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2004</title></head><body>
<div>MIT RESEARCH DIGEST - July 2004</div>
<div><br>
A monthly tip-sheet for journalists of recent research<br>
advances at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<br>
For the latest MIT research news, go to<br>
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/research.html<br>
</div>
<div>For more information or for available photos contact:<br>
Elizabeth Thomson, MIT News Office</div>
<div>Phone: (617) 258-5402 * thomson@mit.edu</div>
<div><br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div>
<div>IN THIS ISSUE: Should Dad Still Drive? * Adult-Onset
Diabetes</div>
<div><font face="Verdana" color="#000000">Airline Ticket Taxes</font>
* <font face="Verdana" color="#000000"> Treating Mental
Retardation</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" color="#000000">Terrorism & the Supply
Chain</font> * <font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">
Cellular Self-Awareness</font></div>
<div>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>SHOULD DAD STILL DRIVE?</div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">Families worried about
an aging parent's ability to drive safely can get help from a new
guide, "We Need to Talk: Family Conversations with Older
Drivers," produced by MIT's AgeLab and The Hartford Financial
Services Group. Based on a two-year study of older drivers' attitudes
and driving habits, "We Need to Talk" offers families
practical information to help them advise their loved ones on whether
it is time to limit or even stop driving. The study included a
nationally representative survey of 3,824 licensed drivers aged 50 and
older, in addition to focus groups with older adults who had modified
their driving, and interviews with family caregivers of people with
dementia. The Hartford and the MIT AgeLab have collaborated on
research on older driver issues since 1999. Joseph Coughlin, director
of the MIT AgeLab and co-author of the guide, said that adult children
should understand that hanging up the car keys can be devastating for
the driver. "Driving is about more than transportation. It's a
symbol of independence and freedom. But having frank conversations
about driver safety early on-well before it becomes a problem-can
reinforce safe practices without the strain of asking the parent to
curtail or stop driving," Coughlin said.</font></div>
<div>MORE:<font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/olderdrivers.html</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ADULT-ONSET DIABETES</div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">In work that suggests
a new treatment for adult-onset diabetes, a research team at the Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard has found a gene that revs up the
energy-producing ability of muscle cells. Doing so could lessen the
harmful effects of the disease. The researchers studied
mitochondria--tiny structures inside cells that take in oxygen and
pump out energy. "We have identified three proteins that form a
regulatory circuit in controlling the amount of mitochondria,"
said study leader Vamsi Mootha, a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad
Institute. "In principle, a drug that acts on these proteins to
boost the energy-producing machinery in muscle may ameliorate
diabetes. This circuit represents an excellent drug target for the
disease." The study appears in an online edition of the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Howard Hughes
Medical Institute and the NIH supported this work.</font></div>
<div>MORE:<font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/diabetes-0505.html</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>AIRLINE TICKET TAXES</div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">In work that is aiding
Congress' understanding of airlines' financial health, researchers
from MIT and Daniel Webster College report a wealth of new information
on the taxes and fees added to each domestic airline ticket and how
they vary depending on carrier, distance traveled and other variables.
The study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Air Transport
Management, concludes that ticket taxes add about 15 percent to the
average domestic fare. In contrast, recent statements by some senior
airline executives use examples of ticket taxes as high as 26 percent.
"This paper provides a definitive answer to questions about the
size of the 'tax burden' on the cost of air travel, based on a
detailed analysis of millions of domestic tickets," said MIT
Professor Amedeo Odoni, the project's director, who holds appointments
in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). The work was funded by
the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Amadeus, S.A.S.</font></div>
<div>MORE:<font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/tickets.html</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>TREATING MENTAL RETARDATION</div>
<div><font face="Verdana" color="#000000">By blocking a single brain
chemical, many of the psychiatric and neurological disabilities
associated with a leading cause of mental retardation could be
treated, according to MIT Professor Mark Bear in the July issue of<i>
Trends in Neuroscience</i>. The findings of Bear, at the Picower
Center for Learning and Memory at MIT, and colleagues from the
University of Texas and Emory University School of Medicine have given
hope to parents Katie Clapp and Mike Tranfaglia of West Newbury, Mass.
"This research offers the possibility of what I've only dared to
dream but have been working toward for 10 years: a specific treatment
that will help my son and hundreds of thousands of other children and
adults with Fragile X. It offers the hope that a single medication
could combat my son's seizures, panic, hyperactivity, and perhaps even
enable him to live independently one day," says Clapp, who, with
Tranfaglia, are founders of FRAXA Research Foundation, a Newburyport,
Mass.-based nonprofit organizations devoted to finding a cure to
Fragile X. The couple has a 14-year-old son with Fragile X syndrome
and a 12-year-old daughter who is a carrier. This work is funded by
FRAXA and the NIH.</font></div>
<div>MORE:<font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/fragilex-0519.html</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>TERRORISM & THE SUPPLY CHAIN</div>
<div><font color="#000000">Why are some companies much better than
others at dealing with sudden supply chain disruptions? A research
project at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics is studying
the impact of terrorism on supply chains and identifying what
companies can do to become resilient when disaster strikes. For
example, a few years ago the production of computer chips was halted
by a fire at a large supplier. One major customer, cell phone
manufacturer Nokia, reacted quickly and found alternative sources of
the chips. Competitor Eriksson was much slower to react and eventually
exited the cell phone business. The three-year project funded by
the Cambridge-MIT Institute is led by Yossi Sheffi, Professor of Civil
and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">MORE:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/supply.html</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">CELLULAR SELF-AWARENESS</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande" color="#000000">The idea of self vs.
nonself may sound more like an existential identity crisis than a
question in cellular biology. But to Andrew Chess of the Whitehead
Institute and MIT's Department of Biology the concept could offer
information about how cells tell each other apart, a cellular
self-awareness that ensures the correct wiring of neurons in the
brain. In research published in the journal Nature Genetics, Chess and
collaborators from his lab examined the role a gene called Dscam plays
in allowing neuron cells to distinguish themselves from each other.
Dscam is a cell-adhesion molecule that helps to guide axons to their
intended targets. A similar notion of self vs. nonself has been
examined widely in studies of the immune system, where a cell's
ability to tell itself apart from foreign cells is crucial to the
destruction of virus-infected cells. "This is a new concept for
neurons," Chess says.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">MORE:<font face="Lucida Grande">
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/cells.html</font></font></div>
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