[Editors] MIT Research Digest - July 2004

[MIT News Office]

MIT RESEARCH DIGEST - July 2004

A monthly tip-sheet for journalists of recent research
advances at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For the latest MIT research news, go to
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/research.html

For more information or for available photos contact:
Elizabeth Thomson, MIT News Office
Phone: (617) 258-5402 * thomson at mit.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IN THIS ISSUE: Should Dad Still Drive?  *  Adult-Onset Diabetes
Airline Ticket Taxes  *  Treating Mental Retardation
Terrorism & the Supply Chain  *  Cellular Self-Awareness
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SHOULD DAD STILL DRIVE?
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.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/olderdrivers.html

ADULT-ONSET DIABETES
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.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/diabetes-0505.html

AIRLINE TICKET TAXES
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.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/tickets.html

TREATING MENTAL RETARDATION
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 Trends in Neuroscience. 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.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/fragilex-0519.html

TERRORISM & THE SUPPLY CHAIN
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.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/supply.html

CELLULAR SELF-AWARENESS
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.
MORE: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/cells.html


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