Insulin Chewing Gum and Other MIT Discoveries

MIT’s 150th anniversary doesn’t kick off until January 7, but MIT’s Spectrum magazine salutes the Inventional Wisdom theme with stories about Institute researchers and entrepreneurs. For example, the invention of insulin chewing gum.

Manijeh Goldberg MBA ’10, a student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Program, and Sloan student Afshin Nadershahi MD have developed a chewing gum that contains insulin molecules attached to nanoparticles, which promote absorption. When the flavor is gone, the insulin supply is exhausted.

“Every day people with diabetes must inject themselves with insulin,” Nadershahi says. “This is a simple solution. It doesn’t get any easier than chewing a piece of gum.” The gum requires no refrigeration and has a two-year shelf life.

And that’s just one of 13 stories to browse...

• Mark Bear discovered Fragile X Syndrome, the leading inherited cause of mental retardation.
• Barbara Liskov’s computer science work enabled email, online banking, and Google searches.
• PhD student Rouzbeh Shahsavari re-invented the molecular structure of cement to produced a stronger material and lower CO2 emissions.
• Robert Weinberg identified the first oncogene, a mutated gene that causes the uncontrolled cell growth that leads to cancer.
• Esther Duflo PhD ’99 is an economist who uses randomized evaluations to determine which development projects help the poor and which don’t.