dr. Gili Bisker developed a new method for detecting proteins using carbon nanotubes. The nanosensors recognize fibrinogen; may detect insulin, and other biomarkers as well. This research was featured on MIT News. Congratulations!


Professor Strano has been selected as a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher! www.highlycited.com


8/21/2015
SRG research on carbon nanotube sensors featured on Nature News

The Strano group’s research on carbon nanotube implantable sensors has been featured on Nature News! The news article is accessible here: http://www.nature.com/news/nanotube-implants-…


8/05/2015

Prof. Strano’s thoughts on nanosystems and friction have been featured on Public Broadcasting Services’ NOVA Next. The online article can be accessed here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/friction/


6/04/2015

Markita Landry was awarded the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award (CASI). Congratulations!
“The Burroughs Wellcome Fund announced that 50 individual researchers have been recognized by the foundation for their excellence in biomedical research.


4/02/2015

Congratulations to Gili Bisker, who won the first place in the Annual MIT Postdocs Share Their Science event (March 26th, 2015)


7/14/2014
Video Interview with the Economist

Nicole has an absolutely lovely and informative interview on her work up on the Economist
http://gelookahead.economist.com/video/age-brilliant-machines/


7/14/2014

SRG selected as a 2014 highly cited research group

Prof. Strano has been selected by Thompson Reuters as one of 2014’s most highly cited researchers. From Thompson Reuters: Highly Cited Researchers 2014 represents some of world’s leading scientific minds. Over three thousand researchers earned the distinction by writing the greatest numbers of reports officially designated by Essential Science Indicators℠ as Highly Cited Papers—ranking among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and year of publication, earning them the mark of exceptional impact.


6/14/2014
Plant Nanobionics Work Featured in the Media
Our recent work on plant nanobionics, published in Nature Materials, was featured on the MIT website and a variety of technical and scientific news organizations, including Scientific American Magazine and PodcastPopular Mechanics, and Discovery News.

1/14/2014
The CNN 10: Ideas
Nicole, Tom, and Nigel’s work on implantable Nitric Oxide sensors was featured in CNN’s 10 emerging innovative technologies.


12/14/2013
IOP Write-Up
nanotechweb.org has written up our work on in vivo detection of Nitric Oxide:

“Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created the first in vivo carbon nanotube sensors. The devices, which can either be intravenously injected into the bloodstream or implanted under the skin, could be used to detect molecules like nitric oxide in the body – in real time.”

 

 


11/14/2013
Demonstration of Nigel’s Setup
We’ve filmed a demonstration of Nigel’s portable SWNT array for multiplexed assaying using the fluorescence of carbon nanotubes in gel matrixs. Nigel and his platforms are finalists in the invent.org 2013 collegiate inventors competition!
 

10/14/2013
New implantable sensor paves way to long-term monitoring

Carbon nanotube based implantable sensor paves way to long-term monitoring
Science World Report
New implantable sensor could one day monitor glucose levels
RedOrbit.com
Implantable sensor key to long-term monitoring
Laboratory Equipment


9/14/2013
Markita has won a travel award from AIChE’s Women’s Initiative Committee.

7/14/2013

5/14/2013
Perspective article on Biomarkers
Alex Munzer, Alex Star, and Zachary Michael have written a perspective article on our biomarker detection work in ACS Nano.